[97fan]

I also came to Stanford from a similar background of economic privilege in comparison to America at large, but not in comparison to some of my Stanford classmates. But to the extent I felt alienated at Stanford, it had much more to do with the money my classmates were chasing in their careers than the money some of them stood to inherit.

This may not have been true in the 70s, but in the mid-90s, I would say the dominant student culture on campus involved the pursuit of lucrative careers. Within that that general framework, there were both kids who were pursuing a passion that happened to be potentially lucrative (often engineers, programmers and pre-med students) and those who were chasing lucrative careers for their own sake (often future investment bankers, consultants and lawyers). Of course there were also people who would become academics, journalists, playwrights, and stay-at-home parents, among other unremunerative jobs, but they were not really part of the dominant culture on campus.

If you had an activist bent -- which I don't, but I think Maddow does -- I can see how Stanford would have felt pretty alienating. But not for the reason she describes in that Chronicle article.

[97fan]

I also came to Stanford from a similar background of economic privilege in comparison to America at large, but not in comparison to some of my Stanford classmates. But to the extent I felt alienated at Stanford, it had much more to do with the money my classmates were chasing in their careers than the money some of them stood to inherit.

This may not have been true in the 70s, but in the mid-90s, I would say the dominant student culture on campus involved the pursuit of lucrative careers. Within that that general framework, there were both kids who were pursuing a passion that happened to be potentially lucrative (often engineers, programmers and pre-med students) and those who were chasing lucrative careers for their own sake (often future investment bankers, consultants and lawyers). Of course there were also people who would become academics, journalists, playwrights, and stay-at-home parents, among other unremunerative jobs, but they were not really part of the dominant culture on campus.

If you had an activist bent -- which I don't, but I think Maddow does -- I can see how Stanford would have felt pretty alienating. But not for the reason she describes in that Chronicle article.