Will US colleges’ brand power survive falling standards?
1st May 2023
Nike. Supreme. Ralph Lauren. Abercrombie and Fitch. Harvard and Yale. On the streets of Budapest, style-conscious teenagers have collapsed the distinction between the Ivy League and streetwear. Maybe Americans still balk at wearing the logo of schools they didn’t get into, but the market for collegiate apparel in Eastern Europe is not limited to alumni, students and ambitious high-schoolers. Even kids with no interest in (or chance of) going to Harvard are drawn by the power of its name.
Meanwhile, American higher education is being convulsed by a social-justice revolution that upends the basis of these schools’ claims to exclusivity. Will teachers, parents and students continue to endure the indignities of the college application process if coveted academic brands dilute their own product?
This question has been on my mind lately because, after a long hiatus, I’ve reacquainted myself with the college-admissions rat race. As a teacher at a Hungarian high school, most of my students opt for the far less stressful process of applying to European universities. This spares them the demands of SAT prep, recommendation letters and GPA fluffing.