Rankings and Unconditional Love

Last week, we had a staff meeting that I was expecting to be much like other staff meetings- that is to say, not incredibly exciting. I knew we were going to be talking about rankings, because the Financial Times just released their 2011 Global MBA rankings, so I was expecting it to be a strategically-themed meeting about how to further boost our rankings.

However, I was so pleasantly surprised by the meeting, and found that it gave me some food for thought. First of all, although Georgetown did not move in its international ranking (it held strong as the 38th-ranked MBA program internationally, which, in my opinion, is not too shabby!) it jumped in domestic rankings from 19th to 17th, so that is certainly something to be proud of. The interim dean of the program asked if the students had had any sort of reaction to the news, and the general consensus among those who deal with the students the most is that they couldn't care less. That got me thinking about what effect, if any, rankings have among members of the student body. The Assistant Dean of Student Services said that, when the students are satisfied with what they are getting out of the program and feel like it is working for them, they largely ignore the rankings. It is only if they have just gotten back an assignment that they feel has been graded unfairly or have perhaps had a difficult interaction with a classmate that they gripe about rankings.

I then thought about my own undergraduate experience at Georgetown, since I can't claim to have had a particularly strong reaction to our MBA program's ranking jumping (even though I work in the program and a change in ranking is a reflection of not only my work but the work of my entire team, I don't consider myself to be someone who is overly obsessed with rankings). I remember when I was a senior in high school and was weighing the pros and cons of each of the schools I was considering. Sure, all of the schools I was looking at were what one could call "top tier" or "very selective" schools, but rankings certainly did not play into my decision about which school to attend. It was when I came to campus one rainy weekend in April for GAAP weekend that I first truly fell in love with Georgetown, not as a place I had visited so many times as a child thanks to my dad's continued involvement in the University, but as a place that I could see becoming my home. Like I said, ranking did not factor into my decision at all, and once I set foot on campus as a student, any sliver of concern with rankings melted away instantly.

In short, I think that your educational experience is what you make of it. Yes, it certainly helps to be surrounded by world-class faculty, staff and students, with a rich variety of course offerings to choose from that enable you to truly grow, but I think that your educational experience largely comes down to what you make of it. For me, Georgetown was a special place because of how accessible the faculty and staff were, giving me the sense that my professors saw me not as merely a number, btu as a fresh young mind that was ready and willing to be shaped under their tutelage. Even members of the administration, most notably Dr. Daniel Porterfield, a close family friend, take such an individualized interest in students that you marvel how they can be so high-functioning in their jobs when they devote so much time to individual students. I counted myself lucky to be surrounded every day by superior students (the first week of classes freshman year was truly humbling for me, as I realized that I was surrounded by high achievers, some higher than myself), but some of these students became my closest friends. So many people touched my life at Georgetown in a variety of ways, and I feel so lucky to have been surrounded by such an exemplary group of people.

I often got the feeling at basketball games that I was a part of something bigger than the individual. The coming together of the University community in support of a common goal (no matter how lackluster the student section may have been) was an intoxicating feeling, and I found myself stopping for a moment to soak in all of the Hoya love that saturated Verizon. I think that this spirit also extends to the alumni community. One of the things that initially attracted me to Georgetown was the exceptionally passionate and connected alumni base, which includes, but is certainly not limited to, my dad and his closest Georgetown friends. To see the boyish grin spread across my dad's face each time he sets foot on campus or munches on a Tombs burger and Tombs Ale is enough to bring the happiest of tears to my eyes, because that alumni loyalty is not something that you find at every school.

I took a different route to work on this Saturday morning, since GUTS buses weren't running early enough to get me to work. As I walked up P St. towards campus, I had a pang of nostalgia for the times that I used to walk regularly through Georgetown. I walked on P St. so many times this summer as I walked to and from the pool from my house. When I passed by that house this morning, I thought of all of the happy memories that I have from the few months (the beginning of last June through the beginning of August) that I lived there. Then, as I entered main campus and gazed at the spires of Healy, I felt such an overwhelming amount of unconditional love for the place, and the people that I associate with it, that has enriched my life more than I ever thought possible. Since it was so early on a Saturday morning, campus was completely silent, and I was hard-pressed to find anyone else walking around, so it was kind of like I had campus all to myself...and it was oddly comforting. Go ahead and laugh at me for yet another sappy Georgetown moment, but I know that, during my four years at Georgetown, I, and all of my friends, came to embody the spirit of cura personalis. In fact, in my current job, when people ask me what I like about Georgetown, cura personalis, the education of the whole person, always makes the list. Nothing I could say, though, could ever fully put into words everything that my time at Georgetown has meant to me. I feel lucky every day that this is where I went to school and where I continue to work. Who knows, maybe I'll turn into, as Lauren and I have discussed, a "lifer"!!!!