Harvard basically ruined their reputation in a year after a famous professor was found to have falsified data in her research. After that we all found out the president was a mediocre academic who relied on plagiarism in her work, and they didn't even bother to fire her.
The university honestly should be embarrassed enough to do something about this, but I don't think they will be.
Serious impact will only come from a new leadership cadre at these schools. New department heads. New administration heads. And even that would be a slog that takes decades.
Growing up in Connecticut I was proud of the institutions of New England. Founded by the Puritans, Harvard was exemplary of something special. Today, subsumed by personalities, the Ivies can only spawn egregores.
Once upon a time, the migratory legend of the Sorcerer's Apprentice had a Harvard version. Students there called up a devil, couldn't put him down, and were saved when the president of the college arrived in the nick of time.
Imagine a time when it was taken for granted the president of Harvard could put down a devil
👏👏👏 Encore, encore Liza! This was an amazing article! The Ivy League is definitely gradually dying. You’re right, they aren’t going to collapse at least within the next few years, but in the long term I don’t believe the once prestigious Ivy League has a future. They show no sign of having a much needed reformation anytime soon and refuse to take any responsibility for their mistakes or listen to criticism. I believe that schools like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Brown, and Columbia will likely not exist in twenty years. This is for all the reasons you listed. The Ivies are contaminated with antisemitism, prioritize things like race, gender, sexuality, etc. over merit, repress free speech and open inquiry, have a ridiculously hard admissions process, and have zero institutional integrity and care solely about money. Not to mention the advantages students from rich parents have. It’s no wonder college enrollment is way down overall and Gen Z have become known as the “Toolbelt Generation” and are increasingly going into the trades as they are finding out what a scam college often is. Jewish students and those with conservative, libertarian and moderate views understandably, want nothing to do with the Ivy League. Especially the Liberal Arts given how radical they’ve become. This is why the Liberal Arts are dying off and literary departments are shrinking in universities across the nation. I remember well when I was in college hearing that the American Literature II course and the Sociology Department were going away. I wonder why? 😉 Students these days will choose colleges that value free speech or vocational skills or go into the trades where they actually learn a valuable skill, fill a huge need in our society and make good money. Unlike say, an English, History or Gender Studies degree which can’t get you diddly squat. The Ivy League has shot itself in the foot time and time again. As far as I’m concerned, good riddens! Our country doesn’t need them anymore! It was on Ivy League campuses in particular where Pro-Palestine, Pro-Hamas protests and illegal encampments popped up and students and instructors celebrated October 7th openly and without shame. Where pro-Palestine protesters disrupted memorial services held by Jewish and Zionist students for the victims of October 7th. Where antisemitic harassment and hate crimes happened every single day. Where Jewish and Zionist students faced violence and were blocked from going to class. I have to say, I don’t get it. I don’t understand why if you are someone on the left, a liberal, progressive or leftist you’d support Hamas. Many people don’t seem to really know who Hamas are or what their all about. Some consider Hamas to be a resistance movement akin to the French Resistance during WWII or the those who fought in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis. This is NOT the case! A better comparison would be to Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, or Hezbollah. These fools don’t seem to realize Hamas oppressed the people of Gaza for 15 years. They cancelled all future elections, threw members of their rival political party Fatah off rooftops or tied them to the back of motorcycles and dragged them around, treat women as chattel, socially ostracize and discriminate against Christians, have their own version of the Jim Crow laws against Afro-Palestinians, kidnap and enslave black Africans, use child labor to build their tunnels, have stolen billions in humanitarian aid, and seek to genocide all the Jews of the holy land and build a global caliphate. That’s who Hamas is! They are the Nazis of our time without question! Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis all admire Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. By the way, when the IDF went into Gaza, they found pictures of Hitler in civilian’s homes and copies of Mein Kampf.
There are other emerging colleges dedicated to classical liberal learning. We can hope that many succeed. I serve on the Board of Advisors for one of them, Reliance College.
Excellent piece Liza. I've been applying to MFA programs over the past couple of months and I just couldn't bring myself to apply to any Ivy League schools, precisely for the reasons you outline. No way am I going to spend my money and time on an insititution that's afraid to tell the truth or stand up to bullies. Gimme Illinois, Montana, Arkansas, Wyoming, Rutgers, or any other public university and I'll be delighted.
My recommendation is also just to forgo the MFA entirely. It will just destroy your creativity and craft your prose into the same cookie-cutter sentences that everyone else and their mother is writing.
This is exactly why I left the creative writing program at the U of Az, which was supposed to be great (back in the 80s). I felt like I'd never really know reality and be able to write from that place, if I stayed and got an MFA.
Take the Ray Bradbury approach and read everything you can get your hands on, especially from the library. It is reading across a wide swath of genres and subjects that seems to make great writers.
Much of the Ivy league attitude is confined to coastal and classist (?) attitudes that frankly, aren’t as apparent among the working classes or Midwesterners, who get snubbed overall for their lack of class or geographical desirability.
