Like a Moth to a Flame: Cultish Dynamics in America’s Most Selective Universities

Author’s Note：

This is an extended abstract for a Research Paper titled: “Like a Moth to a Flame: Cultish Dynamics in America’s Most Selective Universities.” This paper is being considered for publication elsewhere and is therefore not available in full in The Rambler. If you are interested in reading this research paper in its entirety, please contact scheck88@hotmail.com. This page will be updated regarding where the paper will be published.

This paper investigates the cultish tendencies among America’s elite universities. Unlike prior research focused on the cultish qualities in university-adjacent institutions, such as sororities and fraternities, this study examines the universities themselves—specifically how administrative policies generate and reinforce cultish behaviors. This paper argues that elite universities exhibit cultish behaviors through practices of cementing their lead in college rankings, cultivating fanatic followings, and increasingly operating like corporations. To make this case this paper will look at college rankings, such as the U.S. News & World Report, to understand how universities compete against one another to rank higher on these lists and boost their brand and desirability. Additionally, it will explore how not only do rankings determine institutional priorities, but also how this small sub-set of colleges and universities, through their high rankings and social standing, create fanatic, devoted, cult-like followings that idolize the institution. Finally, this paper will investigate why this widespread devotion, in turn, influences universities’ decisions that lead them to behave increasingly like for-profit companies pursuing their interests: expanding, prioritizing branding, and reshaping cities around them.

From their first conception, university rankings have become influential tools in shaping institutional behavior, priorities, and decision-making. This introduction of rankings results in elite universities increasingly operating as corporations: prioritizing image, competitiveness, and financial interests. Furthermore, their impact extends beyond institutional walls, influencing urban development in ways often detrimental to local communities. As Davarian Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower, notes, universities frequently prioritize institutional needs over community welfare, reinforcing their corporatization and their negative societal impacts by displacing residents and redirecting resources away from public needs. While some argue that the beneficial aspects of universities negate comparisons to cults, such as their contributions to public discourse and the medical and technological fields, sociologist Eileen Barker outlines that the critical factor for defining a cult is its potential to cause societal harm. Elite colleges’ systems of influence, control, and charismatic leadership also point to their cultish tendencies and roots as described by Janja Lalich. Elite universities have noteworthy beneficial and harmful influences on society, making their resemblance to cultish behavior significant and worthy of critical examination.