The first official Dartmouth students began their studies in 1769. Four years later they were unleashed upon the world, ready and willing to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge they had acquired. This knowledge could be used for any purpose they could dream up. They would be the ones to cure society's ills, to better the lives of people at home and abroad, to ensure human health and happiness for all eternity. The possibilities of these graduates to affect the world for the better were endless, and society could not have been happier to accept these young go-getters into its waiting arms.
The graduates decided to use their wealth of knowledge in pursuit of the wealth of money offered by the waiting arms of the Goldman Sachs representative.
And so it began many years ago. If it had not been for the decisions of that small class in 1773, then maybe we would have more free will in our future pursuits. Maybe we would be able to take up the fight for society to make the world a better place. But we're helpless; our career paths have been dictated since the beginning thanks to the selfishness and shortsightedness of a few guys long since dead and buried.
Or at least that's the best explanation of which I can think that avoids attributing the cause of the booming corporate recruitment business on campus directly to students. But really, what is the cause? Why do so many of the nation's best and brightest (and, of course, I use "nation" as a synonym for Dartmouth since the smartest young people in the country invariably come here) use their gifts in pursuit of riches instead of social good? Well, one thing's for sure, it's not because of any lifelong goals. I can't even remember all the times I've talked to seniors pursuing corporate posts about their reasons for doing so and heard pathetic responses like, "Uh, just 'cause," or "I don't know." Not once has anyone told me that they want to participate in this line of work.
Maybe a reason is that money is money, and there's no quicker way of coming across lots of it than selling oneself out immediately upon graduation instead of putting up with the drudgery of further education. But I have a hard time believing that money is that big a deal to Dartmouth students. After all, for most people it wouldn't be a problem turning to Daddy's checkbook when it comes time for further educational and lifestyle expenses. The most obvious explanation to me seems simply to be the ease with which one can acquire the position of corporate whore.
I should qualify what I mean by "ease," since the means to the end do not come easily. But setting aside the physical mechanism of becoming a cog in an enormous corporation's gears, the energy necessary to commit to the line of work to which most of one's peers are also committing is practically nothing. In other words, becoming the newest member of the Solomon Smith Barney team is not a lifelong goal or a meaningful calling one has dreamed of and pursued for a lifetime; it is a job for the sake of a job to keep from having to expend the effort of thinking of something toward which your skills and interests could be better applied.
When understood in that sense, the phenomenon of corporate recruiting really doesn't seem like all that big a deal; it's just a symptom of the underlying campus apathy. I've noticed examples of this apathy ever since arriving on campus. It can take the form of tons and tons of people spending hours interviewing and recruiting but no one volunteering 10 minutes to do community service. The frustration with the state of affairs, as was pointed out to me, is manifested in activist organizations that exist simply for the sake of activism due to the lack of interest in anything on campus. And trying to find the causes of and solutions for apathy is another whole barrel of monkeys that I'm going to keep away from for now (and which is probably too permanent a force to warrant meddling anyway).
I'm not by any stretch of the imagination condemning the phenomenon; after all, I can feel myself being sucked into the vortex already and I don't really mind. I have no moral jurisdiction in this case. But that doesn't make working at some faceless corporation the dream job; it just makes it convenient, easier than thinking of something else I could do with myself. It would just be a continuation of the mentality here. So I, like everyone else, accept it and will consciously pursue it, and the problem, though openly recognized, will only grow because of its general acceptance.
Most people wouldn't even identify it as a problem; this no doubt includes the many '01 friends of mine who are finalizing their post-graduation careers as we speak. And it isn't a problem per se; after all, smart Dartmouth grads are taking advantage of those diplomas and striking it rich. But it is a symptom of the growing tolerance of apathy. It may even signal Dartmouth's slow but steady entrenchment as a corporate brothel as more people see that they can use their fancy education to pursue the money and fewer decide to use their smarts to pursue careers directly benefiting humanity. But either way, sign me up.
