Why Are American Colleges Obsessed With 'Leadership'?

those of us in the lone wolf camp get pushed aside a lot, and generally have to create our own opportunities.. which suits us just fine :)

Well, its a social signal isn't it.

Take a job interview at an investment bank. It is incredibly important, if you want to get the job, that you simultaneously deny being primarily motivated by money, power, and status, while sending the social signal that you are in fact primarily motivated by money, power and status. If you weren't, you're probably making a mistake applying for a job at an investment bank (although I believe the joke about someone writing on their resume/cv/cover letter about their "lifelong passion for taxation/equities/super funds" did the rounds a few years ago).

So you get your extra-curriculars/interests/academic quals to do the dance about how well a rounded person you are, but simultaneously you must wear the right clothes, drop the right names, read the right things, follow the right topics, and say the right words to strongly signal that your main motivators are in fact money, power and status and that you accept that. And if, god forbid, you're ever asked the question outright, you must find a way to explicitly deny it, while sending the subtle message that is completely the opposite.

Similarly, what are colleges selling/interviewing for? Well it sure as hell isn't skills or merit, because most rich people didn't use skills or merit they got from university to get rich, and many of them could be gotten at a similar standard for a far cheaper price.

God no.

Connections. Power. Links. And the hunger for doing what is required for more of it.

And that's what "leadership" signals. That you care about it. That you want it. That you'll be surrounded by others who think and want the same.

That's what elite universities are selling.

As for the rest, well, that's probably just regular human imitation/cargo-cult mentality. It seems almost second nature for humans to mindlessly try to imitate those they find socially powerful.

I saw exactly this situation in high school. I went to a prep school, so there was definitely explicit pressure to do things that look good for college.

Two of my classmates put together the "Dollars for Darfur" program, which became a relatively big deal. They spoke in front of congress, appeared on some morning shows, etc.

Sometimes it was honestly hard to have a conversation about the program that didn't involve some cynical "and this'll look really good on their college application" type of stuff. Which is true, it's an impressive project and I'm sure it boosted their changes, but it was always sad to me that people questioned their motives. Definitely a combination of jealousy and cynicism.

It seems like the US has a fascination with leadership. I remember when I was in college and going to meet and greets held by companies on campus all I ever heard is that they were looking for leaders. Never smart or hard working, just leaders. So it isn't just colleges it is the whole culture.

> I think this has quite a bit more to do with the good ol' boy network and less to do with Yale's ability to produce leaders.

But the GOBN is part of leadership. I don't mean this sarcastically and, though I started to write that sentence with "unfortunately" I took that word out since I am not sure whether it's unfortunate or not -- even though I am not a GOB myself.