[Berman:] It is that time of year again. Nervous high school seniors rushing home or rushing to their computers to find the large envelopes or the large e-mail from their dream colleges, but the pressure of getting into a top ranked school and the hysteria over college admission, is it really worth it? According to "New York Times" columnist Frank Bruni, the answer is flat out no. Frank is the author of "Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be: An Anecdote to the College Admissions Mania." He's joining us here in the NEW DAY studio. Frank, great to see you.
[Frank Bruni, Author, "where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be":] Nice to see you.
[Berman:] So this is a terrific book, first of all.
[Bruni:] Thank you.
[Berman:] It reads to me like a love letter to parents and kids who are getting those admissions decisions this week, essentially telling them, it's all going to be OK.
[Bruni:] Yes, it's essentially telling them this is one juncture in a long life. And we are sending kids and parents the message that these few days in late March, early April, is going to set the whole trajectory of a life. And it's not true. College certain colleges can be great advantages, but it's not make or break. It's not be all and end all. Much more important is for us to talk about how you're going to use your college years wherever you are.
[Berman:] And there's suggestions in this book that it's doing a great disservice to these kids and our society in general.
[Bruni:] Yes. I think it's doing an enormous disservice. First of all, we're a status conscious society as it is. We don't need to turn higher education into that. Also, if you go to school thinking that it's all about where you got in, if you go to one of the most selective schools and you think once you've walked in the door your work is done, that's a problem because you're supposed to really be learning and growing and cultivating yourself during those years, not just wearing a sweatshirt that you're proud of.
[Berman:] Throw up the admissions statistics here for a second because in some cases it's like way harder to get into the top schools than it was
[Bruni:] Yes, like negative we're almost in negative integers now, yes.
[Berman:] Yes, basically. It's like 5 percent getting into Harvard, Stanford and Yale, which is -which is about half of what it was just 10 years ago. You have a quote here from a university official talking about the "U.S. News and World Report" colleges rankings.
[Bruni:] Yes.
[Berman:] And those are three of the top schools in there.
[Bruni:] Yes.
[Berman:] It says, "'U.S. News and World Report'will go down as one of the most destructive things that ever happened to higher education." And, of course, they rank the top schools in the country. I'm wondering, is it "U.S. News" who's the big villain here? Is it the colleges who's the villain here? Is it parents or is it the kids themselves?
[Bruni:] It's all of us working together in a sort of vicious cycle. But "U.S. News" is a problem because it sends the it sends the notion that you can actually measure a college's worth and that there are colleges that are objectively better than others, when really there are colleges that are right for you and colleges that are less right for you. But, yes, we all buy into it. We outsource our judgment to "U.S. News," to other magazines that do these rankings and you shouldn't do that.
[Berman:] Now, I went to Harvard. It's not like I have a big "h" tattoo, I'm proud of the fact that I went there. There is suggestion in your book occasionally that sometimes that going to Harvard or Yale, if you have the chance to do that, that it's not always the best choice for you.
[Bruni:] Well, for some kids it isn't because they the amount of competition, the amount of elbowing for prominence there, it doesn't really kind of allow them to flourish. Some kids rest on their laurels, so to speak. But you mentioned you went to Harvard. I've known you for more than a decade right now, you know, and I know that you're sitting in this chair and you're at this network because you have worked your tail off and because you're just a transcendently competent guy and I'm not just complementing you. You went going to Harvard was a reflection of your talents. Going to Harvard did not put you in that chair right now. You put yourself in that chair.
[Berman:] How do you get through to kids? You taught at Princeton.
[Bruni:] I did. Yes.
[Berman:] And clearly the kids that you were talking to are not getting this message.
[Bruni:] Which kids, the ones at Princeton? Yes. Well, I mean, I had some wonderful students at Princeton, and I also had some students who I worried, felt their work was done the day they got in the door. We just need to change the conversation in general. We need not to be pumping kids and parents full of unnecessary anxiety, telling them that this is the make or break moment when it's just one moment in a long life. And we have to be talking to kids about using college in the right way.
