---
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title: "Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life"
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---

# Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life

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A groundbreaking manifesto about what our nation’s top schools should be—but aren’t—providing: “The ex-Yale professor effectively skewers elite colleges, their brainy but soulless students (those ‘sheep’), pushy parents, and admissions mayhem” ( People ). As a professor at Yale, William Deresiewicz saw something that troubled him deeply. His students, some of the nation’s brightest minds, were adrift when it came to the big questions: how to think critically and creatively and how to find a sense of purpose. Now he argues that elite colleges are turning out conformists without a compass. Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale’s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to “practical” subjects like economics, students are losing the ability to think independently. It is essential, says Deresiewicz, that college be a time for self-discovery when students can establish their own values and measures of success in order to forge their own paths. He features quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and offering clear solutions on how to fix it. “ Excellent Sheep is likely to make…a lasting mark….He takes aim at just about the entirety of upper-middle-class life in America….Mr. Deresiewicz’s book is packed full of what he wants more of in American life: passionate weirdness” ( The New York Times ).

Review: Profoundly important book - As an admittedly privileged parent of two young girls (ages 4 and 6, to be exact), I have been on a quixotic mission to figure out what the ideal education looks like for this generation: Is it the best prep school money can buy? Homeschooling? Unschooling? Montessori? Waldorf? STEM-led? Boarding school? Charter school? Free online-based Khan Academy or Stanford High for 36k/year? What about the non academic components of extracurriculars, and how does this marry with early studies? More elusive yet has been the question of what early education is supposed to manifest when they reach young adulthood. Is it a ticket to the Ivies? An engineering college? What does that ideal college look like? Fundamentally, how can I as a parent ensure that I have successfully guided my daughters to a juncture where they may take the reigns in the quest for their own self-actualization? Does college even help with that, these days? More still, have I accomplished this enough in my own life to ensure I'm modeling "success" well enough for them? With every question came the growing unease that no school or system seemed to hold the answer, and that I wasn't capable of figuring it out on my end. Deresiewicz's book has not, unsurprisingly, answered all of these questions. It has, however, provided an excellent trail guide of what to expect at most Ivy League/elite institutions. The book is a much-needed, refreshing spanking of these universities as it speaks to how they've contributed to the morass of society's brilliant but confused and self-congratulatory "leaders." They have indeed bred a group of people who are largely capable but brittle, owing to the lack of time and guidance required to cultivate a sense of self. A lot of books provide great info on how to package and train your child like a show poodle to get into these elite institutions... but few of the authors are standing at the "goal" post explaining the negative consequences of playing the game. All parents I know understand that marching up the mountain sucks, but few like Deresiewicz have critiqued the view at the finish line. Fewer still highlight the obvious: the "finish line" of getting admissions is really just the start. My only initial criticism was that towards the end, the author came across as a bit like Holden Caufield deriding everything as "phony." Considering he too is shaped and moulded by the same privilege he condemns, it came across as somewhat hypocritical. My initial impression was that Deresiewicz had created a bit of a strawman in imagining this demographic to be so monstrously unlikeable as an easy way to puff it down. It wasn't until I watched the 2014 "20 Questions" video of the author at Harvard that I realized his analysis was spot-on. The panel's tone deaf, ardent defense of the status quo ("why can't investment bankers be soul searchers too," and, "why should professors be responsible in a "no souls left behind" project since we only have 4 years with students?") really proves his point. Scarily still was the audience's uproarious applause. What I first mistook as a disingenuous "not like other Ivy Leaguers"-attitude ended up being actually true: he's not. Moreover, he proved beautifully why this is a good thing, and the heads of Harvard proved why their farts don't smell like roses. The book and subsequent presentation really shook the notion that every parent should endeavor to send their child to such schools. Perhaps it's glib to take the anecdotal soundbites of these video presentations and extrapolate a broader picture, but when I explored these gate keepers of the most prestigious schools, too few of them come across as worthy of emulation. His book helped me drop my belief that where my children attend school is a reflection of my parenting (and by extension, that the better the school, the better the job I'll have done). While I was before dead set on both children using their college investment as a means to a career, I now align with the belief that it should help them become better people capable of creating a more just world. Instead of implementing a rigorous curriculum with the marker of success being a "5" on their AP tests, I'll be implementing more qualitative benchmarks: how did the material change their broader view? Did any of the material have that "aha" moment of, "this is about me and my place in the world?" I will learn to expose them to failure and comfort them after, rather than doing my best to