1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,920
Today's episode of Potpout is going to be a little bit different.

2
00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:05,600
I'm just going to get straight into it.

3
00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:13,120
I actually want to speak from the heart here about just a lot of reflective thoughts on

4
00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:16,080
everything that I've put up on the previous podcast,

5
00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:20,680
but also just reflecting on the educational system,

6
00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:22,840
and especially at the college level.

7
00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:28,080
Up till now, I've been trying to give you at least some insight into

8
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:32,040
how to improve your chances of getting into a competitive college,

9
00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:38,000
to optimize your outcomes both in and before and after college,

10
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,200
how to structure the way that you present yourself.

11
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,760
There are also plenty of resources online that are there to help you.

12
00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:47,040
Some of them good, some of them not as great,

13
00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:52,720
but there are resources that are all over the place that are designed to

14
00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:57,680
help you through the process to get you into the colleges that you want to get into.

15
00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:02,000
But I want to step away from that for a second and just say,

16
00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:07,920
look, if you're going about doing this,

17
00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:09,400
applying for college that is,

18
00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,800
and then doing so in the best way you can,

19
00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:16,200
there are some ways in which I feel a bit mixed about helping students in that process.

20
00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:21,120
The reason I feel a little bit of mixed feelings about this is that in some ways,

21
00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:26,480
we're continuing to play a game that has been set up as it's been set up and

22
00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:30,000
operating for generations now.

23
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,160
If you've been following everything I've been saying in these podcasts,

24
00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:39,360
you'll realize that the educational system is designed today to be shrouded in lies,

25
00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:43,400
in the sense that a lot of these colleges are relying on

26
00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:45,760
reputation to do a lot of the heavy lifting

27
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:50,080
of in place of the real education that students receive.

28
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:54,080
The reality is actually that many of the national and

29
00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:57,800
liberal arts colleges across the United States, they're top notch.

30
00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:01,440
They're very good.

31
00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:05,240
I could go down a list of probably if you go on the ranking,

32
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:07,880
like top 100, 200 colleges,

33
00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:10,120
they're all very good.

34
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:16,000
They all provide opportunities for their students to move up on the social ladder,

35
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,960
to open up opportunities in the workplace,

36
00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,640
but also for future academic endeavors.

37
00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:24,920
The schools, especially the national ones that are

38
00:02:24,920 --> 00:02:27,640
big enough to house a lot of different disciplines,

39
00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:32,120
they're almost indistinguishable from one another in their academic offerings.

40
00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,280
They all have great faculty.

41
00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,160
They all have great research programs.

42
00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,320
Furthermore, the quality of the students that come out of

43
00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:45,560
these institutions honestly depend less on the college and more on the students themselves.

44
00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:47,680
The college just provide the setting,

45
00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:52,040
but it's the students who make what they make out of that experience.

46
00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:56,520
I've been asked this question before because I've taught at several different colleges.

47
00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:58,080
People have asked me,

48
00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:01,560
do you notice a difference in the students from one school to another?

49
00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:03,480
I always tell them the same thing,

50
00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:06,560
which is they're college students.

51
00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:11,360
An 18-year-old is an 18-year-old regardless of what college you go to.

52
00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:15,880
An 18-year-old is going to do dumb 18-year-old stuff that other 18-year-olds are going to do.

53
00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:21,560
It doesn't matter whether they go to Harvard or Princeton or go to Cal State Fullerton.

54
00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:29,400
It doesn't make a difference because everybody is in that stage of developing and learning about

55
00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:35,320
themselves in a way that they didn't in high school and that they need to grow

56
00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,520
into before they get out into the workforce.

57
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:47,680
I think that when we sit with the reality of what it is that the colleges are actually offering,

58
00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:53,800
then you realize that what matters most is not where you receive your college degree,

59
00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,480
but that you did receive your college degree.

60
00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,840
I don't know if a lot of the most competitive colleges are going to agree with me or not.

61
00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:03,000
They might try to prove me otherwise,

62
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,120
and I'm open to having that discussion.

