Accepted: A Look Into The Academic Merits of Unconventional Learning
Ever since I was a little kid, I have always wanted to go to college. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my main answer would be “a college student”. For me, college represented reinvention. I saw higher education as a way to reshape myself into the person I wanted to be and, lucky for me, I had many people in my life who supported that venture. When I was growing up, I was constantly told that if I wanted to get ANYWHERE or acquire any kind of SUCCESS, I needed to go to college first. This rhetoric, tied with my desire to ascend to a higher education environment, is what has shaped my educational journey to this day. So much so that not only do I have a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications but I also completed my Master’s degree in Education. I feel so strongly about the importance of education that I decided to obtain a Master’s level degree in it and even plan to teach.
Looking back at my educational journey, I realize that it has been filled with personalized learning experiences. In fact, my fondest memories of my learning journey have been those where I was able to make my own choices of what I learn and how I learn it. I was fortunate enough to go to two separate universities that not only supported this personalized learning but also encouraged it. But, I always wondered…what about the ones that don’t? What about the higher education institutions that support a more strict curriculum and dabble in elitism? After all, not every college is for everyone. What happens to the students who get forced into these environments or worse, get left behind?
This and many other questions surrounding higher education are what I aim to explore through the lens of the 2006 film Accepted. Spoilers ahead for the film and Trigger Warning for some very inappropriate behavior that I will describe in this film.
Directed by Steve Pink and written by Mark Perez, Adam Cooper, and Bill Collage, Accepted (2006) is a film that centers around high school graduate, Bartleby Gaines, whom is rejected from every college and university he applies to and, in a desperate bid to quell the fears of his parents, decides to invent a fake local college that he accepts himself into. Before I get into the breakdown of this film, I want to say that I would classify it as a wish fulfillment, almost fantasy type of movie because there are so many things that happen in this that would not be able to pull the wool of anyone’s eyes. But, I’ll get into those later. Bartleby, played by Justin Long, is clearly a smart and enterprising young man as we first see him running a fake ID business out of a classroom and is able to fool his principle by quickly converting the space and everyone in it into a “glee club”. He also throws some serious shade on his principle who almost catches him by calling out the fact that he, how do I put this, “self serves” in that classroom with some women’s health magazines. As Bartleby goes home and opens up yet another rejection letter, he laments his frustration and despair to his younger sister. She points out that perhaps his rejections are due to his college entry essay titled “I Don’t Have a Clue”, which seems to be about how he doesn’t know what he wants to do or who he wants to be.
Bartleby’s friends seem to be feeling the same heat as his good friend and football star Daryl, played by Columbus Short, injures himself and loses his football scholarship. I find it very interesting that Daryl says since he lost his scholarship that his father immediately started talking to him about getting his own bus route. This is very telling as Daryl’s father seems to place his value only in athleticism and believes that he should not even try to get an education and go straight into the workforce. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in today’s society. Bartleby’s other friend, high achiever Rory, played by Maria Thayer, got rejected from the only school she applied to and ever wanted to go to, Yale. She hints that she was more than likely rejected because she’s not a rich, male legacy with a six figure bank account. Another of Bartleby’s friends also didn’t get into college, our resident stoner Glen, played by Adam Herschman, because he got a “0” on his SAT’s. Side note: I am so happy that many higher education institutions have made standardized testing optional for admissions. I have always hated standardized tests as they are inherently biased and measure nothing but a student’s ability to take a nonsense IQ test. Back to the film, the only one of Bartleby’s crew to get accepted to college is his best friend Sherman Schrader, played by Jonah Hill, who is a legacy at Harmon College, a prestigious college in their area. I find it very fascinating that the drive to get into college in this film was made at a time where that was really a thing. These days, less and less high school graduates are choosing higher education. According to an article titled Why Students Opt to Not Enroll, more than one in five (22 percent) have decided to opt out [of going to college] because they are not mentally ready (Jaschik, 2023). Other factors such as cost and perceived value are also taken into account for this phenomenon.
After receiving yet another rejection letter, Bartleby does what I think to be incredibly smart and enterprising. He does research about the cost of tuition and the current job market. He then sits down at dinner with his parents and gives them printed handouts stating that the average cost of 1 year of college is $20,000 and the average salary for entry level work is about the same amount. He proposes to his parents that he basically just go to work and make the same amount of money that they would have spent on tuition over a 4 year time frame. Side note; this amount has definitely gone up as the average cost of college in the United States is approximately $38,270 a year (Hanson, 2024). Honestly, I’m really struggling to see how this kid didn’t get into any college as he seems incredibly smart. He may have some serious slacker energy, but he’s no dolt. Unfortunately, this presentation does not work on his parents as his very strict father states that in order for him to be successful, acceptable, and “fit in”, he needs to go to college. This is where Bartleby reveals that he did not get into college. I just have to go on a slight tangent here and say that his parents way overreact to this news. These days, most parents would be a little more upset that their child didn’t give them a heads up about the first or second rejection letter and maybe suggest doing a year at community college and then trying for a four year college or university. This is actually a very smart way to approach college if you are low on funds or do not want to take out a crazy amount of student loans. Typically, the first year or so of your undergrad is basically just general education courses and most colleges today take all types of transfer credits, but I digress. Later, we see Bartleby attend Schrader’s graduation party where everyone finds out that Bartleby didn’t get into college. His parents just seem so disappointed and act like it’s the end of his life. That night Bartleby gets a rejection letter from Harmon College and something possesses him to scan the rejection letter and use Photoshop to create an acceptance letter to South Harmon Institute of Technology or (S.H.I.T) that he frames as Harmon College’s sister school.