shield them from it--another U-turn in my parenting philosophy. While it's embarrassing to admit that I did dabble with thoughts of what it means to map a child's future such that they had reasonable assurances of a T20 college admission in today's hyper-competitive environment, this book has convinced me otherwise. I understand why parents engage in this behavior, though, given that it's the safest kind of parenting. I too wanted the assurance that I as their earliest guide in life had led them to a path of success. I now see the fact that this kind of curation is both possible and successful is representation of the system's failures. While I would get that parenting gold star, it would likely be at the expense of my child's own agency--a crucial, yet overlooked thing. Moreover, it's learning the painfully uncomfortable point that what is best for a child--risk taking, failure, and u-turns--is antithetical to getting admissions to a top college. And the former needs to take priority over the latter, every time, Princeton be damned. Having said this, I don't know if an LAC is something worthy of promotion. In light of events like Kieran Battarchariya getting expelled for questioning the existence of microaggressions at UVA, I do worry about universities becoming less tolerant when their version of "truth" gets critiqued by ignorant students who need educating now more than ever; not censoring. It's my deepest hope that amazing schools still serve as a place where students can freely exchange thoughts, ideas, and questions... but the current climate is such that I do not take it as a given. "Excellent Sheep" is a book that I'll be re-reading over the years. In a sea of pop-psychology parenting books and college guides, I haven't found any to serve as a decent compass. This is one such book. I'm so grateful to the author for not necessarily giving me answers, but, as any good teacher does, teaching me how to ask better questions. Great book and a must-read for any other well-meaning but misguided parent like myself.
Review: Strong Medicine - This is an interesting book written by a former Yale English professor who now works as a full-time writer. Its subject is made clear by the title: elite education today attracts and grooms 'excellent sheep'. Students are majoring in Economics rather than following their 'bliss' or indulging their 'passion'. Since radix malorum est cupiditas this represents a misuse of potential talent. It results in anxiety, confusion and soullessness. The solution is to abandon aristocracy and meritocracy and, for a change, try democracy. We should pay much more attention to class than to race or gender. We should pay much more attention to teaching than to research and we should pay much more attention to general education than to microspecialties. Some have criticized WD for focusing on these matters from an 'English perspective' but English is, for good or ill, the center of the humanities and the humanities are the center of undergraduate education. I would suggest, however, that his faith in great authors, great books and great ideas (all of which I share) are far harder to inculcate at a time when the English professoriate is likely to be more interested in gendered food spaces than in George Eliot. He uses Middlemarch as an example of a fount of wisdom. He is absolutely correct; I agree with his every word. However, Middlemarch is 613 pp. of dense text. Anyone who would assign it today would do so knowing that nearly all of the students would simply not read it. Meanwhile, the corporatist administrators would be urging the faculty to avoid expensive textbooks whenever possible and directing their students to sources available gratis on the internet. In other words, the situation is far worse than WD, a product and denizen of the ivies, appreciates. The ivies are his subject, however, but then he advises those who would seek an authentic education at a reasonable price to transfer from the ivies to an honors program at a public flagship institution. The book is part analysis of our current plight (much of it very cogent, in my opinion) and part of it is 'self-help'—self-help for students and self-help for our society. There the tone is much more hortatory. Much of the advice is good. Note that this is not a scholarly book, though part of it is built upon scholarly materials. There is no index; there is no bibliography; there are no page numbers to accompany the references to secondary materials. This makes the book more 'direct', more 'readable', more 'accessible' and more personal. The f-word is used on several occasions to reinforce the author's anger and frustration over our current situation. I like the fact that the author is willing to entertain the usefulness of scholarship often labeled 'conservative' as well as the notion that some of our recent prominent democrat politicians have been as great at failing as republicans. I think that one of the most telling points is the fact that a student seeking an authentic education today will by and large have to seek it for himself. The current academic structures militate against both quality and depth. He is quite right to report Menand's trenchant observation that faculty today are largely unequipped to develop a broad and deep curriculum because they would sit at the starting gate waiting for the students to tell them what they want. Certainly the corporatist administrators care for little more than what the students want because that will get them what they want: the tuition dollars to spend on expanded bureaucracies and grotesque administrative salaries. Bottom line: highly recommended for anyone contemplating an ivy-league education, but perforce less useful for the vast majority of American citizens who will pursue higher education at second and third tier regional public universities.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #20,908 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #18 in Philosophy & Social Aspects of Education #94 in Higher & Continuing Education #414 in Sociology (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,206 Reviews |

