Victoria Houghtalen is a first-year
intended political science major
from Noblesville, Indiana.
In their 2014 rankings, Forbes magazine listed DePauw University as the 92nd best school in the nation. This gives our school the 14th best ranking in the Midwest as well as the 2nd in the state of Indiana. As reported on the website, Forbes considers the output of the college: measuring post-graduate success, the graduation rate, academic success and finally student satisfaction.
DePauw is a great school. Students become well-rounded individuals, not programmed robots with a bachelor’s degree. A constant pursuit of the truth in academia is something I find to be overwhelmingly present here; students genuinely want to learn for the sake of learning. Aside from current students, this is also present in our alumni. We have some very impressive people tied to a small school in the middle of Indiana. And the best part is they keep returning to Greencastle to foster a mentor relationship with us.
But there is danger in the glorification of an educational institution: it leads to a lack of internal improvement. In my opinion, DePauw students are too in love with their school to the point that it inhibits their ability to recognize ways in which the institution and the student body can improve as a whole.
This claim does not mean that students should be shameful of their decision to come here. As I stated earlier, it is a great school. But just as this school fosters leaders in academia, it needs to build leaders in implementation. The ability to mentally take a step back and examine the operations your institution uses and then critique them is an ability all must possess. Often it is the individuals inside a company that become most oblivious to short comings.
Just as we ask ourselves, “In what ways can I personally improve” we must also ask, “In what ways can the programs around me improve”. DePauw students, in love with the beautiful school of 177 years, don’t do this enough.
It is my personal observation that this glorification starts before the student body steps foot on campus. The Admissions Office is very good at what they do: they continually send literature to our house as high school seniors about all of the great places our alumni are in now, or even simulations of “A Day at DePauw”. Then, when we get on campus, the first year experience shows us all of the great programs through activity fairs, the Hubbard Center, and alumni meetings. Our infatuation continues to grow from our initial impression as upperclassman share experiences of why they love Greencastle, too. This love is a snowball that rolls and builds over the course of four years.
DePauw President Brian Casey said in an Oct.19 interview with the Wall Street Journal, “[Employers] want people who are creative, who can deal with complexity, who can think for themselves…” but while we do this in our classrooms, why can’t we practice doing this with our college? Application leads to learning. Transparency of administration leads to lessons that students may take for the real world.
I want to go to a school in which I am not apprehensive about publishing this opinion. Internal review and the free-flow of thought build leaders not only in the classroom, but also in the professional world.