[Berman:] Can I ask you one question about fraternities, because they've been in the news?
[Bruni:] Yes. Yes, very much in the news. This week, obviously, we saw what happened at the University of Oklahoma, we saw what happened at Penn State right now. You've got a lot to say about what's wrong with the college system, the university system in general. You've also got some issues with the Greek system. My issues with the Greek system is a kind of larger issue with campus life, which is, I don't think we should be self-segregating ourselves into communities where everyone thinks like you do. I don't think I think we should be using colleges to prepare people for a diverse world and not to give them enclaves in which to retreat where they're just among their own kind, all male, all white, whatever.
[Berman:] And you think people retreat into those corners there and it just magnifies whatever image they have of themselves already?
[Bruni:] Right. Well, I mean, there's a tribal human instinct. We tend to go into tribes when allowed to. But the future of America is about managing a diverse country and being fluent in diversity and I wish colleges would get on board with that.
[Berman:] You know, in your book you have a lot of great stories about a lot of successful people. The top people in our country who didn't go to the big schools.
[Bruni:] Right.
[Berman:] If you had to say one thing to kids right now who are in the midst of this all, what would it be?
[Bruni:] Pause before you begin college wherever you're beginning college. Survey that landscape and say, how am I going to till this particular landscape for everything it's worth.
[Berman:] Frank Bruni, University of North Carolina.
[Bruni:] Chapel Hill.
[Berman:] Who beat Harvard last night, by the way, in basketball.
[Bruni:] Oh, we did? OK.
[Berman:] So, congratulations for that.
[Bruni:] Thank you.
[Berman:] Great to have you here with us on NEW DAY. Appreciate it.
[Bruni:] Nice to be here.
[Berman:] Alisyn.
[Camerota:] OK, John, here's another interesting story about school. There are eight states in the U.S. without a policy requiring schools to test children's eyesight. Left undetected, many common eye problems can lead to blindness. This week's CNN Hero is fighting to make sure children see clearly.
[Unidentified Female:] All right! Chelsea. I was a very active child. I was barely four when I lost my vision in my left eye. The following years, I was so angry. This was an irreversible change. Twenty-five percent of children ages five to 17 have a vision problem. How can you fully embrace all the opportunities available if you can't see them? OK, keep looking right at the light for me. Our program provides free vision screenings to all school-aged children in Maui County. All done. Thank you. We actually use advanced technology which allows us to test in seconds. Had this device been around when I was four years old, it could have saved my vision. The castle was sparkling clean. My daughter loves books. So when I got a letter, we were caught off guard. Hi. Riley, she came from a Riley's only four years old and because they caught it early we can help her. Just seeing her even today with glasses knowing that her vision is going to be completely fine because we caught it, that's what we do.
[Camerota:] What a great story. You can go to cnnheroes.com to nominate someone who is making a difference.
[Berman:] So we're tackling a controversial question this morning, did Jesus have a brother? Evidence that may give you pause in our series "Finding Jesus." That's next.
[Camerota:] CNN's new series, "Finding Jesus," takes a closer look at what could be the only physical evidence that Jesus Christ existed. And it tries to answer a controversial question, did Jesus have any brothers and sisters? Take a look.
[Unidentified Male:] It's claimed that this box measuring 10 inches by 20 is no less than the burial casket of James, the brother of Jesus Christ.
[Camerota:] Here to shed light on that discovery is CNN religious commentator, Father Edward Beck. Father, great to see you.
[Father Edward Beck, Host, "the Sunday Mass":] Nice to see you. Thank you.
[Camerota:] Did Jesus have a brother?
[Beck:] It's quite possible that he did, we just don't know what kind of brother. In the Catholic tradition, it's believed that Mary was a perpetual virgin, but did Joseph have children before he got together with Mary? It's possible. He was older. Maybe they were half siblings. We don't know really from the texts.
