Would Nietzsche Have Gone to Harvard?

All my life I have deemed it a formative step in becoming a worthy human and intellectual in attending an elite school, such as Harvard, Yale, and the like. However, my idol and hero Friedrich Nietzsche would tell me that that conclusion was fallacious, and it would be a faux pas to go to an elite school. I believe that Nietzsche would argue that society tells you that the best people go to Harvard, and you better attend. Society, College Board, Princeton and US News and World tell you that you need an exceedingly high SAT score (which by the way doesn’t necessarily measure your aptitude as a student, it measures your test taking, mathematics, reading and writing skills, and how good you are at taking the SAT), high G.P.A., and to be involved in numerous school organizations. Nietzsche would say that yes, all that is fine and good, and if you have achieved those that is an accomplishment, but doing all that for the sake of trying to get into an elite school is not being the Übermensch (Overman, and Superman are English translations). Granted, Nietzsche attended The University of Bonn, and was a professor at the University of Bassel, which were and may still be top schools in Germany, but the academic culture and application process were immensely different.

Nietzsche, in his quest to become the Übermensch, were he born today, would not have gone to the Harvards of the world. He would have said that society tells one that only the best go there, and Nietzsche would not have had any of it. I believe that Nietzsche would have spent an immense amount of time searching for the proper college, and would have, most likely, settled for a small, liberal arts school in a place where academics were a serious part of the culture. Nietzsche at 18 was resentful of religion, and enthralled by music and philology. I believe that Nietzsche would have looked the middle to top tier liberal arts colleges, not the elite ones, for that would be going with the herd mentality. He would have proven that just because you don’t go to a Harvard, you are not an idiot, and there are other factors that may prevent one from being Harvard material. Note that he had some serious family issues, and began to drink (on Sundays!) at about age sixteen, so his grades would not have been the best. Actually, Nietzsche may not have taken any AP courses, unless he absolutely had to.

In an analysis of Nietzsche Übermensch, I claim that had he been alive today, and applying to colleges (as I shall be doing in a few months, a process I have been dreading my entire life; it has been an obsession, and the bain of my existence for some time now) he would have applied to a mildly prestigious liberal arts college. He would have gone on to graduate school, probably not at an elite institution either, and would silently mock others who did, as the went along with the herd, as he sat back, and became the Übermensch.