Why Exceptional Students Are Looking Past the Ivy League | Stephen Blackwood

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Stephen Blackwood, the founder of Ralston College, about the type of students Ralston College is seeking; why serious-minded, intellectually talented individuals who value friendship and freedom of thought are looking outside of the Ivy League; why despite the vast number of higher education institutions in the U.S., they've seen significant demand for their program; why more students are looking for engagement with great works of art and intellect; and much more.
Applications for Ralston’s 2024-25 MA in Humanities close soon, on Sunday 12 May: if you would like to learn Ancient Greek in Greece, then study the great works of Western literature, philosophy, and art in beautiful and historic Savannah, please make your application at the link below. The strongest applicants will be eligible for a full scholarship, covering all costs.
www.ralston.ac/humanities-ma
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[@vaughncassidy5242]

A sane and healthy society seeks to reward smart people who work hard. A school that can enhance that goal is always welcome. No Marxists please.

[@HouseholdDog]

Yeah there are Marxists, but before them it was all old money keeping you out of everything.

[@Mangolorian-je3eo]

Whoa, your comment is still here!

[@dereksbooks]

I don't see a problem with a Marxist going there, but nearly none of them will be interested, and the few that are will be so intellectually outgunned that it would ruin their brains (LOL).

[@gemox3225]

A study of Marx is essential in university and for anyone who wants to understand the world. This doesn't mean someone is Marxist, however.

[@vaughncassidy5242]

@@gemox3225 I totally agree with you. Alexander.Solzhenitsyn is required reading at the high school level in Russia.

[@NancyK-cu6xj]

Courage and talent. Throw in integrity then we've struck gold.

[@roywall8169]

When employers are openly saying that Ivy league degrees are job disqualifies, it makes sense that serious students will begin looking elsewhere.

[@nancybaumgartner6774]

The Ivy League brats will end up with government jobs as we transition into communism. Not good .

[@iamdaviontatum]

Tell that to the current politicians and leading scientists who everyone runs to in times of need (I.e when everywhere ran to Harvard scientists for the vaccine during Covid)

[@FrogOf4Chan]

​@iamdaviontatum The "leaders" in public office and the government sector are almost entirely compromised of individuals who went to those elite schools - the public can look the institutions up and then search for those top ranking officials, if an official went to an ivy school don't patronize that school, don't support that school, in fact the public should openly demonize those schools. Good parents don't let their kids waste money getting a degree that is worthless - both for low value degrees and high value degrees, examples would include but are not limited to; underwater gender studies, female dance theory, male aggression inhibition etc etc.

[@iamdaviontatum]

@@FrogOf4Chan The number 3 hospital in the world (Mass General) is a Harvard teaching hospital. So are 3 other top 10 hospitals in the world! You can’t deny the work that’s being done. The point is, it’s about WORK! Not school name, not Ivy vs Non-Ivy, but the work you do! Historically people who did the best work went to the best schools that allows them to do that work, simple. Wasn’t just talking about politicians either, that was a singular example. The last part of you message made me laugh but yea some majors are questionable. I’m just glad no one has a eugenics major anymore (because that was a thing in the olden days)

[@FrogOf4Chan]

@iamdaviontatum I'm glad you have faith in the medical field, I've spent the last 21 years in the field and I'm totally disillusioned with it - fiscally irresponsible and bankrupting average Americans for simple procedures which has created a 2 class society of those who can afford medical care and those who cannot, national Medicare services provide payment for nursing home and residential care facilities at a rate of 92% - so the medical system prices the most vulnerable of Americans out of it and then when those Americans get churned and burned like cogs in a machine then get broken and cannot work, they lose their lives and everything they worked so hard to build only to endup in a nursing home as a new battery being neglected and ignored while the clinics and facilities charge 400-600$ a day for "nursing care" which is mostly performed by burned out 30 - 50 year old nurses or 18 year old nurses aides with no brains or experience. The field is beyond corrupt, look into divergence and how many "professionals" steal from their patients.

[@Eyes-of-Horus]

The question is: What is more important getting a real education or having a big name on your resume? The problem with the Ivy League and the large universities is that education isn't the main function of the school. The schools are strewn with important faculty who have done a lot of research and most of whom can't teach. The big name faculty isn't there for education but for appearances for accreditation. Its just looks good to have a fancy faculty. It is assumed that these are the teachers when it is actually their assistants (ABD - All But Dissertation), students doing the teaching. You can get a much better education at a small college with smaller classes and a friendlier atmosphere that is focused on education and learning.

[@thomasgrabkowski8283]

Not to mention, they have a enrolment policy where they love to admit activists of all kinds from all over the world

[@ac46589]

Potential employers are also over the ivy leagues

[@josephhonomichl5240]

Around a decade ago the WSJ ranked colleges based on surveys with corporate recruiters. Only one Ivy made the top 25 - Cornell because of its hotel management and engineering programs. Recruiters said they avoided the Ivie League students because they didn't have better skills than state school grads and they had entitlement issues.

