Which Undergraduate University to Choose, Part II

—–Original Message—–
From: NG
Sent: Thu 10/13/2016 9:36 PM
To: Walter Block
Subject: Re: 2 Questions

Thanks a lot Professor Block! I will definitely apply to Loyola. I don’t know how difficult it is to get in, but it’s definitely worth a shot. My high school grades were pretty mediocre but my grades in college will be a lot better. Besides that I think I am going to apply to Sewanee: University of the South and George Mason. I know it would definitely be cool to go to a school with a big Austrian presence, I’ve come to become a big fan of the Austrian school myself, and George Mason and Loyola seem to be the only two ones that embrace it the most.

Dear NG:

I do not recommend George Mason, nor Texas Tech, the other PhD granting school in the U.S. with more than just a few Austrian economists and libertarian theoreticians. Why not? Because my goal at Loyola is to help prepare the next generation of Austro-libertarian college professors,
(Block, Walter E. 2008. “Attention Students: Should You Get Your Ph.D. and Become a Professor?” June 28; http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block104.html (debate with Gary North) https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/young-person-saved-from-academia/) many of whom go to just those two universities for their advanced degrees. Why not, also, go to one of them for undergraduate training? If so, then you get the same professors for both grad school and undergrad. Whereas, if you go to Loyola, or any other undergraduate school with a like-minded faculty (such as Grove City College, Troy or Ferris State), you get two sets of professors, not just one. Just as two or more heads are better than one, two or more sets of professors are better than only one. Of course, another possibility is to go to either Mason or TT for undergraduate training, and the other for a PhD. However, many of the professors at the latter obtained their own PhDs from the former, so you still get a bit of inbreeding. This can be reduced, not totally ameliorated, since one of my colleagues at Loyola is also a Mason grad. But, still, attendance at Loyola (or any of these others mentioned above) would lessen this drawback.

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