COLLEGE IS MORE THAN ACADEMICS

One reason you might not want to attend MIT:  you need to be able to swim 100 yards before graduating.  However, no one has ever been confirmed to not graduate.  According to their guide, if you fail the test, all you need to do is take a beginner swim course.

At Bryn Mawr, you must swim continuously for ten minutes.  But, again, a swim course would suffice.  The message here?  Check if the university you're applying to has a swim test or not if you don't want this added stress factor.  In 1977, 42% of universities had some kind of swim requirement.  Today, very few, and all in the East.  I'm not sure if I could have graduated from Stanford if they had one.

Speaking of Stanford, it has won the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Learfield Director's Cup now for 24 straight years.  This is an annual award given to the institution with the best overall record in collegiate athletics.  Last year UCLA was #2.  The scoring system is so complicated that I send you to the source.  You explain it to me.

However, it was not always like that.  In my four years there, our baseball team might have been competitive, but we were close to or at the bottom in other sports.  Cactus Jack Curtis spoke before the freshman class and proudly bragged:  that he recruited every one of those high school stars who qualified to enter.  And both of them actually showed up on campus.  Clearly, they then could lower standards if necessary, but we still mostly lost.   His four-year record when I matriculated was 14 wins and 36 losses.  He was fired just after I left.  Interestingly enough, I searched and searched, and couldn't find a photo of him.

Today:

With high academic standards, Stanford has a limited pool of recruits, putting them at a disadvantage. David Shaw recently mentioned that only forty to fifty high school players are legitimate prospects. Shaw told CBS sports, “I’m not kidding. If we’re recruiting more than fifty guys, we’re kidding ourselves.” With twenty five spots to fill, Shaw probably aims at getting around twenty players per year, so he must convince about forty percent of his potential recruits to choose Stanford.

At the social level, are there secret societies in colleges?  Of course.  Here are ten from the USA and Europe.  Ivy League schools are particularly noted for them, but, when you come down to it, they are not really secret anymore, and the changing times have resulted in some being abolished by the administration.

• Yale:  Skull and Bones, now coeducational, meet twice per week (both George Bushes, John Kerry, William Buckley--and why 322--the year of the death of Greek orator Demosthenes, when ancient Athens shifted from democracy to plutocracy...rule by the rich)
• Pennsylvania:  Sphinx, now multi-racial and coeducational (John Legend, Jon Huntsman)

• Dartmouth:  Sphinx, one of 14 of these societies on campus
• Harvard:  Porcellian Club, not secret, but mysterious, and fighting the university to stay non-coed (I'm guessing that the XCI, roman numeral for 91, is symbolic of 1791, the year the club was founded)
• Cornell:  Quill and Dagger (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Janet Reno)
• Princeton eating clubs, which are not secret, with the most prestigious being Ivy Club (Woodrow Wilson)

Stanford had eating clubs, and they existed for 117 years, initially created to offer an option for non-whites and non-Christians, except the one I belonged to had all Caucasians, save for me.  However, all seven eating clubs were imperiously abolished in 2009.  Why?  Read on.

We mostly lived in Toyon Hall (right), adjacent to the L, a bank of dining areas for each club, also used for social activities.  Our group still gets together on campus annually during a football weekend.  To quote:

Our uniqueness allows us to do our own thinking and planning. We have no one to imitate, no national affiliation to determine our traditions and policies. Our independence, even from University control, gives our members the chance they need and deserve to do with their talents as they wish. [From the Stanford Eating Clubs President's Report, 1974].

In a way, that was the problem, the University couldn't control them.  Was this good or bad?  Here, a case is made for good riddance:

     The Best Reason for Why Stanford: No Final Clubs

Oh, Harvard has taken steps to outlaw all final clubs.

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