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 & creatively & 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 & counsellors who demand perfect grades & culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw first-hand 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 & measures of success in order to forge their own paths He features"es from real students & graduates he has corresponded with over the years candidly exposing where the system is broken & offering clear solutions on how to fix it Excellent Sheep is likely to makea 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)