The Sunday Read: ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Going to College’

hi my name is Joe Bernstein and I'm a. reporter on the Styles desk at the New. York Times this week's Sunday read is a. story I wrote for our magazine about a. 48-year-old man named Benjamin. Bulger and what makes Benjamin special. is that he is America's preeminent. Perpetual student that is he's someone. who collects college. degrees over the past 30 years he's.

received over a dozen. degrees they're from the world's most. prestigious. institutions Harvard Stanford and Yale. just to name a. few I had the same reaction as many. people when they hear about Benjamin for. the first. time why what would possess someone to. dedicate themselves to this kind of. life so last summer I decided to go to. Boston and ask Benjamin myself.

and talking to him is almost like. talking to a walking freshman. seminar we talked about union labor we. talked about cryptocurrency we talked. about the nature of bridges. International and Middle Eastern. diplomacy even Joon of. Arc and I asked him basically a 100. different. ways why can't you stop going to. college and his answer just kind of. stunned me in its. obviousness he told told me I love.

learning higher education as an. institution RIT large is so contested. today both politically and. culturally people take out enormous. amounts of debt and we know that a lot. of these degrees may not set you up for. life in the way we've been. told and so when universities have this. lofty rhetoric about learning how to. think and how to be a complete person.

but then most of their graduates are. just going to earn some ungodly starting. salary at a consulting firm manyways I. think it's natural to ask what is the. point is the only reason to go to. college to have that. credential is the actual content less. important than the paper that you're. given when you. graduate but then there's. Benjamin someone who has so fully.

immersed themselves in the ethos of the. elite. University deeper than anyone. else and maybe he just genuinely does. enjoy. learning and for someone like him maybe. this was the right kind of way to live. his. life what could we learn from. Benjamin so here's my article read by. Robert. petoff our producer is Jack ddoro our. music was written and performed by Aaron.

[Music]. Esposito Benjamin B Bulger has been to. Harvard and Stanford and Yale he has. been to Columbia and Dartmouth and. Oxford and Cambridge brandise and brown. overall buer has 14 Advanced degrees. plus an associates and a Bachelors some. of bulger's degrees took many years to.

complete such as a doctorate from the. Harvard Graduate School of Design others. have required rather less commitment low. residency mfas from Ashland University. and the University of Tampa for example. some produced microscopically specific. research like bulger's Harvard. dissertation deliberative Democratic. design participants perception of. strategy used for deliberative public. participation and the types of. participant satisfac action generated.

from deliberative public participation. in the design. process others have been more of a grab. bag such as a 2004 masters from. Dartmouth for which Bulger studied. Iranian sociology and the Poetry of. Robert. Frost he has degrees in International. Development creative non-fiction and. education he has studied conflict and. coexistence under Mari Fitz Duff the. Irish policy maker who mediated during. the troubles and American architecture.

under the eminent historian gwendelyn. Wright he is currently working remotely. toward a masters in writing for. performance from. Cambridge buer is a broad man with lank. whitish chin length hair and a dignified. profile like a figure from an antique. coin one of his favorite places is. Walden Pon he met his wife there on one. of his early morning constitutionals and. as he bounds upon learning and nature it.

is easy to imagine him back in Thor's. time with all the other polymathic. gentlemen perhaps by Lamplight stroking. their old timey facial hair considering. propositions about a wide range of. topics advancing theories of the life. well- lived and there's something almost. [Music].

he told me over lunch last year without. even a touch of irony I had been. pestering him for the better part of 2. days from every angle I could imagine to. offer some deeper explanation for his. life as a Perpetual student every time I. tried and failed I felt irredeemably. 21st century like an extra in historical. production who has forgotten to remove. his Apple watch I believe that people. are like trees he said I hope I am a.

sequoia I want to grow for as long as. possible and reach toward the highest. level of the. sky against a backdrop of pervasive. cynicism about the nature of higher. education it is tempting to dismiss a. figure like buer as the wacky byproduct. of an empty system then again buer has. run himself through that system over and. over and over again it continues to take. him in and he continues to return to it.

for more in fact there is reportedly. only one person in the United States. with more college degrees than buer and. the vast majority of those came from. universities within the state of. Michigan no disrespect to the Broncos. Eagles or Lakers because buer is just 48. and Michael Nicholson of kalamazo is 83. buer could surpass him according to back. of envelope math as soon as 200.