## Images

![Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71dBZhHx53L.jpg)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Profoundly important book
*by C***C on April 10, 2021*

As an admittedly privileged parent of two young girls (ages 4 and 6, to be exact), I have been on a quixotic mission to figure out what the ideal education looks like for this generation: Is it the best prep school money can buy? Homeschooling? Unschooling? Montessori? Waldorf? STEM-led? Boarding school? Charter school? Free online-based Khan Academy or Stanford High for 36k/year? What about the non academic components of extracurriculars, and how does this marry with early studies? More elusive yet has been the question of what early education is supposed to manifest when they reach young adulthood. Is it a ticket to the Ivies? An engineering college? What does that ideal college look like? Fundamentally, how can I as a parent ensure that I have successfully guided my daughters to a juncture where they may take the reigns in the quest for their own self-actualization? Does college even help with that, these days? More still, have I accomplished this enough in my own life to ensure I'm modeling "success" well enough for them? With every question came the growing unease that no school or system seemed to hold the answer, and that I wasn't capable of figuring it out on my end. Deresiewicz's book has not, unsurprisingly, answered all of these questions. It has, however, provided an excellent trail guide of what to expect at most Ivy League/elite institutions. The book is a much-needed, refreshing spanking of these universities as it speaks to how they've contributed to the morass of society's brilliant but confused and self-congratulatory "leaders." They have indeed bred a group of people who are largely capable but brittle, owing to the lack of time and guidance required to cultivate a sense of self. A lot of books provide great info on how to package and train your child like a show poodle to get into these elite institutions... but few of the authors are standing at the "goal" post explaining the negative consequences of playing the game. All parents I know understand that marching up the mountain sucks, but few like Deresiewicz have critiqued the view at the finish line. Fewer still highlight the obvious: the "finish line" of getting admissions is really just the start. My only initial criticism was that towards the end, the author came across as a bit like Holden Caufield deriding everything as "phony." Considering he too is shaped and moulded by the same privilege he condemns, it came across as somewhat hypocritical. My initial impression was that Deresiewicz had created a bit of a strawman in imagining this demographic to be so monstrously unlikeable as an easy way to puff it down. It wasn't until I watched the 2014 "20 Questions" video of the author at Harvard that I realized his analysis was spot-on. The panel's tone deaf, ardent defense of the status quo ("why can't investment bankers be soul searchers too," and, "why should professors be responsible in a "no souls left behind" project since we only have 4 years with students?") really proves his point. Scarily still was the audience's uproarious applause. What I first mistook as a disingenuous "not like other Ivy Leaguers"-attitude ended up being actually true: he's not. Moreover, he proved beautifully why this is a good thing, and the heads of Harvard proved why their farts don't smell like roses. The book and subsequent presentation really shook the notion that every parent should endeavor to send their child to such schools. Perhaps it's glib to take the anecdotal soundbites of these video presentations and extrapolate a broader picture, but when I explored these gate keepers of the most prestigious schools, too few of them come across as worthy of emulation. His book helped me drop my belief that where my children attend school is a reflection of my parenting (and by extension, that the better the school, the better the job I'll have done). While I was before dead set on both children using their college investment as a means to a career, I now align with the belief that it should help them become better people capable of creating a more just world. Instead of implementing a rigorous curriculum with the marker of success being a "5" on their AP tests, I'll be implementing more qualitative benchmarks: how did the material change their broader view? Did any of the material have that "aha" moment of, "this is about me and my place in the world?" I will learn to expose them to failure and comfort them after, rather than doing my best to shield them from it--another U-turn in my parenting philosophy. While it's embarrassing to admit that I did dabble with thoughts of what it means to map a child's future such that they had reasonable assurances of a T20 college admission in today's hyper-competitive environment, this book has convinced me otherwise. I understand why parents engage in this behavior, though, given that it's the safest kind of parenting. I too wanted the assurance that I as their earliest guide in life had led them to a path of success. I now see the fact that this kind of curation is both possible and successful is representation of the system's failures. While I would get that parenting gold star, it would likely be at the expense of my child's own agency--a crucial, yet overlooked thing. Moreover, it's learning the painfully uncomfortable point that what is best for a child--risk taking, failure, and u-turns--is antithetical to getting admissions to a top college. And the former needs to take priority over the latter, every time, Princeton be damned. Having said this, I don't know if an LAC is something worthy of promotion. In light of events like Kieran Battarchariya getting expelled for questioning the existence of microaggressions at UVA, I do worry about universities becoming less tolerant when their version of "truth" gets critiqued by ignorant students who need educating now more than ever; not censoring. It's my deepest hope that amazing schools still serve as a place where students can freely exchange thoughts, ideas, and questions... but the current climate is such that I do not take it as a given. "Excellent Sheep" is a book that I'll be re-reading over the years. In a sea of pop-psychology parenting books and college guides, I haven't found any to serve as a decent compass. This is one such book. I'm so grateful to the author for not necessarily giving me answers, but, as any good teacher does, teaching me how to ask better questions. Great book and a must-read for any other well-meaning but misguided parent like myself.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Strong Medicine
*by R***Z on April 22, 2018*

