the Sam Jackson College Experience

E-mail we received this afternoon enclosed below. The bloodletting at Yale looks like it will really not be so bad; while market declines were comparable to Harvard, they were looking to freeze things more aggressively, while Yale is forging ahead (relatively speaking). We all knew that the downturn would affect Yale, the question was by how much. The answer: So far, about 25% of the market value of the endowment has gone down with the markets. This means there is a fairly significant budget shortfall next year, growing again the year after. But, relax – the endowment is now in the same place it was in 2006, and long-term, everything will be peachy. Right, President Levin? “17 billion is still a very large endowment.”

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s that dreadful / wonderful time of year again – finals season, but more importantly, the time when early admissions decisions come out. Last year I borrowed a post from a friend to explain why, whatever happens, there is life after early admissions (and regular admissions, I might add). This year, I’ll take a moment to write my own, though I’ll keep it short. This applies to Yale, but any other school, too.

Dear High School Senior,

I was once where you are right now. Thankfully, the pain of waiting has faded some in the last two years, but I can remember it. More importantly, I have a bit of experience surviving it and know many others who did, too. Parents, teachers, guidance counselors and others might bore you with platitudes, but really, I can’t say enough that the world isn’t over if you don’t get into College-of-your-Choice today. If you do, fantastic! I’m really happy for you, and you should be really proud – but don’t give up on High School just yet, either.

Either way, take a breather and relax a little, but don’t slack off too much – remember that some point down the line you might want to take use of the things you are ostensibly learning in class, even if you think chemistry / english / physical education is pointless. If you didn’t get into First Choice School early, relax — many schools use their early rounds to snap up athletes, legacies, and other students, which is part of the reason admit rates are higher – what’s more, although some schools recruit really heavily early, others try to balance this more (MIT, for example, basically caps their early round). Regular decision is still when most people find out.

So, here’s the deal: make sure you get in all your other applications, and you know, even if you do get in early, it doesn’t hurt to go for a few more — you can use other acceptances to argue for better financial aid (something I wish I was able to do). Most of all, though — and this is true whether you are accepted / rejected / deferred / waitlisted at any point in the process: the dirty secret of college admissions is that people are, in general, extremely happy wherever they end up. It’s true. There is little statistical difference in happiness. If you hear people bemoaning their sad fates, that’s because they’re the token few–most people are too busy being happy to come out and tell you just what a good time they’re having.

So… those are just a few thoughts. If you got in and are excited, got deferred and are worried, or got rejected and are really depressed, comment and join the discussion about it. Talking to others helps. You’re not alone.

The answer to this question, posted below, is the application I submitted for the EP&E major, which should generally answer the question in a broader sense. Pragmatically, I am interested because I like many EP&E classes as well as many Political Science classes, and EP&E allows you to pre-register and/or get preferred placement for seminars in both disciplines. Fingers crossed! Most majors do not require applications, just simple declarations, but EP&E (similar in content to PPE elsewhere) does.

Sam Jackson’s EP&E application essay:

I view the world holistically and I seek wisdom from many different disciplines as I try to make sense of it in and out of class. Ultimately, I find that the Ethics, Politics, and Economics major uniquely dovetails with my own interdisciplinary academic interests. I believe that EP&E is an ideal fit for the academic path I plan to pursue (and indeed have begun already) here at Yale. In our modern world, I think that these three disciplines are inextricably linked and that the study of each merits contribution from the others. I will briefly break down my interests in each subject and then synthesize these points together to affirm that their interdisciplinary combination is greater than the sum of its parts. Their juxtaposition is the site of the most intellectually stimulating discourse I can imagine.

The study of ethics forms the heart and soul of my academic ambitions. I personally think it is valuable and indeed imperative that we as a society and planet pursue a project to ethically inform the way we act in politics and markets. This is not a straightforward proposition to be sure, and many a college student in my position has had starry-eyed dreams to change the world for the better—for me, however, ethics as a field of study is most useful in its applied forms, when directed to benefit and balance the political realm and its cousin, economics. Many of my most interesting thought exchanges in and out of class have been related to the field of ethics, and I feel its study is critical.

Politics is the spine or nervous system of this academic corpus – it is where these ethical ideas can be applied and directed, and it gains reasoned input from the economic ‘brain.’ The political realm has always been my favorite piece of this puzzle, and I have very much enjoyed getting to see it up-close working on the inside as a Senate intern and on the outside working with Google to lobby government in D.C. To say the least, it was a very apt scenario for EP&E principles to be applied as Google’s “Do No Evil” corporate motto was put to the test against the realities of the political world. Ultimately I would like to continue my political activities both inside the beltway and in other organizing capacities and I believe that the best way I can do this to serve my community, country, and ideals requires a firm ethical and economic grounding.

Economics forms the final piece of this picture. In some ways, it is the mind, the answer to all the questions that start, “but where’s the data?” Already my course in microeconomics has given me valuable theory to apply and consider regarding the other fields, and I look forward to pursuing it more. Economics to me is essential because of its ability to answer the questions raised by the political (and on some occasions, the ethical) and to do so in a quantifiable way. I love engaging in political and ethical debates just for the sake of it, but in matters of policy results matter as much as intentions or morals – and here economics can play a crucial role in informing the debate.

Thus, any one of these subjects is to me neutered without the other two. I have already been taking courses covering all three realms in my time here at Yale to date and plan to continue this path. I have a specific interest in the way the technology can act to affect the political, ethical, and economic; throughout history there are countless examples of technological changes having broad social and political impacts, and as my other great interdisciplinary focus is to attempt to bridge the humanities and social sciences with the more technical hard sciences, I hope that I will be able to explore these topics more in the years ahead, especially regarding the environment. My fall semester course “Social Studies of Science and Technology,” EP&E 304 taught by Professor Lorenzo Simpson, has been a good philosophy of science resource in this aim.

After the first class session of “Moral Values in Civil Society” with EP&E Prof. Boris Kapustin (my current advisor) my freshman fall I knew EP&E was the place for me. Although I am loathe to choose just one area to focus upon, when there are so many fascinating subjects within the field, I would be perhaps most thrilled to consider the political and ethical implications of technology towards the environment with additional inquiry into the consequences for democracy and civil society. In this way I could harness my EP&E interests with my scientific ones to enrich my study of this great ethical, political, and economic problem of modern society – the fate of the environment. I hope to help answer the questions of what fundamentally drives its degradation, whether technology can save it, and what the collateral damages may be.

Et voila!

Or, “It’s not lying when admissions office does it” –

Just wanted to quickly highlight something which is not gross lying, but just mild misrepresentation. The Yale Admitted Students website has fantastic images of student rooms which are really really scrumptious and gorgeous and make you feel like everyone at Yale lives in wonderful palaces — also, that they all clean their rooms. I was stunned when I first saw them and asked the admissions office if they were real rooms of undergrads or if they were staged photos (when I was applying) and I was told, no, they’re all real.

And they are, in a certain sense, at least… anyway, of couse, they want to put Yale’s best face forward, and I don’t mean to say that rooms aren’t often great! I am still puzzled why they had Emma Watson stay overnight in one of the less spectacular freshman dorms, if they’d wanted to really court her; still. (Emma, if you’re reading, I hope you chose to apply and matriculate! Harvard is Azkaban and if you come to Yale I’ll never mention Harry Potter when you’re around. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions about Yale; this offer applies to prospective Yalies who aren’t movie stars, too.) Read the rest of this entry »