I Hate the Ivy League

I listened to the audiobook of I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education by Malcolm Gladwell as a book on the side for my next book club meeting. (We're reading a different book about applying to college, and someone recommended this.) I don't know if it should even necessarily count as an audiobook since it's really a collection of podcasts that he's turned into an audiobook, but alas. The description reads, "Malcolm Gladwell has long relished the opportunity to skewer the upper echelons of higher education, from the institution of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings to the LSATs to the luxe Bowdoin College cafeteria. I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education upends the traditional thinking around how education should work and tries to get to the bottom of why we often reward the wrong people. The higher education system follows a hierarchy that was created to primarily benefit top-tier, elite, well-off students, but Gladwell wants to find out how we can do a better job at educating the middle and make education more affordable, fair, and open to all."

This was an interesting listen. I really like Malcolm Gladwell, and I was definitely interested and entertained and wanted to keep listening. He made some excellent points throughout. I especially liked the part about the tortoise and the hare (in relation to the LSAT and standardized tests), and I also thought this made me reconsider how much value I give to the US News college rankings since the book really persuaded me about how that list really is just a list of the most privileged colleges. He had a lot of interesting facts and stats in there--definitely worth a listen.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)