63
00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:11,040
But my guess, honestly, is that if we did a blind study,

64
00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:15,440
we randomized the student population and sent them off to all of these colleges

65
00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:19,720
and then see how much they improve in their time at the college,

66
00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:25,240
there would be very little difference in terms of the outcomes for all of these colleges.

67
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:26,840
That would be my guess.

68
00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:28,000
That would be my guess.

69
00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:34,600
And that would be my guess with knowing that I've attended a lot of different colleges

70
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:36,960
and have worked with students who attend all these different colleges,

71
00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:38,600
and they all tell me the same thing,

72
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:43,080
which is they thought that college was going to be one way given the kind of college they went to,

73
00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:46,120
and then they went there and then they realized college is just college.

74
00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:50,320
There's going to be college students that are going to act like college students wherever they go.

75
00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:55,240
And they're struggling with the same college student-y stuff that everyone struggles with.

76
00:04:55,240 --> 00:05:00,120
So look, what I'm saying is this.

77
00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:06,200
If we actually are to accept the reality of the way that college admissions work

78
00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:12,240
and what these colleges actually provide, then here's what we should be seeing.

79
00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:16,360
For one, there would not be any pride or shame in the college you attend,

80
00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:20,800
except maybe like the pride you feel from your own personal experience at that college

81
00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:24,440
and deep appreciation for the college that you attended, right?

82
00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:26,800
I mean, I feel this way about my alma mater, right?

83
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:31,080
So I am grateful for the experience that I've had there, right?

84
00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:34,400
But that's different from kind of like a pride in the sense of like,

85
00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:39,520
oh, this is a better school than another, right?

86
00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:44,640
There also wouldn't be any excessive excitement for acceptance into a college

87
00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:47,640
beyond really your personal preferences, right?

88
00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:54,160
Like, I see students posting up their reactions to whether or not they got accepted or not to a college.

89
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:59,440
And I wish that all of these responses would be the same for every student,

90
00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:04,840
which is that they get super excited because they got into the college that they wanted to get into.

91
00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:08,640
And the reason they wanted to get into that particular college had nothing to do with ranking,

92
00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:10,800
had nothing to do with future prospects.

93
00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:14,560
It had only to do with the fact that they knew themselves well

94
00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:19,040
and they knew that they would be a good fit for that particular college, right?

95
00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,240
And that's where the excitement should be.

96
00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:25,200
That's where the real excitement should be, I think, right?

97
00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:30,080
Additionally, there wouldn't be any oohs and ahs over what college you got accepted into.

98
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:34,680
The work that the reputation does cannot be understated, right?

99
00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:38,360
I remember that, you know, like people in the United States might think,

100
00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:42,560
okay, UCLA, I went to UCLA as an undergrad, I was like, oh, that's a really good school, right?

101
00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:44,200
It's gotten more competitive over the years.

102
00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:46,440
But at the time, it was like, oh, it's a pretty good school.

103
00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,520
But I didn't realize how big it was internationally, right?

104
00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:51,280
The name, the brand, right?

105
00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:52,360
How big it was internationally.

106
00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:55,480
And I remember hearing all the oohs and ahs, right?

107
00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:59,400
When I got into grad program and I decided to go to Boston University and people would ask,

108
00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:01,080
like, what other schools do you get into?

109
00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:06,000
And I said, oh, well, I got into Harvard and also to Yale, but I chose not to go there, right?

110
00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:10,000
They looked at me with puzzlement as if, like, why would you do such a thing?

111
00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,960
Alternatively, some would also respond with, like, oh, like, you must have been really good.

112
00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:17,400
And I was like, no, actually, the acceptance rate for the graduate program that I applied

113
00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:19,640
to wasn't particularly competitive.

114
00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,680
But more importantly, who cares?

115
00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:23,880
Who cares?

116
00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:26,880
There's nothing special about going to these schools.

117
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:29,200
The school is just a school.

118
00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:33,920
But we wouldn't be treating people who have attended or have associations with these schools

119
00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:40,000
as anything other than what they are deservingly, you know, should be given, all right?