Most people below the middle class are so proud when they, their children, or another family member goes to and completes a college degree. It’s the prestige of the accomplishment overall, not just the name. Unfortunately that’s not the case for Ivy Leagues, as their own religious adherence to suicididal cause de jours of the moment has alienated people across the board. Hopefully, it signals some hard reflection for these establishments who will make a course correction; one can only hope.
I really, really hope you are right. The real problem is that these schools are still where top banking and consulting firms and judges seek their recruits--effectively, they feed the 'power track', not to mention the intellectually influential areas like academia, media, and in particular publishing. You can complain about the behavior of the Ivies all you want, but as long as ambitious people want to go there they are still going to have a lot of influence.
I think you’re overstating the case. The power of an Ivy League brand is insurmountable and I don’t think a few questionable decisions will change that.
Ultimately, where are hedge fund guys really going to recruit from? Rutgers? U of Tennessee? These schools are never going to have the cache of Harvard or even Dartmouth.
This is wishful thinking from an alumna who is rightfully disappointed in her old university.
By the time you get hired at a hedge fund, no client is going to ask what school you went to. They will just see that you work at Citadel, Millenium, etc. The end.
My boyfriend works at a hedge fund. He went to NYU Stern, other guys at his desk went to Penn and Stanford. They just hired someone from Texas A&M. Times are changing and, in fact, hedge fund CEOs are some of the likeliest people to see through the garbage heading towards the Ivy League. So, yes, they are, indeed, hiring from schools like Rutgers.
It’s great if the Hedge Fund guys are willing to look outside the Ivy. I wonder if this Aggie is a one off or a pattern.
hedge funds are heavily about appearances in order to raise money. Maybe the managers know that the quality of the staff has little to do with the university. But do the clients know that?
Even when I was applying to college in 2009, it felt the cat was out of the bag that the state flagships were just as good? There's also something about going to a large public school that helps with socialization and meeting a wide variety of people, allowing for true exploration.
I've read that even for much of the rest of the top 20+ private universities elsewhere, there's been a homogenization in the sort of student that ends up there, and thus the distinctive feel/culture at a place like Georgetown, Rice, University of Chicago has evaporated. Shame.
Harvard basically ruined their reputation in a year after a famous professor was found to have falsified data in her research. After that we all found out the president was a mediocre academic who relied on plagiarism in her work, and they didn't even bother to fire her.
The university honestly should be embarrassed enough to do something about this, but I don't think they will be.
They have absolutely no shame and didn't even attempt to get rid of her.
Serious impact will only come from a new leadership cadre at these schools. New department heads. New administration heads. And even that would be a slog that takes decades.
The Marxist Critical Theory stain will not come out in the wash of the current leadership group.
Growing up in Connecticut I was proud of the institutions of New England. Founded by the Puritans, Harvard was exemplary of something special. Today, subsumed by personalities, the Ivies can only spawn egregores.
Once upon a time, the migratory legend of the Sorcerer's Apprentice had a Harvard version. Students there called up a devil, couldn't put him down, and were saved when the president of the college arrived in the nick of time.
Imagine a time when it was taken for granted the president of Harvard could put down a devil
Good to know that applications to these cesspools are going down.
I never understood the appeal, but the Hungarian Pastry Shop is nice.
Love that place!
Havent been in nearly 20 years. Im glad that my return to NYC in 2017 didnt work out, and I missed all the madness.
lol yes, it’s wonderful
Looking forward to the day when college recruitment asks the question, "Have you ever participated in an online cancellation campaign?"
👏👏👏 Encore, encore Liza! This was an amazing article! The Ivy League is definitely gradually dying. You’re right, they aren’t going to collapse at least within the next few years, but in the long term I don’t believe the once prestigious Ivy League has a future. They show no sign of having a much needed reformation anytime soon and refuse to take any responsibility for their mistakes or listen to criticism. I believe that schools like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Brown, and Columbia will likely not exist in twenty years. This is for all the reasons you listed. The Ivies are contaminated with antisemitism, prioritize things like race, gender, sexuality, etc. over merit, repress free speech and open inquiry, have a ridiculously hard admissions process, and have zero institutional integrity and care solely about money. Not to mention the advantages students from rich parents have. It’s no wonder college enrollment is way down overall and Gen Z have become known as the “Toolbelt Generation” and are increasingly going into the trades as they are finding out what a scam college often is. Jewish students and those with conservative, libertarian and moderate views understandably, want nothing to do with the Ivy League. Especially the Liberal Arts given how radical they’ve become. This is why the Liberal Arts are dying off and literary departments are shrinking in universities across the nation. I remember well when I was in college hearing that the American Literature II course and the Sociology Department were going away. I wonder why? 😉 Students these days will choose colleges that value free speech or vocational skills or go into the trades where they actually learn a valuable skill, fill a huge need in our society and make good money. Unlike say, an English, History or Gender Studies degree which can’t get you diddly squat. The Ivy League has shot itself in the foot time and time again. As far as I’m concerned, good riddens! Our country doesn’t need them anymore! It was on Ivy League campuses in particular where Pro-Palestine, Pro-Hamas protests and illegal encampments popped up and students and instructors celebrated October 7th openly and without shame. Where pro-Palestine protesters disrupted memorial services held by Jewish and Zionist students for the victims of October 7th. Where antisemitic harassment and hate crimes happened every single day. Where Jewish and Zionist students faced violence and were blocked from going to class. I have to say, I don’t get it. I don’t understand why if you are someone on the left, a liberal, progressive or leftist you’d support Hamas. Many people don’t seem to really know who Hamas are or what their all about. Some consider Hamas to be a resistance movement akin to the French Resistance during WWII or the those who fought in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis. This is NOT the case! A better comparison would be to Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, or Hezbollah. These fools don’t seem to realize Hamas oppressed the people of Gaza for 15 years. They cancelled all future elections, threw members of their rival political party Fatah off rooftops or tied them to the back of motorcycles and dragged them around, treat women as chattel, socially ostracize and discriminate against Christians, have their own version of the Jim Crow laws against Afro-Palestinians, kidnap and enslave black Africans, use child labor to build their tunnels, have stolen billions in humanitarian aid, and seek to genocide all the Jews of the holy land and build a global caliphate. That’s who Hamas is! They are the Nazis of our time without question! Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis all admire Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. By the way, when the IDF went into Gaza, they found pictures of Hitler in civilian’s homes and copies of Mein Kampf.
