(Chicago Maroon)

“Who wants to go to UPenn anyway?”

That was the question posed by a recent editorial in the University of Chicago Maroon. Protesting the school’s plans to begin accepting the Common Application, the editorial expressed students’ fears that it would turn Chicago into another “generic, elite private university”–like Penn, for example.

The editorial’s implications caused concern among Penn students who came across it. Were our Midwestern friends right? Is Penn a “generic, elite private university?”

Let me first answer the Maroon’s question. Who does want to go to Penn anyway? Well, me for one. I wanted to as a senior in high school (enough to apply Early Decision) and I still want to be here. With almost 50 percent of recent classes choosing Penn as their first choice by also applying early, we deserve the Newsweek label of “Hottest for Happy-To-Be-There.”

A student body that wants to be at Penn is one of the principal factors separating us from our peers. Choosing not to follow Harvard’s lead and do away with Early Decision earlier this year was critical in keeping us from falling into the generic trap.

While I disagree with the Maroon’s insinuations about Penn, I do believe that all colleges have recently seen increased pressure to conform to national standards. We must be aware of these forces and fight them when necessary, just as we did with the Early Decision issue.

Financial aid, co-ed housing, endowment size and other criteria have all become benchmarks for success that universities often take on without considering whether they are really right for their particular schools. This was the problem when Penn attempted to mimic aid programs at Harvard and Yale that left zero parental contribution for families making under $40,000 and $45,000 a year, respectively. Because our endowment can hardly compare to those schools though ($4.4 billion compared to $25.9 billion at Harvard), Penn’s plan actually did not change much in our financial aid system. We should have realized that our solution to the aid question had to be tailored to our unique circumstances rather than blindly trying to keep pace with our peers.

Though Penn was once at the progressive forefront, we now seem far too content just treading water, staying in line with the pack rather than separating ourselves from them.

For now, Penn does remain unique–that’s why so many students, including me, considered it our first choice. Yet the Maroon editorial board has a point that goes far beyond the Common Application. A tendency to conform to precedents at peer schools rather than create our own has been apparent in many of the major decisions that the university has recently made. If we don’t turn back to our innovative roots, we really will become the generic elite university that some already consider us.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 1:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.