He originally does this to get his parents off of his back for a bit while he figures out what to do and asks Schrader to create a fake website that makes the school look legitimate. Although rightfully skeptical about this, Schrader agrees to help. At first, it seems like Bartleby’s plan is working. His parents are proud, his little sister knows he’s lying but decides to keep his secret, and the website is able to fool his dad. His friends are even in on his plan and ask for fake acceptance letters for them to get their parents off their backs as well. However, his parents are dead set on dropping him off on his first day at college and it seems like the act is up. Rory comes in with a huge save and says they can outfit an old psychiatric hospital she used to volunteer at to be the fake college. Here is where the “fantasy” part of the movie starts. Digressing slightly but there is absolutely no way in hell a couple of kids would be allowed to enter private property and make renovations to it without the lease company getting wind of it. The fake acceptance letter and website I can get behind, but taking over a building they don’t own and somehow getting water and power turned on in that place, absolutely not but again, this a movie so let’s go along with this for now. Miraculously, Bartleby and the gang are able to make the Psych hospital look like a college, sign and all. But when his father says he wants to meet with the dean because of the quote on quote “Be what you want to Be crap” he saw on the website after giving it a second look, Bartleby realizes he’ll need more help keeping up the facade. This is where Scharder’s uncle Ben, played by Lewis Black, comes in. Just a head’s up, Lewis Black essentially plays himself in this film so I will just refer to him by his real name for the remainder of this analysis. They enlist his help playing the role of dean for their fake college as he used to be a college professor but left the academic world all together. I really agree with a lot of what Lewis Black says in this film as it pertains to education because he makes some really good points about the elitism of some universities and how kids these days are not being taught to think for themselves but to simply maintain the status quo. That resonated with me.
After successfully fooling his parents on move-in day, Bartleby and the gang seem to be in the clear until a random kid shows up at the front door of the building and says that he’s been accepted to South Harmon Institute of Technology and is there for orientation. Bartleby tries to get rid of the kid until he realizes there is a wave of people behind him that were all accepted. To try and figure out what was going on, Bartleby heads to Harmon College’s main fraternity that Schradler is rushing, BKE, to talk to him about what was going on. Here, Bartleby runs into his high school crush Monica, played by Blake Lively. There is a slight love story in this between Bartleby and Monica but I won’t really spend any time on this as it is inconsequential to the themes of the story. When Bartleby gets to Schrader he asks him what was going on with the website. Apparently, Schrader made the website fully accessible and accepted anyone who filled out the online application. When Bartleby returns to the fake school, the place is in absolute chaos. There are people looking for their dorm rooms, wondering how to order books, and whom to give their tuition money to. Speaking of, apparently the fake website said that a single year’s tuition was $10,000 and Daryl dumps a literal bag of tuition checks in front of Bartleby when he’s explaining what happened with the website.
Realizing everything has gotten way out of hand, Bartleby and the gang decide to come clean and gather everyone into the makeshift auditorium of the building, which was probably a surgical gallery or medical lecture hall before. When he tries to tell everyone the truth, a student stands up and says that he is so happy to be there because he’s never been or felt accepted anywhere. Upon hearing this, Bartleby asks everyone who applied to college and everyone raises their hands, when he asks if anyone got into where they applied to or any college at all, not a single hand goes up. After seeing this, Bartleby is instantly reminded of his own rejection and gives a little speech about how so much is expected of them and that just because they don’t fit into traditional learning environments doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to learn and be themselves while doing it. He then makes the very rash decision to double down on the lie and tell everyone welcome to S.H.I.T. Now that he has made it real, Bartleby realizes that he has no idea how to run a school and his friends make comments about how there are certain things they need to make the place actually inhabitable. From here, Bartleby takes a quick tour of Harmon College to figure out how the whole “college thing” is done. Once he gets there, he is pretty shocked to find out that it’s a very sterile, stressful, and soul crushing environment where kids are super stressed out, a teacher is giving a lecture through speaker and is not actually in the classroom, and he even runs into Monica talking about how she wants to study photography but her schedule is super weird because certain photography classes don’t count for her major. After all of this, he returns to his fake college, talks to Lewis Black, and gets the idea to ask the students what they want to learn and create their curriculum from there.
