The real value of a Dartmouth education
By Joe Herring
Published on Thursday, February 8, 2007
To the Editor:
In her discussion of the value of a Dartmouth education ("Varying Degrees of Success," Feb. 6), Claire Murray '10 reduces the issue to two supposedly antithetical possibilities: making money or doing something socially useful. Such a reduction completely misses the point. What distinguishes a Dartmouth education is its unusual capacity to inspire a life-long devotion to learning. The freedom to cultivate the life of the mind by interacting with intellectual giants -- in my time teachers such as Mandelbaum, Vance, and Scarlett -- can illuminate any work, anywhere. It can also deepen one's encounter with one's own existence when the workplace is no more. Some other colleges offer the same promise. Few can deliver as well as Dartmouth does.