Bowdoin or Vassar?

Bowdoin or Vassar?

          Don’t get me wrong, they are both great schools. But Malcolm Gladwell seems to disagree. He flat out says, “Don’t go to Bowdoin, go to Vassar instead.” Bowdoin serves great food, but Vassar trades food to give more students financial support. Bowdoin has a huge capital base to fall back on if things turn bad, but Vassar can’t afford to lose even 10 students paying full university fees. Gladwell believes that social equality, the opportunity give more students the chance of advanced education is more important than luxuries. On a broader scope, I agree. Universities, as the ivory tower devoted to knowledge and social advancement, should always try to pursue the virtues of equality and social justice. But sacrificing quality for quantity is something I do not believe in.

          Vassar is something of a special case. It accepts far more students requiring financial aid versus students who don’t. Consequently, it can only give Spartan dormitories, sub-par food, and average quality of facilities. Many students would logically choose Bowdoin over Vassar, and they do. Vassar is essentially relying on the goodwill and altruism of rich students who pay for the students requiring FA. It may work in the short term, but as more and more students turn to Bowdoin, Vassar would have no choice but to go under or reduce the number of students they support. I believe that guilt-tripping students into enter Vassar is wrong. Students should have every right to prefer a school for its quality. Choosing an inferior product, so to speak, can only lower the quality of education that universities can provide which leads to less benefits poor students.

          One big problem is that universities are tax-free. Some like Harvard and Yale literally have billions of dollars in liquid cash that they invest to earn tens of millions of dollars, tax free. While it might seem unrelated to financial aid, the tax-free environment universities enjoy is the root cause of inequality. The profit universities earn can easily be diverted to providing more students with FA, and increasing the total number of students admitted. If the universities are provided economic incentive to provide more students with FA, then both quality and equality can be achieved. For example, re-continue the tax on universities for capital income only. If Harvard earns 20 million dollars per year, and the tax rate is 5%, Harvard must pay 1 million dollars. However, if the government counts financial aid as tax, then Harvard will be economically incentivized to provide more students with FA. On the other hand, they will still be inclined to keep the integrity of the faculty and education intact. For the less prosperous, tight universities like Vassar, the tax rate can be progressive, so they will not be as financially challenged.

          Lobsters and steak may be extravagant, but they show how much the university is willing to invest in the students. Unnecessarily compromising the integrity of education is not acceptable. So, sorry Malcom. I think I’ll take Bowdoin.