Don't underestimate the lure of wokeness throughout academic. Very stubborn mind virus....
There are other emerging colleges dedicated to classical liberal learning. We can hope that many succeed. I serve on the Board of Advisors for one of them, Reliance College.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-152318287
Excellent piece Liza. I've been applying to MFA programs over the past couple of months and I just couldn't bring myself to apply to any Ivy League schools, precisely for the reasons you outline. No way am I going to spend my money and time on an insititution that's afraid to tell the truth or stand up to bullies. Gimme Illinois, Montana, Arkansas, Wyoming, Rutgers, or any other public university and I'll be delighted.
My recommendation is also just to forgo the MFA entirely. It will just destroy your creativity and craft your prose into the same cookie-cutter sentences that everyone else and their mother is writing.
This is exactly why I left the creative writing program at the U of Az, which was supposed to be great (back in the 80s). I felt like I'd never really know reality and be able to write from that place, if I stayed and got an MFA.
Take the Ray Bradbury approach and read everything you can get your hands on, especially from the library. It is reading across a wide swath of genres and subjects that seems to make great writers.
Much of the Ivy league attitude is confined to coastal and classist (?) attitudes that frankly, aren’t as apparent among the working classes or Midwesterners, who get snubbed overall for their lack of class or geographical desirability.
Most people below the middle class are so proud when they, their children, or another family member goes to and completes a college degree. It’s the prestige of the accomplishment overall, not just the name. Unfortunately that’s not the case for Ivy Leagues, as their own religious adherence to suicididal cause de jours of the moment has alienated people across the board. Hopefully, it signals some hard reflection for these establishments who will make a course correction; one can only hope.
I really, really hope you are right. The real problem is that these schools are still where top banking and consulting firms and judges seek their recruits--effectively, they feed the 'power track', not to mention the intellectually influential areas like academia, media, and in particular publishing. You can complain about the behavior of the Ivies all you want, but as long as ambitious people want to go there they are still going to have a lot of influence.
Is the crisis that people there don’t hold your worldview?
I think you’re overstating the case. The power of an Ivy League brand is insurmountable and I don’t think a few questionable decisions will change that.
Ultimately, where are hedge fund guys really going to recruit from? Rutgers? U of Tennessee? These schools are never going to have the cache of Harvard or even Dartmouth.
This is wishful thinking from an alumna who is rightfully disappointed in her old university.
By the time you get hired at a hedge fund, no client is going to ask what school you went to. They will just see that you work at Citadel, Millenium, etc. The end.
I sure hope so. It would be good if the grown ups stopped buying into the Ivy League hype.
My boyfriend works at a hedge fund. He went to NYU Stern, other guys at his desk went to Penn and Stanford. They just hired someone from Texas A&M. Times are changing and, in fact, hedge fund CEOs are some of the likeliest people to see through the garbage heading towards the Ivy League. So, yes, they are, indeed, hiring from schools like Rutgers.
The Ivy League brand is dying.
It’s great if the Hedge Fund guys are willing to look outside the Ivy. I wonder if this Aggie is a one off or a pattern.
hedge funds are heavily about appearances in order to raise money. Maybe the managers know that the quality of the staff has little to do with the university. But do the clients know that?
Even when I was applying to college in 2009, it felt the cat was out of the bag that the state flagships were just as good? There's also something about going to a large public school that helps with socialization and meeting a wide variety of people, allowing for true exploration.
I've read that even for much of the rest of the top 20+ private universities elsewhere, there's been a homogenization in the sort of student that ends up there, and thus the distinctive feel/culture at a place like Georgetown, Rice, University of Chicago has evaporated. Shame.
Really curious to see where these students will end up going. They'll get bored at state schools, and reputable new universities are rare.