Yale is Overrated. Yes, I am Serious When I Say That

Sitting at a bus station in Charleston, SC about a couple of month of ago, a nice black lady next to me suddenly asked: "you are not from around here, are you?"

heck, thats surprising. Don't know how many Asian you can find in South Carolina..."not I actually came down here from the Northeast to visit a friend."

"oh, what do you do up there?" she asked.

"I go to Yale University in Connecticut..." I blandly replied.

"oh...you are one of those..." she chirped back in a rather sarcastic fashion.

Traveling around places where an Ivy Leaguer is not normally present in large numbers (the Deep South is a perfect example), I have never fail to notice how quickly people become judgmental upon hearing that I am from one of those schools...

I am guessing at that very moment I utter the words "Yale," the listener immediately slaps a few noteworthy labels on me, "rich," "sheltered bastard," "elitist," "don't understand the ways of the common, normal people" etc. etc.

ok, fine, those labels actually apply pretty well for my Yalies I've met. Legacies whose families have been going to Yale for four generations, people dressed in suits talking about Socrates and Rousseau over champagne, people obsessed with sucking up to Yale alumni on Wall Street...those are the idealistic, self-centered idiots for whom those labels do apply!

But, me? I try my best to understand how people live in the lowest rings of society. For God's sake, to get to Charleston, I took a Greyhound from Atlanta (for people who have never down it, taking the Greyhound in the Deep South is like the scariest public transportation method ever...yes, I stick out like a sore thumb amidst a coach full of blacks) and on my trip, I have never stayed in any place other than hostels were I can meet my fellow poor travelers.

And somehow a person like me gets grouped into the same "elitist" ranks as those suit-wearing, stock-trading, champagne-sipping legacies who refuse to leave the comfortable confines of their upper-middle class society. What did I do to deserve this?!

For creating such "amazing" stereotypes among the common people, we really have to thank the publicity office of Yale, who has tirelessly promoted Yale as the "greatest school on Earth" where EVERYONE who graduates becomes the future leaders of the world.

Wow, how condescending. For people hearing this, no wonder they get judgmental. Somehow, it seems a Yale education entitles people to leadership roles and privilege to command over people who went to "third rate" schools like UC Davis.

Now, lets take a look at reality: Yale's intense grade inflation means that a graduate with a 3.71 GPA is considered pretty average (talking about me, no distinction when I graduated), yet a 3.5 at UC Davis is pretty hard to come by because there are no grade inflations...

Comparing the curriculum, UC Davis offers highly specialized, professional, practical degrees like agricultural science (for better farming) while half of Yale graduates leave school with English/history degree that send you to two years of Teach for America followed by grad school and professorship.

Even then Yale students (the philosophy-talking, champagne-sipping ones) are arguing not to make Yale a "trade school" (i.e. training people for real-world jobs with meaningful degrees), saying that learning real skills can be done after entering the real world.

Yes, you guys can enter the real world without any real skills because you have your upper-middle class family connections, but what about me? an lower-class immigrant who don't know a single person on Wall St?

People can't forget that even though the vocal Yalies you see on the newspapers and TV are successful, wealthy, from good families with strong backgrounds (and generally white), they are still many many students like me, so poor that if my family actually had to pay for 4 years of Yale tuition, it would cost them about 13 full years of salary (pre-tax and not deducting any necessary living expenses)

Thats why Yale is overrated. The exaggerated self-confidence Yale creates for itself creates a sense of condescension toward non-Ivy Leaguers and leave normal people like (who just happen to go to Yale) as the victims of social outcasting....