LOST, and what it has to say about the Ivy League

Disclaimer: I'm going to talk about LOST, but I swear, this is spoiler free and doesn't require any familiarity with LOST. I'm gonna run on a bit of a tangent, though, so read it through all the way before you draw any conclusions.

I don't watch much TV in general, but LOST is one of the few shows I get really into. But because I have a sweet seminar on Postwar Japanese Culture that meets every Tuesday night the same time as the show airs, I watch it online later (thank god for Hulu.com, the best friend of college students everywhere). Add in traveling to China for service work over spring break and now I'm a couple weeks behind on the show.

But last night, chillin' in my common room with a couple of buddies gathered round the laptop, I was surprised to see in the episode "Dr. Linus", Yale pops up in in an alternate reality flashforward back in the real world(?). Alex, now a talented and driven senior in high school, is studying for her AP European History test and applying to Yale. Alex feels she needs a recommendation from the (secretly evil) Principal Reynolds, a Yale alumnus, to stand a chance; Principal Reynolds wields this power to manipulate Dr. Benjamin Linus. Ben has to sacrifice his own ambitions to make Principal Reynolds give her the magical recommendation from a powerful alum to get her into the Ivy Leagues--once Ben gives in and the evil Yalie writes her a recommendation letter, her future is secured.


My reaction: "Hey wait... LOST is saying that Yale is evil?"

At first I resented the factual inaccuracies: a recommendation from Dr. Linus (who knew Alex well) would have been better than the letter from the evil principal (who was an alum but didn't know her), I'm pretty sure Yale is NOT evil, etc. But with a little more thought, its easy to see why the producers of the show would use the buzzword "Yale" as a way to quickly invoke a characterization of the Ivy League that some people hold: old money, powerful, snooty, elitist.

It raises the interesting question of what the words "Ivy League" means to different people, a question that you'll probably come to face anytime somebody asks where you go to school.

I come from Spokane, WA, a place where only a handful of students consider going to the East Coast for school and fewer still would dream of "Ivy League". When you return home from break as a college student, the questions about your college inevitably elicit a lot of reactions. There's certainly praise and admiration from family friends and neighbors, but the people who don't know me and form snap judgments from my status as a Yalie (running into that guy I used to debate in high school, or the man fixing my chain at the bicycle shop on 29th avenue) might associate me with that Ivy League stereotype.

"He probably thinks he's way too good for us."
"Bet he's loaded."

I personally don't put a lot of stock into the connotations that Ivy League carries. All it actually designates is an old football league among some of the nation's oldest schools. It's grown from that to imply the top-tier of academics and selectivity in admissions, which is largely true, but I feel like absolute rankings are kind of silly. If you put Yale next to University of New Haven, the name Yale would obviously carry more weight in recognition and that sense of shock n' awe, but UNH has the top forensic science program in the nation. These things are relative.

The point being: I like Yale not because of the weight the name carries to other people, but because of my own personal experience (that is, of course, far more than I can cram into this already verbose post). My suite includes me (a guy who worked hard at public school and receives a bunch of financial aid to come here), and a guy who traces his family back through 3 generations of Yale Men, living in a double with a first-generation American / college student. We're all best friends, and those indicators of status bear no relevance to our relationship. Trying to put too much stock in the Ivy League label to judge the character of the people you meet here is just silly.

But at the end of the day, it's tough to give this long-winded explanation to someone I encounter briefly who asks about my school. There are definitely times I brush off the question by evasively replying "a liberal arts school in Connecticut", and sometimes I just have to accept that people's elitist expectation of Ivy League will differ from what I know as my time here and my own values. And along with that, I have to accept that as much as I love LOST and its smoke monster polar bears eating psychics on a tropical island, not everything in the show is real. :D

Welcome to Yale!

Congratulations! After months of waiting the day has finally come - the Bulldogs singing when you saw the online decision, and that thick letter from Yale on its way to your doorstep. Take a deep breath and enjoy yourself!

I'm excited to welcome in the upcoming Yale Class of 2014. You've probably read all the admissions materials and have at least some idea of why this is such a great place to be, but reading a pamphlet can't compare to the real experience. These blogs are the voices of Yalies telling you a little bit about our own adventures. So read through these, hit us up with your questions, and don't miss out on visiting campus for yourself over Bulldog Days!

My bulldog homies on the beach

Have a rocking spring break, yo! Your academic calendars may or may not line up with ours, but the Bulldog Blogging team is taking two weeks off to frolic, change the world, bask in the sunshine, get that level 100 charizard, focus on senior projects, apply for fellowships, and chill out at home. Don't expect regular updates from us for the next two weeks, but soon we'll kick it up into high gear - April 1st marks the date of Regular Decisions going live, so you'll see a whole lot of activity on the site soon!

Spring Break

Spring break! Cancun! Take off your shirt! wooOOOooOOOo!



Or that's what some people would say. This afternoon marks the start of Spring Break for most Yalies, heading off to adventures of all kinds all around the world. Instead of debauchery on the beach, though, I'm going on a Reach Out Trip trip to Beijing, China.

The spring break and summer service-learning Reach Out trips provide a unique means for integrating academic learning about international development issues with first-hand experience in developing countries. These trips facilitate hands-on participation with organizations abroad attempting to combat the problems faced by people in the developing world, including poverty, environmental degradation, inadequate health care and education services and others.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics' Studies on Chinese Migrant Quality of Life, 49.2% of migrant parents who brought children with them to the cities "had to pay an average registration fee of 1,226 yuan in addition to regular tuition fees." These fees are usually required by urban public schools that accept non-residents. Since rural migrant workers do not have a Beijing hu kou (户口), they are asked to pay fees that they cannot afford. In addition to educational costs, migrant children also face severe discrimination once they enter a Beijing city school. The discomfort that arises from this discrimination, as well as from the difference in income, influences the parents' decision to send their children into the city's school system.

As a result, migrant workers usually send their children to local migrant schools. However, migrant schools are often primitive and lack the resources city school systems have. Poor salaries, nonexistent work benefits and grim career prospects make it difficult for migrant schools to hire and maintain qualified teachers.

My group is volunteering in conjunction with a group from Peking University in Beijing to teach at a migrant school and raise money for their academic supplies. We're both leading simple lectures that we can handle ourselves as non-Chinese speakers (science demos, English tutorials, etc) and leading more in-depth discussions with the translation help of our Peking University partners.

So, it's an adventure--I speak no Chinese and have little idea of what to really expect. It's funny to think that this is supposedly within my realm of expertise (East Asian Studies) but still so far out of my actual body of Japan-centric knowledge.

I'll update you all with how the trip turns out when I get back - here's hoping my intestines survive street vendors. :D

P.S. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that as soon as I get back Stateside I'll be headed to Albany, NY, where the men's hockey team may have progressed to the national play-offs after dominating the ECACHL this season. I'll be conducting the YPMB to cheer them to victory. WAY PUMPED.