54 in other words buer is on a plausible. track to becoming the country's single. most credentialed. individual at which point perhaps he. could. rest a proposition no one more fully. embodies the nature of elite American. higher education today in all its. contradictions than a man who has spent. so much time being molded by it. following its incentives and. internalizing its value vales but what.

are those values exactly of course there. are the of cited traditional virtues of. spending several years set apart from. the rest of the world reading and. thinking you know the chance to expand. your mind challenge your preconceptions. and cultivate a passion for learning in. this Vision eager minds are called to. Great institutions to reach their. intellectual potential and we know these. institutions can perform this function. simply because they are called Harvard.

and. Yale that may be the way a prestigious. Education Works for some but probably. not most a 2023 survey of Harvard. seniors found that 41%. 41% were entering careers in consulting. or Finance the same percentage were. graduating to a starting salary of at. least. $110,000 more than double the national. median last year the most popular majors.

at Stanford were economics and computer. science the ultimate value of college. for many is the credential guaranteeing. a starting spot many rungs up the ladder. of worldly success nothing you learn at. an elite University is as important as. the line on your CV that youve paid. hundreds of thousands of dollars to type. and if you were feeling cynical You. could argue that the time you spend. applying to college will affect the rest.

of your life more than anything in. particular that happens while you're. there it is only when we forget our. learning that we begin to know thorough. observed famously after his experiment. in simple living though Rich of thorough. he went to Harvard in a much different. much opposed way one involving central. heat buer has spent the past three. decades conducting his own half-mad. American experiment in education.

he has drunk deeper at The Well of the. University than almost anyone. else what does he. [Music]. know in 1978 buer was two riding in a. Buick Riviera in Durand Michigan when. the car was hit by a drunken driver he. was basically fine but his parents were.

seriously injured and his mother Loretta. spent months in the hospital ending up. with a metal plate in one of her legs. she had to leave her job as a school. teacher bulger's parents marriage. disintegrated his mother could be. difficult and his father an engineer and. patent lawyer who represented himself. during the nasty divorce was emotionally. abusive buer and his mother began. splitting time between their comfortable. home near Flint and his grandfather. ramshackle Farm in Grand Haven which was.

so drafty they sometimes curled up by. the wood burning furnace bulger's mother. spent much of her money in the ensuing. custody battle and her stress was. worsened by her son's severe dyslexia in. third grade when buer still couldn't. read his teachers said he wouldn't. graduate from high school recognizing. that her boy was bright just different. his mother resolved to homeschool him. though home is perhaps not the right. word the two spent endless hours driving.

to science museums to the elite cran. Brook Academy of Art outside Detroit for. drawing lessons even to the Smithsonian. National Air and Space Museum in. Washington at night she read to him epic. works of literature like War and Peace. but also Choose Your Own Adventure books. and Star Wars. novelizations the pair past days in the. library at Michigan State University. watched campus speakers in the evening. and ate free at the receptions afterward.

sometimes rather than drive the two. hours back to Grand Haven they would. sleep in his mother's pickup truck. somewhere in East Lancing and do the. same thing the next. day I saw the university as a home buer. says buer wore secondhand clothes and. had only one close friend his age yet he. felt he was on a Grand Adventure at. 11:00 he began taking classes at Mosk. Community College still reading below a.

third grade level buer needed his mother. to read his assigned texts out loud he. dictated papers back to her at 16 he. enrolled at the University of Michigan. moving with her into an off-campus. apartment he recorded his lectures so he. could listen to them at home his mother. still read to him majoring in sociology. he graduated with a. 4.0 he was. 19 next buer decided to apply to law.

school because of his admiration for the. consumer Advocate Ralph nater whose. Crusade for safer Vehicles resonated. with Bulger after his accident as a. toddler he was administered the elsat. questions orally and was admitted to. Harvard Stanford and Yale at Yale law. school buer floundered the method buer. and his mother had devised to cover. reading assignments fell apart there was. so much of it and it was so Det detailed.

