Check out this article in yesterday’s New York Times.

 A prominent education professor at Harvard has begun leading “reflection” seminars at three highly selective colleges, which he hopes will push undergraduates to think more deeply about the connection between their educations and aspirations.

The article goes on to say:

“Is this what a Harvard education is for?” asked Professor Gardner, who is teaching the seminars at Harvard, Amherst and Colby with colleagues. “Are Ivy League schools simply becoming selecting mechanisms for Wall Street?”

President Marx gets a nice quote:

Universities are so concerned about this issue that some — Amherst, Tufts, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, for example — have expanded public service fellowships and internships. “We’re in the business of graduating people who will make the world better in some way,” said Anthony Marx, Amherst’s president. “That’s what justifies the expense of the education.”

It also mentions the steps Amherst and other schools are taking to replace all loans with grants:

This year, Tufts announced that it would pay off college loans for graduates who chose public service jobs. And officials at Harvard, Penn, Amherst and a number of other colleges say one reason they have begun emphasizing grants instead of loans in financial aid is so students do not feel pressured by their debts to pursue lucrative careers.

In all, definitely a nice article showcasing the progress we’ve made in this area.  However, as Ben Goldfarb ‘09 wrote a few weeks back, it’s still a struggle.  Should we turn down careers in finance?  Is public service all it’s built up to be?  Who says that Wall Street is a bad place?  Does morality really dictate a job in the non-profit sector?

Like a bunch of you out there, I struggle with some of these questions all the time.  So I’m interested to see what this “reflection seminar” is all about.  Anyone know when or where it will be held?  Any info in the comments section would be appreciated.