120
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:45,440
We shouldn't be giving them any additional oohs and ahs, respect or fawning over just

121
00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:47,480
because of the brand name, right?

122
00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:49,680
Because we would all know what the reality is.

123
00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:54,000
And the reality is that a lot of these schools, they're not particularly, I mean,

124
00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,920
there's nothing about the school itself that makes them better or worse than any other school.

125
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:04,760
Additionally, your job prospects would not be dictated by the college you attended.

126
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:10,160
And this is, I think, a place where, you know, this is just society in general that has kind

127
00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:11,280
of contributed to this.

128
00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:17,000
We make a lot of uninformed assumptions that just because a college was more competitive

129
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:21,320
or harder to get into, that you must somehow be better, right?

130
00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:23,360
Or that because you attended a particular college,

131
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:26,240
you received somehow a better education or you're more qualified.

132
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:32,400
And the reality is that's usually, if not almost always, not the case, right?

133
00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:37,600
Great students, great leaders, great innovators come from all over the place.

134
00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:43,440
You don't need to look further than actually looking at the faculty of even the most competitive colleges.

135
00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:46,880
And you'll see that so many of them have come from all over the United States,

136
00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:50,000
from different colleges all over.

137
00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:56,960
Finally, I think if we were to kind of let go of placing so much weight on the college you're

138
00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:02,920
actually attending, then people would actually treat each other with a lot more basic human respect

139
00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:04,080
and dignity.

140
00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:06,840
There wouldn't be all this rank and comparison.

141
00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:10,480
And a lot of people are doing this unknowingly.

142
00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,160
They're not doing this with the awareness.

143
00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:14,640
Oftentimes, this kind of comes out.

144
00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:19,720
Our biases come out through nonverbal tics that we might have, right?

145
00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:22,040
It's all implicit or things like that, right?

146
00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:26,160
So look, college is just a step in a longer journey.

147
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:30,240
Let's not overemphasize the importance of college, all right?

148
00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:35,240
It's honestly, if college becomes the defining feature of your life, that's pretty pathetic.

149
00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:38,360
I'm reminded of, I don't know, this is aging myself, right?

150
00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,480
But I remember watching Married with Children back in the days.

151
00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:50,080
Al Bundy was a middle-aged man who would constantly be reliving his glory days playing football in high school, right?

152
00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:51,920
And it just looks pathetic.

153
00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:53,880
And it looks pathetic for a reason.

154
00:09:53,880 --> 00:10:02,320
If you are the kind of person who puts such heavy weight on college and that becomes a defining feature of who you are,

155
00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:09,120
right, not the experiences you had in college, not the friendships you made in college, but the college itself and the name,

156
00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:11,440
that's pretty pathetic, right?

157
00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:14,360
That shows honestly, I don't know what that's about.

158
00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:18,200
Probably time to step into therapy and figure out what that's about, OK?

159
00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:23,520
Because college is just a short blip in the rest of your life.

160
00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:25,480
It might be an important one.

161
00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:33,000
It might be one that is extremely memorable, but it is still just a small portion of the rest of your life.

162
00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:34,760
Keep this in context.

163
00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,800
We hope we would.

164
00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:48,960
Simply put, if we were to live by the reality that a lot of these colleges are not necessarily significantly better than any other,

165
00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:53,360
then we would probably live closer to a true meritocracy.

166
00:10:53,360 --> 00:11:03,040
And you would also find that people value themselves and value others without as much judgment based off of this brand association.

167
00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:14,560
OK, I say all this, I say all this because, you know, if a student were to come across my doors and wanted help in getting into the college they wanted to get into,

168
00:11:14,560 --> 00:11:16,560
I would help them to the best of my ability.

169
00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:18,960
If that's what they really wanted and it was a good fit for them,

170
00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:24,720
I would give everything I can to help them get to the college, get into the college that they want to.

171
00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:32,440
And I'm willing to play that game of, you know, making the application look the best as it possibly can in order to get in.

172
00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:33,880
I will help them.

173
00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:39,840
But at the end of the day, honestly, I really want to see personally want to see a culture shift.

