Yalies too focused on being No. 1

By Herald Staff

SHAWN CHENG/YH

Intense competition at Yale is a culture shock for those unacquainted with the American educational system. As a Swiss exchange student, I envisioned Yale as a place of high academic standards and demands, but didn't realize how much the spirit of competition would govern pursuits both inside and outside the classroom.

As an aficianado of the theater, I decided to perform with a dramatic association on campus that will remain nameless. In Europe, if one wishes to pursue an activity—whether it is athletic, artistic or dramatic—one just participates. Of course, there is a selection process, but it is largely self-selective. Individuals with intense dedication remain in the company and put together a production, whereas less passionate participants gradually bow out.

The end product of this process—a dedicated and talented group of actors—is the same for both the European self-selecting and the American audition models. It is, however, the nature of this process which I found to be so different here. Under the "self-selecting" model, students are able to get together in a relaxed, informal atmosphere—one which encourages companionship. At Yale, however, the pleasure of acting is non-existent during the early stages of auditions due to the intense and stressful competitive atmosphere.

Not surprisingly, this desire to be No. 1 is also evident in the classroom. For instance, one of the students taking the elementary French course that I teach quit after the first two weeks. As it was during Yale's "shopping period," drop-ins and drop-outs were to be expected. What surprised me, however, was the reason this student gave for quitting: "I don't want to continue in this course because I am not good enough in this language to be No. 1." The class material itself was interesting, but a competitive spirit seemed to have won out over other concerns. This was an elementary language course, in which students are not expected to be immediately at ease with the subject matter. It appeared to me that this student, so obsessed with the desire to be at the top of the heap, could not enjoy and benefit from the coursework alone, but needed the assurance of "making the grade."

These examples, albeit brief, underline the competitive spirit that has been carried over from academics to many other aspects of campus life. Whether in courses, hobbies, or sports, at Yale, being "No. 1" is the top priority. Are students doing all of their activities for the activity itself, or merely for the sake of competition?

It appears that this tendency toward competition begins in the American high school system. A Calhoun freshman had the following to offer on the high school experience: "You definitely had an obvious pressure at my high school, especially in the junior and senior years, to add a lot of activities to beef up your college application. I was in the Chess Club, for example, and, to be honest, I really didn't enjoy it that much."

While this example does not point to Yale as the birthplace of this "obvious pressure" to participate for participation's sake, it is perhaps more troubling that competition is already deeply ensconced in the social and intellectual construct of the educative sphere. Why does the university perpetuate this atmosphere? After the stresses of the college application process—the origin and culmination of this aforementioned competitive ethos—students should not be permitted, and certainly not encouraged, to continue the learning process in this manner.

In Switzerland, students follow their academic and extracurricular aspirations whether or not they can climb to the top. I am not attempting to draw grandiose black-and-white conclusions about cultural differences between America and Europe, but I am questioning the sincerity of the actions of Yale students. University life should be full of diverse experiences, not ruthless competition—you will have plenty of that out in the real world. A Yale student should not be a micromodel of the private enterprise dictated by academic market competition. He or she should pursue experiences, both in and out of the classroom, for the innocent motive of taking pleasure in learning.

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