Jeff Young at the Chronicle of Higher Edumacation has a long piece exploring these “alternative networks” and how they’re becoming more useful than the old college bond. By “alternative”, he means an alternative to college, writing as if college is the norm and these other bonds are just secondary.
But the story is filled by the bragging of the cool people that some guy met at some cool parties. Okay. I understand this. But it turns out that the cool parties cost $3000 for a weekend. Let me repeat that, “$3000 FOR A WEEKEND!” Good old college is only a bit over $2000 for a week and that’s before any financial so-called aid. It’s like the party planners looked at college and decided to revise and extend the theme.
Young writes about the invitation:
“I felt very flattered,” he says. “Like, wow, you think I’m awesome.” Then it mentioned the price tag: $3,000. “I was like, That’s ridiculous! Why would anyone pay $3,000 for a party? I thought they were just suckering all these people into this.”
He skipped that event but came to regret the decision after friends who went regaled him with stories afterward. Bill Clinton was there. So was Sean Parker, who founded the influential music-sharing service Napster. Mr. Staton started saving his money for the next partycruise,…
Young goes on to explore the idea that maybe perhaps today’s youth will get their education from free online courses and save their money for $3000 parties. That would be bad for subscribers to the Chronicle.
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