One of my numerous Michigan T-shirts reads: "Harvard, the Michigan of the East." It's a clever play on the élitist suggestion that any "good" school not on the East Coast is the "Harvard" (read: the best, most impressive institution) of its respective region. I understand there are similar items at Duke and Stanford Universities, but I don't think students at those schools suffer from Ivy Envy as severely as we do. Their colleges are relatively small - and private.
As a public school that also happens to be a top-notch academic institution, Michigan has a hard time explaining itself to the greater American intelligentsia. When U.S. News & World Report's college rankings come out, for example, we always cry foul because our stellar academic reputation is overshadowed by our grand size and lack of private monetary endowment.
That's Ivy Envy at its worst.
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Joshua Rich
Trivial |
Since I'm a typical out-of-state snob who always frowned on large state colleges, I used to feel that way.
I'm from the East Coast, I'm more Jewish than Christian (although I don't believe in God, natch), and I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I went to a small, preppy private school in Washington, D.C., that didn't have a football team, and I have been surrounded for most of my life by rich, pretentious people, many of whom speak French fluently.
Few around here seem to understand that I'm an élitist by nature, not by choice. Few around here seem to understand the degree to which hailing from such a privileged environment - where children are placed in particular nursery schools to ensure their acceptance at Harvard, where my graduating class numbered 110 and where my peers included children of U.S. senators and foreign diplomats - made venturing to the Midwest difficult (especially since the commencement speaker at my high school, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was infinitely more impressive than any Michigan graduation orator in recent years).
Most kids in my high school apply to Ivy League colleges, not so much because they are especially smart or wealthy, but because that is just what we do. To make matters worse, the University tends to accept most applicants from my high school who consequently consider Michigan - get this - a "fall-back." Needless to say, plagued with Ivy Envy, I've spent many hours making excuses for the fact that I attend this gigantic public institution.
Still, now I know that if anyone longs for a smaller school where academics are priority one, then spending a Saturday in October at Michigan Stadium with 107,000 other people of all shapes and sizes probably isn't their cup of tea. It's just their loss.
Of course, had I not been rejected by the Ivys, it would've been my loss, too.
I've learned a few other things about the world while in college - surprising, considering that I'm now living here in the dreaded, simple Midwest. I've found that there exist countless schools, like Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue, which provide fine educations that put well-rounded people into the world (where I come from, the term "Michigan State" simply doesn't exist in the vocabulary). Moreover, I've found that a lot of the myths with which I grew up and brought with me to Ann Arbor are misleading and terribly wrong.
Who's to say that smaller classes are superior? Many professors would argue, I think, that a larger class offers a broader range of viewpoints and opinions.
Who's to say that students do better by Ivy League educations than those of other colleges? The fantastic job that I'll soon begin exists solely because I attended this school, not Columbia.
And who's to say that one needs to be in the "Honors Program," the single element of this University that East Coast snobs use to excuse their attendance here, to succeed? While many suffered endlessly over their "Great Books" (most of which I had already read) and "Senior Theses," I took my time in my studies, got plenty of 'A's and enjoyed life. We all got educated just the same.
While watching Ohio State beat Yale and Michigan defeat Princeton in the NCAA hockey tournament a few weeks ago, I was overcome by pride and relief. I realized that Yost, more than the classroom, is where my memories will likely take me - something relatively unique to a school of this academic caliber. I thought about how silly I was as a high school senior, worrying whether my college would sound as impressive as those of my classmates. But my pondering was abruptly interrupted when Michigan scored a winning goal and, in an instant, my Ivy Envy was gone.
I was cured, all right!
- Joshua Rich can be reached over e-mail at jmrich@umich.edu
04-20-98
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