While I can relate to Marc Snetiker's disappointment at being rejected from so many Ivy League schools, I think he is overlooking some important facts regarding our school's identity ("Sports or smarts?," Oct. 7).
The Ivy League is, in fact, nothing more than a glorified football conference. Just the fact that it's called a "league" demonstrates that the schools banded together many years ago not to create an elite system of universities, but so that similarly privileged upper-class young men could get together and play one of the earliest versions of football.
That these eight schools turned out to become shining beacons of academic excellence is less a result of their membership in the Ivy League and more a factor of the magic of compound interest on their endowments, which are hundreds of years old.
Sitting at the top of the Big Ten standings, many pundits and ESPN personalities regularly argue that Northwestern is the premier combination of athletic and academic excellence. (Stanford gives us a run for our money; however they're a mere 3-3 this year)
If Northwestern were to make a "choice" of one of the "extremes," either academic or athletic excellence, we would lose the part of our identity that defines us as a unique institution - our balance.
-DAVE COLLINS
Communications junior
2008 Woodie Awards
The DAILY encourages you to share your thoughts on this story. Please help us keep the discussion lively, but civil. Comments that are abusive to others, off-topic or vulgar, or comments that misrepresent someone's identity, will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to delete any comments in violation or to close comment threads on articles.
Please e-mail online@dailynorthwestern.com to flag a comment or for more information.
Be the first to comment on this story