This is an interesting book written by a former Yale English professor who now works as a full-time writer. Its subject is made clear by the title: elite education today attracts and grooms 'excellent sheep'. Students are majoring in Economics rather than following their 'bliss' or indulging their 'passion'. Since radix malorum est cupiditas this represents a misuse of potential talent. It results in anxiety, confusion and soullessness. The solution is to abandon aristocracy and meritocracy and, for a change, try democracy. We should pay much more attention to class than to race or gender. We should pay much more attention to teaching than to research and we should pay much more attention to general education than to microspecialties. Some have criticized WD for focusing on these matters from an 'English perspective' but English is, for good or ill, the center of the humanities and the humanities are the center of undergraduate education. I would suggest, however, that his faith in great authors, great books and great ideas (all of which I share) are far harder to inculcate at a time when the English professoriate is likely to be more interested in gendered food spaces than in George Eliot. He uses Middlemarch as an example of a fount of wisdom. He is absolutely correct; I agree with his every word. However, Middlemarch is 613 pp. of dense text. Anyone who would assign it today would do so knowing that nearly all of the students would simply not read it. Meanwhile, the corporatist administrators would be urging the faculty to avoid expensive textbooks whenever possible and directing their students to sources available gratis on the internet. In other words, the situation is far worse than WD, a product and denizen of the ivies, appreciates. The ivies are his subject, however, but then he advises those who would seek an authentic education at a reasonable price to transfer from the ivies to an honors program at a public flagship institution. The book is part analysis of our current plight (much of it very cogent, in my opinion) and part of it is 'self-help'—self-help for students and self-help for our society. There the tone is much more hortatory. Much of the advice is good. Note that this is not a scholarly book, though part of it is built upon scholarly materials. There is no index; there is no bibliography; there are no page numbers to accompany the references to secondary materials. This makes the book more 'direct', more 'readable', more 'accessible' and more personal. The f-word is used on several occasions to reinforce the author's anger and frustration over our current situation. I like the fact that the author is willing to entertain the usefulness of scholarship often labeled 'conservative' as well as the notion that some of our recent prominent democrat politicians have been as great at failing as republicans. I think that one of the most telling points is the fact that a student seeking an authentic education today will by and large have to seek it for himself. The current academic structures militate against both quality and depth. He is quite right to report Menand's trenchant observation that faculty today are largely unequipped to develop a broad and deep curriculum because they would sit at the starting gate waiting for the students to tell them what they want. Certainly the corporatist administrators care for little more than what the students want because that will get them what they want: the tuition dollars to spend on expanded bureaucracies and grotesque administrative salaries. Bottom line: highly recommended for anyone contemplating an ivy-league education, but perforce less useful for the vast majority of American citizens who will pursue higher education at second and third tier regional public universities.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I love this book
*by R***N on October 11, 2014*