174
00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:43,520
And I know that that shift is not going to happen from the top down.

175
00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:49,280
It's not going to happen by colleges saying, hey, we want to get rid of the ranking systems.

176
00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:52,760
We want U.S. News to stop publishing any sort of ranking.

177
00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:57,040
OK, colleges are not going to want to do that, especially the most competitive ones.

178
00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:00,360
They benefit from having the reputation that they have.

179
00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:03,040
They have they benefit from keeping that reputation.

180
00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,080
They do things in order to keep that reputation.

181
00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:09,640
Right. And they pride themselves in this way.

182
00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:11,440
And they want the competition.

183
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:15,240
Look, the truth is a lot of these colleges can make more room for students.

184
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:17,080
They could expand if they wanted to.

185
00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:22,920
They choose not to. Being exclusive makes them the brand that they are.

186
00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:24,960
This is what luxury brands do.

187
00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:31,440
They purposely create a scarcity, but that as a result makes it much more valuable.

188
00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:35,400
And that's one thing that a lot of these colleges are not going to want to give up,

189
00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:40,760
which means that it needs to be taken away from them if we really want the culture shift to happen.

190
00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:45,440
And if we want to take it away from them, I have some suggestions for some things that we collectively,

191
00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:50,280
as a society, can do depending on your place,

192
00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:55,160
depending on your place in society and what role you play as of now.

193
00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:56,960
Now, you don't have to do this with me.

194
00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:02,640
I'm going to do this for myself and I want to encourage other people to do these things with me.

195
00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:09,080
But, you know, I want to be clear about this, that I am going all the suggestions that I'm going to put up is really,

196
00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:16,760
again, a reflection of the reality of what college is and how it serves the serves people in reality.

197
00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:19,240
Like that actually, actually help students.

198
00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:26,240
OK, so first off for the students, if you're a student, as I suggested already,

199
00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:32,600
put an emphasis on yourself, on the fit you have with the university or college instead of brand.

200
00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:40,640
OK, use the metrics that are given about the media and GPA and SATs and so on as an informative tool

201
00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:43,560
to help you understand your odds of acceptance.

202
00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:50,560
But I would I would suggest that you take time to make sure you're not placing your identity in the college that you attend.

203
00:13:50,560 --> 00:13:52,960
It's honestly not emotionally healthy at all.

204
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,160
All right. It's not emotionally healthy.

205
00:13:55,160 --> 00:14:01,000
It's something that I imagine that you're you're wanting for yourself for other reasons than,

206
00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:07,880
you know, you know, something about you like deeply personally, like it probably matters more because of either pressure

207
00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:13,560
you're receiving or because you think that it's going to get you someplace that it just or just be pretty, you know,

208
00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:17,720
have you perceived in a way that has nothing to do with the actual education itself.

209
00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:20,280
Right. So don't worry so much about the brand.

210
00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:24,960
Focus on fit. OK, this should impact the kind of colleges you choose to apply to.

211
00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:29,800
OK, it should impact the way that you react to what colleges you get into.

212
00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:33,000
Right. You should be excited for all the colleges you get into.

213
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:36,680
That's a good fit for you. That has all the things that you're looking for in a college.

214
00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:46,280
OK, this also means that you're not going to focus so much on the rankings and you're going to focus instead on the things that might matter most to you.

215
00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:51,960
Right. So you're going to focus more on things like location, you know, proximity to home.

216
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:54,040
Maybe you want to be close or far away from home.

217
00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:59,360
Maybe you're you know, you want to be closer to a city where it's vibrant and has all these different opportunities.

218
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:01,520
Or you want to be somewhere a little bit more peaceful.

219
00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:03,160
Maybe you want to be closer to nature.

220
00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,960
Maybe you want to be, you know, have smaller classrooms.

221
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:10,400
And so liberal arts colleges make more sense, even though they might not have as big of a brand.

222
00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:15,760
Right. Like you should be choosing based off of what actually matters to you.

223
00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:23,520
And you should be perfectly happy and content with wherever it is that you decide to go as long as it was a good fit for you.

