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rmendez 's review for:
It was okay. First of all, I'd like to say: I think books like this are really important. As someone who's attended a private school since the 6th grade, or even just as a teenager in 2021 - so many teens now are obsessed with going into elite colleges. Everyone seems to be striving for the most credits, looking for opportunities that'll fit their resumes, and brainstorming for their college essays and we haven't even started junior year yet. I personally don't feel much of an attraction to schools like Harvard or MIT, especially where I feel like I'd likely be in the gender and racial minorities. However, I do sometimes feel the pull of having an Ivy name to display in your instagram bio or on a crewneck, as I suppose many teenagers do at the moment.
Bruni does a good job of breaking down why going to an elite school is not necessary for success. He talks about students who had transformative experiences at other schools and went on to be very successful entrepreneurs, politicians, authors, etc. From hearing the stories of those Bruni interviews, I was able to gain a bit more insight into the benefits of going to a public/non-elite college (things like socioeconomic diversity, more connections with the proffessors, unique classes, etc.) The book reminded me that it's not so much which school you get into, but how determined you are to use the opportunity you are provided with.
However, the book started to feel extremely repetitive after only a few chapters. Although Bruni does tie in some interesting stories to his writing, it often lacks that emotional connection with the people being interviewed/discussed and their stories to draw out the readers' interest. Additionally, he provides stats that are helpful to his argument, but he often provides so many that you get "lost in the stats" and I found myself having to go back/take notes in order to not lose track of what he was talking about. Finally, I feel like what he was saying was good, he just used wayyy too many words and packed in way too much information to the chapters. They probably could have been half the length, and his points would've come across fine. Some of the chapters also felt wholly unnecessary, like the one about Temple and Waterloo. Sure, it was okay, but I didn't feel like it added that much to the book (besides reading time).
Bruni does a good job of breaking down why going to an elite school is not necessary for success. He talks about students who had transformative experiences at other schools and went on to be very successful entrepreneurs, politicians, authors, etc. From hearing the stories of those Bruni interviews, I was able to gain a bit more insight into the benefits of going to a public/non-elite college (things like socioeconomic diversity, more connections with the proffessors, unique classes, etc.) The book reminded me that it's not so much which school you get into, but how determined you are to use the opportunity you are provided with.
However, the book started to feel extremely repetitive after only a few chapters. Although Bruni does tie in some interesting stories to his writing, it often lacks that emotional connection with the people being interviewed/discussed and their stories to draw out the readers' interest. Additionally, he provides stats that are helpful to his argument, but he often provides so many that you get "lost in the stats" and I found myself having to go back/take notes in order to not lose track of what he was talking about. Finally, I feel like what he was saying was good, he just used wayyy too many words and packed in way too much information to the chapters. They probably could have been half the length, and his points would've come across fine. Some of the chapters also felt wholly unnecessary, like the one about Temple and Waterloo. Sure, it was okay, but I didn't feel like it added that much to the book (besides reading time).