[@iamdaviontatum]

A lot of employers went to Ivy Leagues themselves 😭

[@monkeymouse1403]

Exceptional students never needed the Ivy League, they will excel whether they go to Rutgers or Harvard. The issue is that many employers have a hard-on for Ivy grads and seem to give them everything, yet get almost nothing in return. I skipped the Ivy League back in the late 80's due to my inability to get along with those types of people and except for one role the hiring manager required an Ivy League education (I was already in my mid 30's and had an MBA), always showed I was the best choice for the job.

[@rhugh02]

Freedom reigns

[@TimBitts649]

The Ivy Leagues became Poison Ivy. 🌱Mike Rowe would be a great guy to talk to. He's talked about this, a lot. About what we do for work, how most Americans are now rejecting the university model, for training for work. Great guy. Sharp as a tack.

[@Klat2]

Ivey league schools have turned to poison Ivey

[@cpfalcon51]

The Ivy Leagues have lost their purpose completely. We need more universities like this to get back to what colleges were supposed to be about.

[@tracypolselli1464]

Imagine working your ass off and going without to put your kid through these “esteemed” universities. Then they come home for the holidays smelling like failure and railing at you for your capitalist ways and your family values. Then they are on video showing they’ve actually gotten dumber at these schools.

[@charlieturner8124]

A surprising number of students are choosing to go to UGA and Georgia Tech over the Ivy League schools. Even the out of state fees aren't stopping them.

[@skywachira]

The cost to attend Ivy is not for middle class anymore. Need base financial aid from Ivy is breaking the bank of the parents. Ivy and large universities are for low income and very high income. Punishment for middle class.

[@charlieturner8124]

@skywachira these aren't just middle class students applying at Southern schools. Their parents are looking at Ivy League, even if they can afford it, and realize they can get an education that's at least onnpar and save the money for other things.

[@iamdaviontatum]

It’s about the work you do, not the school you attend! I go to Harvard, but there are people doing great work here and everywhere else! No school’s “time is done” because these schools still have vast opportunities, networks, and unparalleled histories of successful alumni. Go to a school that provides you with opportunities to grow and excel, that can be an Ivy League or anywhere!

[@janblackman6204]

If I was employing someone and they applied for the job with a nose ring and insisted on certain pronouns or their demands for certain things then I would profusely thank them for coming in and tell them I was still interviewing and then throw the resume in the garbage

[@chrisallison9526]

All I can say is they never should have fucked with me

[@dalexcoe]

Beautiful Sav Stroll.

[@TheOwlsarewatching606]

Sounds terrific

[@thomashuston9180]

Fifty years ago it came time for college and my parents had only one requirement; none of us four could go to the University of Pennsylvania. Both of them were U of P graduates. Thanks Mom and Dad, see you soon. 🥸

[@HouseholdDog]

That means you HAVE to go!

[@rogeralsop3479]

Sounds to be an excellent place.

[@DonJuanDM]

I have foreseen this date during the 90s. When I did my degree, I thought I was the last bunch of graduates mananged to get a job. The job market never kept the insane pace of graduates churned out each year, numbers don't lie. I kept telling people don't get a degree, learn some trade skills, everyone thought I was an idiot. Fast forward now, we dumped our son to do an apprenticeship for trade skills, $25k at the age of 17 with medicals + pension and real world experience, not a bad deal for a teenage kid. Best money saving scheme we made. Ivy league, how much it cost a piece of paper, plus the AI is coming to takeover the white collar jobs. Blue collar will be next but have some time to go.

[@krdiaz8026]

In my opinion, the quality of universities started going down when employers started requiring college degrees for basic office jobs when in the past a high school degree was sufficient, and experience was enough to get you promoted. Nowadays you'll find Liberal Arts/Social Science majors working as office secretaries, or data analysts, or something like that. Employment for graduates shouldn't be main goal of a university, but that is what most people think. A university is really supposed to continually pursue knowledge, adding more and more to what we already know, and part of that goal is the need to teach students who will replace the current academics when they get too old. Now, it's basically an extension of high school.

[@PaulStewart-jr3gm]

Ultimately a 4yr degree or Masters tells an employer that the candidate can take a multi-year challenge and complete it. Ivy League schools gives the connections - and that’s about the only real difference… and that too is going away.

[@Mangolorian-je3eo]

Strong thinkers are lateral enough to avoid Poison Ivy League.

[@thomasgrabkowski8283]

Considering Ivy League colleges all score at or near the bottom in terms of free speech policies, plus they are known to give preferential treatment admission wise to far left activists

[@user-ly1hs1kq6t]

If you promote critical thinking, not indoctrination, you are on a winner.

[@woodwyrm]

ORDAH is the first virtue!

[@kbtube8125]

oh, i thought he was going to say "robust" he seemed like the type.

[@tudorlisman2768]

No person who has a great professional career and/or great education should be forced to wait for some entitled people who have to recuperate what others could do by themselves in order to advance in their careers! That's what more and more of the students don't seem to understand! And we see why more and more students are not wanted, because they can't do simple math operations or find out by themselves where a known country is placed! But they have high expectations! Of course that there are great students who rise up to the occasion and learn a lot, but most of the time they are overshadowed and we close our eyes! And, as a result, we are in this situation where the Ivy League universities are becoming a total laughing stock!

