Typical Oxford defeatism. They simply don't understand that in America everyone can be above average.
Why Are American Colleges Obsessed With 'Leadership'?
51–56 of 56 posts
Re: Why Are American Colleges Obsessed With 'Leadership'?
#52I currently attend UC Berkeley and graduated from a fairly affluent top US high school a few years ago. Meaning: everyone was very concerned (I won't say obsessed) about college admissions. This focus on leadership in admissions is very well known, and manifests itself conspicuously in competitive high schools. There's a considerable amount of unspoken pressure to get "leadership" positions in school clubs, do "leade…
That's basically what happened in my religious youth group in high school. I ended up "Executive Vice President", which basically amounted to being "One of the three people who actually shows up to every single meeting and goes to the retreats", because when we actually held elections, suddenly another four people show up and vote themselves the leadership positions.
And they were never seen again.
Re: Why Are American Colleges Obsessed With 'Leadership'?
#53Typical Oxford defeatism. They simply don't understand that in America everyone can be above average.
At Harvard, the most occurring grade is A
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/3/grade-inflation-...
Re: Why Are American Colleges Obsessed With 'Leadership'?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
With Yale or Harvard it makes perfect sense to emphasis leadership. Emphasizing leadership skills for STEM students at engineering schools? That makes less sense. Emphasizing leadership skills for developers at West Coast tech companies? Now we're just getting silly... Sure leadership plays a role in what I do, but I wouldn't rate it in the top 5 important skills. As an example, to help myself get into college I was…
I always detested this empty "leadership" concept and I actively avoided doing anything like that in high school. I was lucky enough to get into my top choice of universities despite this. Today, I don't think I would be able to do that, and I only graduated high school 10 years ago.
Easy enough -- just found a new club -- make your group of friends the "executive leadership team" -- then make the entire high school honorary members. You now lead the largest club. Woo! admitted
Re: Why Are American Colleges Obsessed With 'Leadership'?
#55Re: Why Are American Colleges Obsessed With 'Leadership'?
#56Because everyone in America believes they have a chance to be a leader someday. Better to believe in the dream than to be disgruntled I suppose.