In all fairness to Mr. Rosenbaum, he and other students at Harvard have a legitimate gripe when it comes to being characterized as lazy, especially when that quote slips from the lips of a Tufts Dean, a person who I would expect to provide thoughtful responses regarding potentially inflammatory subjects.
I, as a Tufts alumnus, was disappointed to see that the grade inflation article that prompted this discussion made Tufts appear as though we were suffering from some sort of inferiority complex based largely upon Dean Inouye's comments. I can assure you that Tufts suffers from no such affliction despite Dean Inouye's remarks. I believe that the quotes of Dean Inouye were most likely taken out of context, therefore I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.
That being said, Mr. Rosenbaum certainly shows his age, as illustrated by the childish manner in which he framed his response. The nature of Mr. Rosenbaum's response is my best argument thwarting his superiority beliefs. I would hope that any student studying at one of our top national colleges or universities would have the intelligence and tact to temper their response rather than responding to petty barbs with more of the same.
Mr. Rosenbaum's response lacks the charm, intelligence, and wit that supposedly separate himself, and his Harvard colleagues, from the rest of our national university crop. The fact is that no matter how superior we feel at Tufts, or others feel at any other top college or university, on the whole we are no better than those at any other school - no matter how much we like to think so.
Admissions at a school such as ours is a screening game. Admissions screening correlates very little with whether or not a particular student can do the work at a particular school. That kind of information is impossible to predict, though admissions staffs like to think that their processes have been refined to a science.
I have friends who have attended schools that were supposedly well above their intellectual abilities, and they earned their degrees quite easily. That statement applies to friends at Harvard as well. The simple fact is that many students are capable of doing the work at any institution, and those who believe differently are fooling themselves. Those people who believe in their inherent "superiority" are those who still like to offer forth their SAT scores whenever the opportunity arises.
Harvard and Tufts are distinctly different institutions, just as all other schools are, and all schools suffer from differing degrees of grade inflation. People choose to attend various schools for various reasons, most of which are far more important than some artificially maintained (i.e. US News and World Report) reputation ranking schemes.
It is time for students at Tufts, Harvard, and any other "superior" school to stop living off of meaningless past accomplishments and to apply themselves to building a strong foundation from which meaningful future accomplishments can spring forth. We are all extremely advantaged to attend these schools, and there are lazy students at all such institutions.
Pledge yourself to make the most of the opportunities before you, and do not perpetuate the snobby and bratty stereotypes that the vast majority of society already holds of us.
Andrew J. Waldera graduated from Tufts in 1999. He is currently finishing his final year of law school.
