Rutgers, Rowan, and my ongoing ignorance about educational branding
As an alumnus of Rutgers Camden (BA, ’91; MA, ’95), I have received a lot of information through alumni channels and talked with many former classmates about Governor Chris Christie’s proposed “merger” of Rutgers University Camden with Rowan University. After digesting this information as best I could, I realize I am against this forced joining, for many reasons. But being faced with this issue has rekindled an embarrassing aspect of my thinking: My utter ignorance about educational branding. No, that’s being too generous: When it comes to educational branding, I’m stupid, naïve, and pathetically out of step with my fellow humans.
In case you don’t know, Governor Christie proposed linking these two southern New Jersey institutions as part of a larger plan for NJ higher education that includes incorporating many components of the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey into Rutgers University. Rutgers Camden is fighting back vigorously, and many prominent people in South Jersey have voiced disapproval, saying the move would hurt the City of Camden, disrupt the education of current Rutgers Camden students, and fuse two institutions with different pedagogical and research agendas. This site provides more information from the Rutgers Camden side.
Another prominent anti-merger reason that keeps surfacing is about the “brand” of Rutgers. And this is the part that just leaves poor me, in all my ignorance, adrift. But by writing this, I am confessing my wrongness, because I dimly know how important people think your educational brand is, and Rutgers has a great one. I also know people will think less of you at parties and job interviewers will throw your resume in the trash and grad schools will snicker at you because of your institutional brand. And I know this branding can now start in preschool.
But I still don’t get it.
People of a certain stripe are scrambling like never before to send their kids to places like Elite Zenith University (EZU). Do they really know in a concrete way not only that EZU is a great place to learn but that it’s a great place to learn for their children? Usually no. They do know there is a mythical aura – constructed and supported mainly, of course, by people just like them – around EZU. They may not know anything concrete about EZU educationally, but they know that with EZU you get a cool bumper sticker, a secret society-like alumni association, and the opportunity for their kid to hang out with rich folks. They can tell people “My children go to EZU” and get the buzz of seeing others feel all gushy and amazed.
But due to some cerebral shortcoming on my part, the EZU educational brand doesn’t register. (This shortcoming may contribute to my having driven some crappy cars and being a bad dresser.) Certainly, I’m a linguistic animal, so words do affect me, but for me, when I hear “I go to EZU,” my associations, as a result no doubt of my cerebral miswiring, go kind of like this:
- Your parents might be rich.
- Your uncle might have paid for a building at EZU, maybe a library or gym.
- You might be smart.
- You might be talented.
- You might be really good at doing what teachers and other authorities tell you to do and at taking standardized tests.
- You might have been able to pay someone who was good at taking standardized tests.
- You might be an out-of-the-box thinker.
- You might be lying.
Alas, in my life, in my experience with EZUites (the school name is actually the Apogees, which illustrates the beyond-the-mortal-coil perception in which this group should be held), some of them have been super smart and successful. Some have been losers. Unfortunately, they fall into these categories in about the same ratios as my non-EZU acquaintances.
This is not to say that certain programs at certain schools would be better for certain people. If your kid is a great cello player, you might want her around the best cello players. Pick that school. If your kid is researching toxoplasmosis prevention (and if you read this article, you will most definitely encourage your kid to pursue this line of research), then the best toxoplasmosis lab in the world would be good. Pick that school. If your kid has 4.3 speed and when he tackles people the earth shakes, you might want him around great football players. Pick that school.
But, starting when they’re little, kids are being shepherded to elite places because of perceived eliteness. Period. What the schools actually do for these kids is a hard question, once you sort out self-selection bias and money.
Because of my naiveté, regardless of your EZU sweatshirt or Apogee forehead tattoo, I will take some time to get to know you, whether I meet you in a diner or you’re interviewing for a job with me, before I really know what you’re all about.
Despite my perceptual problem and my embarrassment about it, I still think the idea that the very air of EZU is going to make your kid, just by virtue of strolling around the ground, better, is bad. While there’s something harmlessly pathetic about thinking a brand of sneakers or a type of car makes you a better person, it seems insidious when we apply the same idea to education, considering how complex the outcome of educational “success” is when applied to a particular child.
