Parke Muth is a former assistant dean of admission at University of Virginia, where he spent 18 years in the admissions office. Now, he’s out on his own as a college consultant and, thankfully, blogging regularly. Not surprisingly, this passage in his recent entry grabbed me:
Virtually all the media attention and definitions of success about colleges are driven by a tiny number of schools at the very tip of the tail. This is unfortunate because it misleads people into thinking that only a handful of schools will prepare you for success. It is ironic too. The schools that actually matter least to the education of most people in the US and the world actually take up most of the space in media of all sorts. The elite schools get far more press than other schools, except in most cases for sports (Stanford is a huge exception). This tail wagging the dog does not help present the biggest issues facing most students today. I call this the big lie (actually, one of the big lies) about admission and education. If you remember nothing else I write, at least think about this: It does not matter which school you go to; it matters how you do wherever you go.