President Roth Reviews Frank Bruni’s Book

President Michael Roth reviewed New York Times columnist Frank Bruni’s new book, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania for The Washington Post. Though Bruni directs his thoughts specifically to the young men and women competing to gain admission to Ivy League and other highly competitive colleges and universities, Roth sees his message as speaking “more broadly to the culture of manufactured meritocracy–a culture of rankings and branding, of recruiting and rejection.”

“Bruni tackles the roots of this lesson with example after example of successful, accomplished and happy people whose college experiences were far from the elite halls of Stanford or Harvard,” writes Roth.

“As an educator, I applaud Bruni’s advice to disregard the false rankings systems and recognize that hundreds of schools across the country offer fantastic opportunities for people eager to work and learn. As a father, I am grateful for his reminder of the importance of family for students: ‘something so much more essential and nourishing and lasting’ than admission to a college — no matter how highly ranked.”