224
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:36,080
OK, to the parents, I encourage you to talk to your children and emphasize that you want what's best for them.

225
00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:41,160
And by that, it's not it's not like a code word for the most competitive college.

226
00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:46,040
All right. I need I want the parents to really keep themselves in check.

227
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:50,320
And I'm saying this as a parent myself and knowing how hard it sometimes can be.

228
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:56,200
But I need the parents to start being more honest with themselves, which is, you know,

229
00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:02,680
how much of my pushing my kids to be the best versions of themselves is it about my own anxieties?

230
00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:07,840
And how much of it is about actually caring for my own children and wanting what's best for them?

231
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:13,720
Because if you want what's best for them, you might not always be looking for the highest ranked university.

232
00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:20,240
You'll probably looking for a good fit where they will succeed the best they can.

233
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:28,600
OK, if you are an employer, I would like for you to keep in mind that a 22 year old is a 22 year old,

234
00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,280
regardless of the college they attended.

235
00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:33,360
Many employers have already learned this.

236
00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:36,120
And so if you're one of them, kudos to you.

237
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:42,960
But just because you come out of a competitive college does not mean that you are more mature, does not mean you're more responsible,

238
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,800
does not mean you're more reliable or hardworking or more knowledgeable.

239
00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:52,760
OK, it just means that you got a college degree. OK, all college students will have to learn on the job.

240
00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:57,600
And all college students in virtue of their degree have demonstrated the ability to learn.

241
00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:01,800
So seek out other ways to measure their fit for your workplace.

242
00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,040
For instance, it could be prior experience.

243
00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:07,680
It could be, you know, something that you see in them in an interview.

244
00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:15,960
It could be some other activity they've done outside of the classroom because the college they attended itself just won't be a good indicator.

245
00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:22,520
It just won't. And you'll figure that out unless you kind of buy into the rankings.

246
00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:32,760
OK, all right. Students, once you have been accepted to or have graduated from one of these more competitive schools in the nation,

247
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:38,800
learn to lay your privilege down and acknowledge that the school is just a school, that you are not anyone special.

248
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:44,720
And this is going to be hard because I think the world currently is designed to give you preferential treatment.

249
00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:50,760
They see where you got your degree and they might treat you differently for better or worse, but oftentimes for better.

250
00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:52,880
It will probably open up doors for you.

251
00:17:52,880 --> 00:18:00,640
I know that when I was first looking for summer jobs, teaching SATs and helping students with their college applications,

252
00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:06,400
the school that I went to mattered a lot and it helped open up some doors.

253
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:11,720
But I would hope that you would learn to kind of keep that in check, right,

254
00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:16,160
in the sense that, you know, you acknowledge for yourself that, you know,

255
00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:22,640
there's nothing particularly special about the college you attended other than that you went to college.

256
00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:27,520
So whether it's economically or relationships or elsewhere, just conversationally,

257
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:37,400
don't feed into this notion that somehow others should be impressed or treat you differently or see you differently because of the college you attended.

258
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:45,000
OK, you need to take active measures on your end to dispel that myth, the myth that you're somehow special because of the school you attended.

259
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:51,000
You have to dispel it for other people by actually making that explicit.

260
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:59,880
I know it might not be something that you might not find comfortable doing or something that you might not want to do because you benefit from it.

261
00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:08,400
But if you were to try to be more honest about it, I think that would be a good place to kind of start.

262
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:13,040
And then finally, to the general public, the people who have an advantage,

263
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:21,480
like the people who have attended these competitive schools, realistically will not want to give up on any advantage.

264
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:32,600
So there's a reason that, for instance, people with wealth will actively oppose drastic changes to the system that will diminish the ability to use that wealth and power

265
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:38,280
in order to help themselves or their children get into these most competitive schools.

266
00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:43,800
OK, you know, we could get rid of legacy admissions, but I'm not going to I'm not going to lie to you.

267
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:46,400
That's going to probably have minimal impact, right?

268
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:54,920
Because the truth of the matter is that you could experience the disparity in opportunities elsewhere in the extracurricular activities.

