Our son, Carl, was about to graduate from Milwaukee’s Juneau High School in 2000, so we began the required college tours the previous summer. That led us to Beloit College and the University of Chicago.
When we got to the campus tour at Beloit College, our college guide stopped in front of the building housing the anthropology department.
“Have you seen the Indiana Jones movie?” she asked. “The Indiana Jones character is based upon someone right here at Beloit College.”
This sounded pretty impressive until we got to the University of Chicago.
“Have you seen the Indiana Jones movie?” our tour guide asked. “The Indiana Jones character is based upon someone right here at the University of Chicago.”
Carl and I had difficulty holding in our laughter. Our tour guide was somewhat perplexed by our reaction.
But she did Beloit one better. “Do you see this building here? This is where Indiana Jones jumped out a window to get away from adoring students.” Sure enough, I recognized the building from the movie. But were either institution even partly correct in their assertions?
In the case of the University of Chicago, I find no direct evidence of a real archeologist that would match that connection. However, that university building was used for one of the Indiana Jones movies, and the TV series, Young Indiana Jones, does have Jones studying at Chicago.
Beloit College comes closer to having a real life archeologist who matches the Indiana Jones character, Roy Chapman Andrews. Andrews attended Beloit College, and, yes, he carried a six shooter and fired a few shots in his archeology digs across China and around the world. Chapman spent more time digging for dinosaurs than golden idols. But gold glitters more in the movies.
Was Andrews the model for Indiana Jones? Lucas and Spielberg state that Jones is a composite character. Other archeologists of the time fit the model.
Colleges and Universities will do anything to sell their institutions to prospective students including evoking star power, which has nothing to do with the quality of the education offered.
Education professors state we should not judge our primary and secondary schools by the facilities offered. Then why do their institutions give these fabulous tours touting their wonderful facilities? If you want more freshman applications, have a winning football team.
A common approach is for colleges to do everything to get a higher ranking on the U.S News and World Report college ranking. We watched one parent checking off Beloit right on his copy of the magazine. Check marks were registered for the colleges ranked above Beloit. (The magazine stops printing at the end of the year. Will their college ranking continue?)
Students can quickly get lost in a large university which claims to offer everything. However, students sometimes attend smaller institutions only to discover these colleges don’t offer a major they are interested in. Should students go away for college or commute?
An undergraduate college ranking may mean very little. No one will care if your BA is from Bob and Roy’s College of Good Times if you ultimately get your PhD from Harvard. Instead, ask some important questions. What is the dropout rate? What is their track record in getting students into graduate school? How do graduates rate their own college experience?
Ultimately Carl did not apply to Beloit. He was accepted at the University of Chicago but elected to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Indiana Jones did not factor in his decision.
