Andrew Delbanco The College System

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The College System The word ‘college’ is often associated with words such as ‘expenses’ and ‘debt’. In the American college system, at least, this seems to be the pattern. Colleges and Universities are getting more and more inaccessible to students due to their increase in tuitions. According to Andrew Delbanco in his book College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, the difference between Colleges and a Universities is that a College “is about transmitting knowledge of and from the past to undergraduate students so they may draw upon it as a living resource in the future” (Delbanco 2). This reflection of the past to learn for the future seems unrealistic when half of Americans cannot pay for such education. There are many things that need to…show more content…
College admission is seen to be as very nerve-racking for all hopeful candidates. There is plenty of discrimination in this selective process, especially in Ivy League universities. The entire college application process is very tedious, lengthy, and expensive. Application skills are not something every high school senior has a good grasp on, so it can be extremely difficult for those that are not equipped with the knowledge. “The admission culture of selective colleges today is characterized by a rising degree of deception and –no doubt, unintended –cruelty” (Delbanco 117). The selectivity of colleges, especially those of Ivy Leagues, can be hard to put into comparison with other colleges and universities. Ivy Leagues run on their own system, and no one can tell them how to do things because they have been established in America the longest. Colleges do not do this on purpose; it is just the way the system works. “Recruited athletes, alumni children, faculty children, members of historically underrepresented minority groups, and ‘development cases’ have an advantage, and by the time they have all been accounted for, the number of slots remaining can be extremely small compared with the ever-growing applicant pool” (Delbanco 117). This is the popular process that most colleges and universities, private or public, go through. In their attempt to get the brightest and most diversified students, Ivy Leagues especially tend to dismiss low income students in exchange for students with legacies and family names that can bring them money. Those students may not be as promising for the schools academics but most promising for the schools name. This is how the unfair divide in the Ivy League universities works and the process does not seem to be changing anytime soon. These existing institutions have enormous

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