Ep 5. Food fight

Malcolm Gladwell compares Vassar College and Bowdoin College to discuss on the college’s focus on providing equal opportunities for low-income students. The ranking and tuition fees are about the same, but Gladwell says that the luxurious food at Bowdoin College is a “moral problem”. The ‘food’ represents the ‘amenities’ provided by the school. There is a trade-off between offering financial aid for low-income students and providing high quality amenities. Gladwell creates a clear image that Vassar College prioritizes on the opportunities while Bowdoin College prioritizes on the amenities. So, Gladwell makes a point that since Vassar is better at “opening the doors for low-income students”, we shouldn’t go to Bowdoin nor let our kids go there.

Yet, I thought that Gladwell was too biased that Bowdoin is a college uninterested in equal opportunities. He should have looked through the financial aid system of Bowdoin College, not just how Bowdoin College prepares high quality foods. As I was listening to the podcast, I felt that Gladwell interviewed the Vassar College in various aspects (students, financial planner, etc), while he only talked about the foods of the Bowdoin College.

The podcast is too vague in order to apply the major problem of limited opportunities for low-income students to Korea. Students generally cannot catch up at school just by gaining financial aid because Korean private schools that offer high quality education inevitably cause these students to need hakwons. Also, some scholarships require the student to have a high grade. I understand that these kind of scholarships could motivate students to study harder, but realistically in Korea, this cannot work. In KMLA, students see these kind of scholarships as a tool to prove their intelligence, not a tool to support them financially.

As we discussed in class, like Catherine Hills, most people have values and recognition on equal opportunities. They know that America has a problem for not providing opportunities for poor, smart students. They know that we should give equal, "best education" to students from diverse backgrounds. However, when the students from the average or high-income class come to making choices, they become much more interested in facilities. Unlike other podcasts where almost everyone talked about the importance of having the awareness and insight, this podcast required these people with awareness to act accordingly.