[@QuangTran-ENVE]

That is beautifully articulated, sir. It’s also sad to realize the cycle - great founders and terrible excutives - will and almost always make the ideals circling back to its original points unless society as a whole raises their conscienciousness to the next level in order for such values to be preserved as nature. Also, it’s such a delight for a guy who’s still in search of the American beauties and had thought Am I going to the wrong place has faith in his journey. Thank you.

[@RM-dc6zd]

online education, from accredited public schools - the affordable programs, anyway - are the way to go. If the institutions are this lost, you might even stick to industry organization programs. Cut out the BS, the DEI clowns, the bias response teams, the bloated staff, the grievance studies people, and so forth. I went back to school for an 24K online MBA in the midwest, far from the coasts. It’s everything I need, and none of the fat. You could also study abroad; most of the far left stuff is centered on battles over the US’s own peculiar history, which is mere blip in the broader history of the world. Studying abroad is usually cheaper, and a change of scenery changes your perspective. You can also escape the myriad urban crises of the US: homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness, excessive crime, uncontrolled immigration, a lack of universal healthcare, etc.

[@jkbrown5496]

The Ivy League was only elite due to who you partied with for the college experience. Hell, up until the 1870s they, like Oxford/Cambridge, were just finishing schools for the "nobility". But even back in the 17th century, the best minds didn't come from the elite schools "Newcomen's religion had consequences greater than absence from a local census. Dissenters, including Baptists, Presbyterians, and others, were as a class, excluded from universities after 1660, and either apprenticed, or learned their science from dissenting academies." "At the same time that he chartered the world's first scientific society, Charles II had created an entire generation of dissenting intellectuals uncontrolled by his kingdom's ever more technophobic universities." Rosen, Willam, 'The Most Powerful Idea in the World'

[@SickOfDemocracy]

Go to Asian Universities. The goods truly outweighed the bads. The bads are... 1. Far from home 2. Having to make new social circle 3. Having to adapt to foreign culture The goods... 1. Definitely cheaper 2. Better Healthcare 3. Better infrastructure 4. Different culture (Modern American culture is so 💩, new culture is definitely an improvement) 5. Safer environment (American cities are unsafe) 6. Less indoctrination

[@JohnDoe-xu2vx]

Our government needs to stop funding all these colleges.

[@hadror13]

It's not just ivy league which apparently were methodically infiltrated and radicalised. Academia worldwide is having a moment

[@gemox3225]

It's not having a moment. It's been politically correct for decades.

[@alka9scottus]

At 26 and looking at graduate schools I would be interested but price of admission doesn’t make sense considering I’ve read much of the original material in western philosophy with success myself. Without accreditation, he’s selling community at a high price. Price of university is one of its problems - unfortunate that it is one they don’t intend to address.

[@gemox3225]

Actually, a lot of the Liberal Arts study can be done by oneself.

[@alka9scottus]

yeah that’s my point

[@lukeleonard2801]

my god, a college that is actually teaching merit and values. Good-bye Ivy League

[@youoscarz1]

Poison Ivy league

[@alabama2uz]

They aren't choosing the best and brightest.

[@JackHaveman52]

It's better than that. The best and brightest are choosing them.

[@margaretgrey4238]

Energy is better here. Exit interviews sound good. This is only an advanced study program? Why not bachelors or associate program? I am tired of elite anything. I am alone trying for connection and not getting it in everyday life, everyday people. Too many fakes. Everyone is valuable just not in the way they think. They think I am not valuable. No need to acknowledge a real person who reads and cares. They dont read. They dont promote hard work. They steal my money and my life. I pray. I love. I dont feel back much, just seconds, a smile sometimes. Please dont be a fake advanced studies guru. Overcome and be real. Thank you. . .

[@seanmcgrady8688]

... this MA program looks like a waste of money and time. 60k tuition? Seriously? Just become a pipe-fitter, or a welder, or something practical, and read translations by the people who are willing to endure financial insecurity for their love of Sappho.

[@idontwhy3132]

DEI cesspools

[@bradfordbrucker]

Bill Gates drop out of Harvard (waste of his time...) !

[@matthewdancz9152]

When everyone has the same thing, it is no longer exceptional to have it.

[@JohnBrown-ce6uf]

I heard nothing but a bunch of gabaldegook😵‍💫

[@JackHaveman52]

It's "gobbledegook". No wonder you can't understand a thing of what was said. You don't even understand how to use the spellcheck.

[@lancebane3088]

NO! Please charge me big money to turn my kid into a Radical Commie!

[@TahoeJones]

$80,000 to join a cult, disguised as a clan, that teaches from a website. What a bargain!

[@nuqwestr]

Blackwood sounds. as always, stressed and desperate. Dave should check out the Heterodox Academy.

[@henrybright8531]

So gay

[@stratmagic6893]

What a load of bullshit.

[@Justiceactivist]

Nice propaganda 😅

[@chrisallison9526]

But now they want my help it’s going to cost them everything