Veterans in the Ivy League

Veterans in the Ivy League February 11, 2012 There arent enough veterans in the Ivy League!  Ivy League admissions is all about diversity from diversity of ethnic background to diversity of socioeconomic background to diversity of specialized talent to diversity of experience. And what 20-something in these United States brings a greater diversity of experience to an Ivy League campus than a veteran of Iraq and/or Afghanistan? A recruited basketball player? A talented oboist? An African American flutist? Dont get us wrong all of these skills and backgrounds are nice and can add to the rich diversity of an Ivy League school but such a background probably isnt as compelling as the experience of fighting for our country in a foreign war. More veterans need to be admitted into the eight Ivy League colleges. Step up your efforts, Ancient Eight! Follow the example of Columbia (photo from The Dartmouth)! These veterans have served our nation and its now time for our nation to serve them. Ivy League campuses need to open their doors to more veterans. If they think theyve admitted enough, theyre mistaken. According to Business Week, Princeton University said it has four veterans enrolled! Four! Shame on Princeton! Brown has 12. Shame on Brown! Dartmouth, we know youre trying to increase the number of veterans on campus. Your former president, James Wright, is perhaps the biggest advocate higher education has for opening up doors in higher education to returning soldiers. Yale says that it has filled 13 of the 50 slots under the Yellow Ribbon Program to provide financial aid from the federal government to soldiers. Whats going on with the other 37 slots, Yale? Fill them! Follow in Columbias lead. Columbia has enrolled 459 veterans since 2009, according to the Business Week article on veterans in the Ivy League published subsequent to this blog. And Harvard has enrolled about 250 during that same time frame.