[Camerota:] And also, is it possible that they were using brother not literally, but is there some word that means relatives or cousins?
[Beck:] I don't want to get too technical, but in the New Testament, the Greek word is Adelphus. Now Adelphus can mean blood brother or it can mean kinfolk or it can mean cousin. So, you see, when they talk about Jesus' brothers and sisters, it may not be blood brother in the way we think about it.
[Camerota:] But if it is a blood brother in the way we think about it, does that change everything?
[Beck:] It doesn't change everything in that a lot of Protestant denominations believe that Mary could have had other children after Jesus. They say she was a virgin up to the birth after Jesus, but after that, why not have a normal relationship with Joseph? So others believe that he possibly did have blood brothers and sisters.
[Camerota:] What do you believe?
[Beck:] You really want to put me on the spot, don't you?
[Camerota:] Only because I'm fascinated by this.
[Beck:] I think it's quite possible. I do believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary because that's why my church teaches. But it doesn't bother me to think that he may have had actual blood siblings. It seems to me it makes him more normal and the family more normal. But I also think that in the early church, virginity was extolled, and so you want the Mother of God to be perpetually virgin, the whole sex stuff was suspect. So I think, in some ways, that played into keeping Mary pure.
[Camerota:] That makes perfect sense. Mary is on a pedestal. The Catholicism wants to believe that she is unsullied. She will always be on that pedestal. It does strain credulity that in that day and age that he wouldn't have any siblings and that Mary would be a so- called, as you say, perpetual virgin.
[Beck:] Except that this is the Son of God, which is what we believe. Why wouldn't it be a little different for the Son of God? And why wouldn't Joseph have respected that and be stepfather of this child? But that's it. I will take care of them, but there will not be any carnal relationship. It's quite possible.
[Camerota:] So let's talk about the if there is sort of historical evidence of Jesus' existence. That is a burial box that we just saw that inscription on and it says James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.
[Beck:] Right. Now here's the thing. There were other Jameses, Josephs, and Jesuses, so it may not be necessarily this family. Also, there's some debate about the inscription, that perhaps the last part, brother of Jesus, was a later edition. So some experts have tested it and said, you know what, this doesn't look like the same kind of printing as the first part. So is it a forgery? If you watch the special, and it's a fascinating special, you should watch it on Sunday, they raise this whole issue that maybe this is a forgery or maybe it's not. You don't get a complete answer.
[Camerota:] Let's talk about that other historical evidence. Is there I mean, to your mind, is there concrete tangible physical evidence of Jesus' existence?
[Beck:] Physical evidence of Jesus' existence, I would say no. There's certainly historical evidence of Jesus' existence. We have Josephus, a famous historian in Rome, writing about Jesus and the crucifixion. So it's certainly in the historical panels. Physical evidence, no. I mean, the first of this series was about the Shroud of Turin.
[Camerota:] I remember.
[Beck:] And some believe that that is physical evidence.
[Camerota:] I remember. But that, too, is in doubt. So much of this, it's hard to sort of bust myths when there's so much question about the authenticity of these things that do seem tangible.
[Beck:] But the Shroud is in doubt because they never tested the part where the image is. That piece of the cloth may date back to Jesus. The out of periphery, perhaps not. So of course, we have the questions, once again, maybe, maybe not.
[Camerota:] It is still so
[Beck:] Sorry I can't be more concise and clear.
[Camerota:] When you come back I want a definite answer.
[Beck:] I'll do my best.
[Camerota:] That's so great. Father Beck, great to see you. Thanks so much for coming on
[New Day -- Beck:] Thank you.
[Camerota:] to talk about all these really intriguing topics. You can watch "Finding Jesus" this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN. Michaela?
[Pereira:] One thing that we know that is clear is kindness is infectious. We're going to introduce you to an incredible 8-year-old girl going through a painful loss. Yet, she still finds a way to fills the hearts of strangers. That, my friends, is the Good Stuff.