bulger's age made him a kind of. celebrity on campus and not in a good. way classmates found him bombastic and. insecure he was 19 and I suppose he. acted it says Andrea Roth Now a law. professor at the University of. California Berkeley who was friendly. with buer at the time buer failed two. classes his first semester and dropped. out to attend Yale buer had deferred a. master's program in sociology at Oxford. so in 1996 he moved to England there he.

thrived under the tutorial system which. reminded him of. homeschooling then he just kept going. embarking on an odyssey through the. anglosphere great universities during. which he improved his reading but still. leaned on his mother from Oxford he went. to Cambridge where he took a masters in. sociology and politics after 3 years in. Britain buer moved to California where. he studied for a Masters in. interdisciplinary education from.

Stanford and then quickly to New York. where he got another Masters in the. politics of Education as well as a. master's degree in architecture both. from Colombia in a single Academic Year. he found time in the Summers to work. toward a masters of arts in liberal. studies from Dartmouth he slept 4 hours. a night and he kept on stacking degrees. a master's in design studies with a real. estate concentration from. a masters in International Development.

from Brown the coexistence and conflict. masters from brandise a masters from. Skidmore where he studied positive. psychology all culminating in his. Doctorate in design focused on urban. planning and real estate from Harvard in. 2007 more recently buer has done a trio. of mfas in which he said he learned how. to write in a compelling narrative way. how to communicate stories in a.

compelling and gripping way and how to. delve deep into the different genres of. writing he has worked as an adjunct or. visiting professor at more than a dozen. colleges to fund his endless pursuit of. learning one thing buer has not seemed. to learn over the years is to. introspect why has he driven himself to. this extent to place himself over and. over in the kinds of Impractical. programs Young adults enter to wait out.

a bad economy or delay the onset of. adulthood Allah National Lampoon Van. Wilder many of us love learning too but. we don't do what buer has done we listen. to history podcasts on our commutes or. pick our way through long books in the. minutes before sleep despite all his. degrees buer has never sought a tenure. track job only a few of his degrees. would even qualify him for such a. position and he has never really.

specialized unless you consider putting. together a killer college application a. form of expertise which both the market. and Boulder. [Music]. do over the past 35 years acceptance. rates to the United States most elite. University have shrunk to about 6% from.

nearly. 30% students frightened by those numbers. are applying to more colleges than ever. and making these numbers more. frightening in the process at the same. time overtaxed counselors don't have the. time to help as much as applicants and. parents want the rise of so-called. holistic admissions which look Beyond. grades and test scores has also. contributed to a sense that there is a. secret sauce to getting into exclusive.

colleges and turbocharged demand for. people who can demystify it after he got. his Doctorate in 2007 buer became a. full-time private college admissions. consultant no other consultant has Dr. bulger's record of success reads his. website a claim that is difficult to. verify yet one that many people seem to. believe four years with buer runs at. least $100,000. in the world of elite College coaching.

this isn't exceptional a 5-year plan. from the New York firm Ivy coach costs. as much as $1.5. million over the past 15 years he has. developed a coaching style he Compares. with that of Bill bellich Mr Miyagi and. Yoda on a humid morning late last summer. buer saw clients in an upstairs room at. the Quinn house a modish Back Bay. members Club in an ornate Commonwealth.

Avenue. Limestone he has a home office in. Cambridge but prefers to work as much as. he can out of the private clubs to which. he belongs including the stay Union Club. opposite Boston Common and the Harvard. club which feels Loosey Goosey by. comparison that day he was meeting with. anelie Anand a sunny then 17-year-old. who was in Boston for the summer to do. research at Boston University and Vivien. Chen ALS also 17 at the time also Sunny.

also in Boston to study on be's campus. aneli and Vivien faced a brutal fact for. young Strivers of the American upper. middle class credentials and a can do. attitude are no longer sufficient for. entry into the top tiers of the US News. and World Report college rankings these. accomplishments must be arranged into. stories so compelling that they stand. out from the many other comp telling. stories of the teenagers clamoring for.

