Cornell's Worried Image Makers Wrap Themselves in Ivy - New York Times

Cornell's Worried Image Makers Wrap Themselves in Ivy - New York Times: "Their fear is being viewed as a country cousin to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, more like a Midwestern flagship state university than a core member of a prestigious club. 'Because of when most people go to college, their identity becomes closely associated with the identity of their university,' said Peter Cohl, a committee founder who graduated last spring and is now working on Madison Avenue.

"Let the college's standing drop in publications that rank universities, he said, and 'my value as a human being feels like it's dropping.' (Cornell is now ranked 13th among national universities by U.S. News & World Report.)"

This is a sad state of affairs, to matriculate at a liberal-arts college and then miss the point of the education entirely, to contract instead of expanding, to allow the school's waning reputation to undermine self-confidence and sense of worth.

If this is the prevailing attitude at Cornell, its ranking should soon go into free-fall; they're not building leaders for the future, they're fostering a sick dependency on an alma mater.