But, of course, I think that because I’m missing something about how the world works.
I am proud I went to Rutgers Camden. I had a great experience and learned a ton. I don’t want Rutgers Camden and Rowan to merge. But it makes me a little sad that Rutgers people are so worried about the brand on their degree and that they would be judged by the name of the institution on their resume or sweatshirt. But, I’m even sadder because despite my ignorance about this topic, I do realize they are absolutely right.
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If I happened to meet you at that diner, with you in your poorly selected atire, would you tell me you went to “Rutgers”, or would you say “Rutgers Camden”?
How proud are you?
You’ve always proudly owned your “Rutgers-Camden” education, Scott. I hope they stay separate. I’m shepherding my kids to wherever daddy works…or community college…proudly.
I’m even farther off the mark than you – I’m actually open to the idea that my kid might not go to college at all – and perfectly happy about it as long as he finds happiness (and is self-supporting of course.)
Don’t feel bad. So many of us are guilty of this bias. Oldest daughter goes to community college. Middle daughter is going to a “name brand college”. When I discuss this in public I feel like I must always explain why the oldest isn’t at a name brand school. I feel ashamed at my biased, but in my defense, I grew up in a town where this really mattered to the general public. In the end buying generic doesn’t really matter to those who matter most.
I’ll say in your column what I’ve been generally afraid to say elsewhere for fear of appearing completely elitist: As someone who was faced with limited resources when it came time to make a college decision, back in 1988, I didn’t go to “Glassboro” for a reason. It’s never been a particularly terrific school, it’s got virtually no unique history or lineage to speak of (save for one détente-era meeting in early 70s) and the only reason it’s achieved the “status” it has is due to the questionable philanthropy of a wealthy industrialist who essentially bought the school and it’s naming rights. And why does size matter in this case anyway? Why replace a small, great school with a middling mediocre one? To save money? To once again force South Jersey to make sacrifices into order to rectify deficit incurred by North Jersey? It’s growing tiresome. And, as someone who hires recent college grads fairly regularly, the brand of one’s institution does matter. Rutgers—Camden or otherwise— carries significantly more weight than Rowan. Period. And, putting all rational arguments aside, I just plain hate the idea and the governor who’s foisted it upon us.
Just like the tag on the clothing, or the emblem on the car, we are buying the name. Should I say I went to Trenton State (the “other” Trenton State… not the penitentiary down the road) or do I say I went to The College of New Jersey. Same school, same professors and curriculum. Construct a bunch of new buildings and increase the admission standards and within a year or two… a shiny new school brand. It’s always about money in the beginning, middle and end. Sometimes you benefit form it and sometimes you don’t.
Yes, the name of the college one attends does matter. That’s the bias of corporate America that’s been fed by high education institutions e.g. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, NYU, MIT, and on and on. You can’t get away from it. Is the Rutgers brand so much better than Rowan? Nationally, no doubt it is; but locally- I’m not so sure. Rowan has come along way since it’s Glassboro State days. All that being said, I don’t want to see the two institutions merge. They each have their own pedigree and sensibility. Despite his television ads proclaiming how great he’s been for the educational system in New Jersey, Gov. Christie’s done more to hurt education in this state than anything. Merging these two institutions is just another example.
My husband went to Glassboro, and hopes and strives to send our children to better colleges…He works with highly intellectual doctors, surgeons, and engineers who went to the best colleges in the US. What a joke! He is as successful and as intelligent as all of them. It’s not where you went for your education, it’s where you go with it in life. I am a RUTGERS-CAMDEN ALUM and NEVER leave off the CAMDEN!!! I am proud that I went to college. Period. Rutgers Camden was the best buy for the money. No embarrassment here!
College – smollege, our species is under attack from single-celled parasites of the protozoan family using a trusted help mate species as a bus. Or maybe cats aren’t really that great, it’s just that the Toxoplasma wants us to like them.
Unholy Plankton, Sponge Bob.