admission and so buer devoted the. meetings to teaching self. narrativization particularly as it. relates to the all important essay. component of the application he. encouraged the high achieving aneli to. be. vulnerable someone who is 100% confident. with no hesitations isn't as compelling. he said this is why there are more. movies made about Batman than. Superman with viian he tried to connect.

her desire to become a dentist to a. deeper narrative thread why the mouth. and teeth buer. asked buer said his business has enabled. him to mix with the 1% crowd in addition. to his condo on cambridge's Tony. Memorial Drive buer owns a house in. Virginia and his family farm in Michigan. he has an AMX invite only Centurion card. in 2006. he donated more than $50,000 to support.

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. for which he received a special Jeff. Coon's print more recently he has. donated more than. $2,500 to the presidential campaign of. Robert F Kennedy junior he loves to. attend celebrity talks Bruce Springstein. George Clooney Joe Montana anyone who in. his mind defines a. category Boulder carries about 25. clients at a time but his most important.

pupil is his 9-year-old daughter. benjamina whom he homeschools and. considers his best friend buer models. his daughter's education after his own. Hands-On interactive wide ranging lots. of time in the car bulger's son Blitz is. also being homeschooled but he's only. four so there's less to do his wife Anil. who helps him recruit clients is happy. to let him oversee the liberal arts. component of their children's education.

while she handles math and Chinese buer. is trying to be less intense than his. mother to emphasize the development of. his daughter's emotional intelligence. but one of his main pedagogical devices. is still the field trip on another. Bright Morning last summer buer took. benjamina to conquer's North Bridge for. a holistic lesson but also a lesson in. holism he was joined there by his friend. Dan a fellow polymath who has also.

collected a staggering number of. credentials the 42 entries under the. experienced section of his LinkedIn page. include Ambassador at the parliament of. the world's religions and Colonel at The. Honorable order of Kentucky Colonels. buer had planned a discussion around. Bridges and diplomacy but he believes. the world is nonlinear and his habits of. speech reflect this there were. digressions into history comparative. government Union organizing car safety.

Robert mcnamer the strength of triangles. the cryogenic preservation of corpses a. composed precocious and sweet girl. benjamina followed her tutors across the. bridge and to the bronze statue of a. minute man inscribed with Emerson's. conquered hymn there the three of them. stood in contemplation looking a little. like a child star and her security. detail was was that shot actually heard.

around the world buer asked I don't. think so benjamina replied yes buer said. so this is an example of a. metaphor after stopping and conquered. for a bite buer and benjamina drove the. two miles to Walden Pond the pair sat on. a wooden plank above the beach on the. ponds east side except for the sounds of. teenagers flirting and retirees shifting. and folding shars it was quiet buer.

explained thoro the woods the essential. facts I don't know if you find this. inspirational or not buer said I have. the ability to pretend no one is. here benjamina made a skeptical noise I. guess I could do it for a week buer said. a year just seems too. long the rose experiment made him one of. the most important men in American. history bulger's experiment has well not.

done that instead it has done something. even weirder to spend any time around. Bulger is to feel that you have been. enrolled in a bespoke man-shaped. university one capable of astonishing. interdisciplinary leaps and it basically. all hangs together the way that any mix. of freshman electives at a top. university might complement one another. might rhyme produce its own sort of.

Harmony it is unclear what exactly is at. the center but there are gravitational. forces at work. nonetheless also bulger's experiment has. made him a wildly compelling father to a. daughter who it must be said is. exceptional she is fluent in two. languages she is nice she is funny and. Last Summer She performed Fritz. Chrysler's thorny violin piece cecilian. and rodon at Carnegie Hall with Grace.

Alan and even. wit at the very least benjamina has on. her hands the material for one of the. all-time great College admissions. essays the day after their colonial. field trip father and daughter had lunch. at the Harvard Club surrounded by dark. wood and wine refrigerators they ordered. off the Veritas menu buer had a BLT and. benjamina had a hamburger with fries the.

meat arrived on a bun with an H Grill. Mark for. Harvard do you think the burger looks. better because it has an H on it buer. asked benjamina didn't. hesitate yes. [Music].