I found the reading of Thelin’s chapter 2 to be a very interesting reading. Higher education is something that all of us in class are taking advantage of and it is intriguing to learn about its beginnings. The development of state universities in the country and the controversy that surrounds the the question of who is the first state university is a fun story. I enjoyed the passage of higher education in women at schools like Mount Holyoke.
I did however find an issue that was brought up to be troubling. The issue of arose in the section titled “The Established Colleges and Campus Life”. The issue here is when Van Wyck Brooks discusses the Harvard Stamp. He mentions how generations and generations of the same families attend Harvard. They were just attending there because that is where their family attends or attended. I believe this is a problem because this is where we begin to see family influence in admissions decisions. This is a problem in today’s society. There was just recently the college admissions scandal involving celebrities and some high end institutions of higher learning. These celebrities were able to use their wealth and influence in order to gain admissions for their children to schools. The expectation of generations of families to attend the same schools, even when not qualified, leads people to do things such as these. I believe that this passage by Van Wyck Brooks is the root to the problems that we see today.
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