Here is the review of this book I just posted on my www.racebannon.com blog site (in short, I love this book): It tugs at my convictions to offer a great review for a book that I just finished reading, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite, by William Deresiewicz. There is a tendency that all of us succumb to that prompts us to discount an entire work of writing if amid the words lies anything that runs counter to our opinions. Such is the case with this book and I am proud that I have resisted that tendency because the book is, frankly, marvelous. The main contention of the book is that the higher education systems, in particular the elite systems represented by the likes of Harvard and Yale, have developed over time into systems that produce graduates focused on the wrong things and proliferating an out of touch elite class. I have no bones to pick with that premise. The arguments Deresiewicz lays out in the book are compelling and convincing and rings true alongside many anecdotal experiences I have had when confronted with people educated at such institutions. And yes, there are certainly exceptions to every rule, including this one, since I do have friends educated at these universities who are anything but focused on the wrong things or out of touch. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be the norm. But to be fair to those elite universities and their graduates, I have seen much the same misguided focus amid graduates from much less esteemed universities as well. While Deresiewicz focuses primarily on elite universities, he does also point out that the faults in the system have trickled down into university and college institutions at virtually every level. So where do I diverge from the arguments in the book as I alluded to at the beginning of this review? I disagree with the author when he poses his argument, mostly implied throughout the book, that everyone should attend college. As anyone who has read my book, The Art of Self Education: How to Get a Quality Education for Personal and Professional Success Without Formal Schooling, or any of my other writings on the topic knows, I believe that while college is absolutely an appropriate path for some people, it is not necessarily the appropriate path for others. I stand by my belief that we must value education attained in many ways. And maybe the author doesn't entirely disagree with my stance. I can't be sure. Perhaps he does realize that a good educational option for many is a post-high school education attained in many ways, either with higher education schooling a part of it or not part of it at all. I'm going on what I perceived as I read the book and maybe if the author and I sat down over coffee we'd realize we're more in agreement than disagreement on that. Regardless, the entirety of the book is so wonderful that I must set aside that nit pick and strongly and vehemently suggest you read the book. The writing is among the best nonfiction writing I've read in a long time. Deresiewicz crafts his language so eloquently that it often approaches poetic. I found myself highlighting passage after passage because I was so taken with how the thought was adroitly expressed. I'm likely to quote Deresiewicz often in the future. Deresiewicz is a skilled writer with a mastery of language many working writers aspire to. So reading the book is a joy. But the most important thing I feel the book does for the reader is foster a sense of why education is so important and, even more importantly, what kind of education is vital to considering oneself well educated. The author hammers home the idea that we should be encouraging liberal arts educations more than we do, a sentiment with which I agree wholeheartedly. Anyway, do yourself a favor. Buy this book. Read it. Revel in its well-crafted language. And most importantly, let his passion for a liberal arts education seep into your pores and infect you with the same passionate embrace of self-improvement through education. You'll be glad you took my advice.

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