269
00:19:54,920 --> 00:20:03,400
Like a lot of people don't know this, but sports often benefits the wealthy more than the poorest in getting into a good college.

270
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:13,400
And the reason for that is sports are extremely expensive, expensive to get training, expensive to go to competitions, expensive to get equipment,

271
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:18,720
especially certain sports that require a lot of very expensive equipment.

272
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,680
So it exacerbates the differences in a lot of cases.

273
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:29,840
So people with these advantages, it is not because they're bad people.

274
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:36,080
But if you design a system where they benefit from it, they're not going to want to give up that benefit.

275
00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:37,720
It doesn't make sense for them to do so.

276
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,280
They'll want to keep the system in place.

277
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:49,240
So what can you do if you're not part of the people who, you know, I'm suggesting lay down this sort of privilege and advantage?

278
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:56,800
The best way to do so is to not be impressed by a school brand, not treat people differently based on the school brand.

279
00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:01,840
Basically, I mean, I don't want you to like actively mock them or dismiss them altogether.

280
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:07,920
But you maybe should for the people that are, you know, expecting admiration or flaunting their school brand.

281
00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,680
But I think generally there's nothing wrong with these schools, right?

282
00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:21,800
It's more like I like to think of the movie Wizard of Oz, when the curtain open up and you see the great wizard is really nothing but an insecure man.

283
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:28,920
And, you know, what I really want is that sort of undressing of a lot of these quote unquote elite colleges.

284
00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:32,200
I want us to really see them for who they really are.

285
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:46,680
Right. At the end of the day, if you are in a position to be able to attend one of these more competitive colleges and you benefit from it and you have all these advantages and you have all these doors that open up for you,

286
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:59,440
I would hope in the sincerest, you know, I'm saying this sincerely, I would hope that you would want to make a change because you're the people that are actually empowered, that can have a bigger impact.

287
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:06,440
You can make a change in how colleges do their, you know, have their mission process process, right?

288
00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:14,040
Who they decide to select, how much they care about these rankings and the kind of things they do in order to keep those rankings.

289
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:25,720
Right. I would hope that as an alumni, you would do something that would serve the general public good rather than something that's more self-serving to the particular universities.

290
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:32,400
I don't think anybody is a bad person necessarily. I think more often than not, people are very good.

291
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:43,200
I think that people want to do good, but I also understand from my own personal experience that people will do what is best for them given the circumstances they're placed in.

292
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:54,000
And one of the things that they're placed in is an educational system that benefits certain types of students that benefits certain behaviors from the people who have wealth and power.

293
00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:08,240
And it has been detrimental in reducing opportunities and, you know, reducing the kind of openings that can exist for the people that are not part of this exclusive club.

294
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:15,000
So I would hope that you would start speaking out as well and that it could be part of a public discourse.

295
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:20,920
I think there's reasons to be concerned about the educational system, especially at the collegiate level.

296
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:29,920
But I'll be honest with you, the collegiate level is just a reflection of a deeper disparity that exists across in our society.

297
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,280
This is not a political stance.

298
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:45,080
This is me as an educator wanting as many students to have the opportunity to learn and to become the best that they're able to be and to be given those opportunities.

299
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:55,280
Because I know from my own experience that so many students are capable of so much more than they show if they were just placed in the right set of circumstances.

300
00:23:55,280 --> 00:24:02,720
Right. So I would hope that you would join me in this in this call for change.

301
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:12,840
And I hope I hope that at some point we can really learn to love and embrace the educational system as something that,

302
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:16,280
you know, regardless of what else is going on in the world, right,

303
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:32,880
that this would be a space where our future generations can all learn, grow, mature and just, you know, come to a place of leaning on one another and creating a community that builds each other up rather than,

304
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:45,800
you know, terror tries to tear each other down or tries to create any sort of, you know, rank system cast or, you know, the sort of status for themselves.

305
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,760
That would be the ultimate dream, at least for me.

306
00:24:48,760 --> 00:25:04,200
And I hope that you can join me in it.