“Colleges should remember that selecting students by GPA more often benefits the faithful drudge than the original mind.”
― William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of America’s Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
I found William Deresiewicz’s Excellent Sheep through reading one of his early articles which formed the basis for this book. As someone who attended state universities, then went to art school, I have felt the sting of feeling comfortable with my well-rounded education and intellectual curiosity, then slowly realizing that I have no legibility in today’s marketplace because I didn’t follow the proscribed educational stairway to success and wealth, and consequently have neither in any great quantity. I have a child who is fast approaching college age and I wonder every day how he will deal with the experience when, much like his parents, he has been anything but an excellent sheep.