We are then treated to a montage of students being utterly confused that they’re being asked to take charge of their academic journey and choosing for themselves what they would like to learn. I have to be honest here, some of the topics and “classes” that the students come up with are very creative. Such classes include Doing Nothing 405, Daydreaming 307, The History of Beer, and Taking a Walk and Thinking About Stuff. All of these courses are creative but I do take issue with the fact that, at the end of this montage, a bunch of guys are sitting poolside ogling three women who are in their bikinis just floating and tanning. One guy says “I can’t believe that this is a class” and all the other guys agree in awe. This was very gross and definitely a product of its time.
After it appears that Bartleby has this whole “running a college thing” down, the dean over at Harmon College is furious as he enlists the help of the president of the BKE house to convince all the lease holders near the campus to sell their properties to Harmon College. The dean wants to build this elaborate entryway for the college and, in order to do that, must tear down all the old buildings in the area. The BKE president tried to make this happen but South Harmon is actively blocking him from completing his goal. In fact, when he did arrive at the property and asked Bartleby where the lease holder was, he rightfully got clowned and had the door shut in his face. As the dean at Harmon gets more upset about the situation, S.H.I.T starts to really gain some traction in the area. So much so that they end up absorbing many of the guests for their welcome party that were supposed to attend the BKE house’s roaring 20’s party. When the BKE boys realize this, they head to the S.H.I.T. party and try to shut it down but the party continues to rage on. However, the BKE president wasn’t going to let that pass. After doing some digging, he ends up exposing the school as a fraud by sneakily inviting all of the South Harmon student’s parents to the campus for a completely made up “Parents Day”, which happens to be the afternoon after their big party. The BKE president, the Harmon College dean, and all the parents show up to see many students passed out drunk/hungover all around the campus. As Bartleby takes this in, he spots his own parents and panics. He tries to quell them once more but the jig is officially up. The Harmon dean outs the school as a fake and even brings security/cops with him to vacate everyone from the property. All of the South Harmon students look to Bartleby in disappointment as do his parents. Everyone is very depressed and Bartleby finds out that the BKE president and his cronies beat Schrader up to get the truth about South Harmon.
All pretty much seems lost until Bartleby receives a letter from the state accreditation board stating that South Harmon Institute of Technology has an accreditation hearing set for an upcoming date. Bartleby gathers his friends and tells them that they’re not out of the game yet. Daryl and Rory try to tell him to just let all of this go but Bartleby says that the state defines a college as, and I am paraphrasing here, a group of individuals who are committed to a common goal of higher education. This is when Schrader pops up and reveals that he was the one who had applied for accreditation when they started this venture. Convinced they all at least have a fighting chance, they agree to go for it.
When Bartleby and the gang arrive for the hearing, they are notified that their room was moved to the grand hall. Bartleby is a bit confused but, when they enter the room, they realize that ALL of the South Harmon students had come to show their support as well as a good portion of Harmon College students to block their proposition. As the hearing begins, the main administrator, Dr. Alexander, states that in order to receive accreditation the college must have 3 things: a facility, a curriculum, and a faculty. Bartleby tries to have Lewis Black state their case but he replies with “Rule #1 of the courtroom, start with your star witness. No one knows these kids and South Harmon better than you.” So, Bartleby begins to make his case. As he tries to defend the facility, the Harmon college dean pipes up immediately and says what I was thinking. That their “facility” is an old psychiatric hospital that is definitely not up to code and that they took up residency there illegally as they made no attempt to buy the property. Next up was the curriculum. This is where some of the South Harmon students wheel in the giant board titled “What Do YOU Want to Learn” that lists all of the classes they offer. Bartleby points out that the students were allowed to pick what they want to learn and many students defend that choice. Two skater dudes stand up and talk about how in Skateboarding they built a ramp that teaches them about physics, trigonometry, and engineering. Rory says that in Taking a Walk and Thinking About Stuff, the students get to meditate and think about what they want to do with their lives in a stress free environment. Daryl says that Let it Speak to You 202 is an art class where they can explore their artistic talents with physical mediums. The Harmon college dean jumps in and pretty much chastises their curriculum. Next up is faculty. Glen asks all the South Harmon faculty to stand and the entire S.H.I.T side of the room stands up. When Dr. Alexander asks what is happening, Bartleby says that at South Harmon, the students are the teachers. This is a very interesting concept that I will expand upon later in this analysis. The Harmon college dean immediately says that this is not a thing and cannot happen. This is when Lewis Black stands up and identifies himself as a faculty member. Again, the Harmon College dean interrupts to say that Lewis Black hasn’t been involved in academia in years and is not even qualified to teach. A mini fight between the two almost breaks out and Dr. Alexander pretty much demands order and asks Bartleby if he has anything to present that would show that South Harmon is a legitimate educational institution. This is where we get one of the best speeches regarding academics that I have ever heard and has stayed with me to this day. Bartleby refuses to answer Dr. Alexander’s question and says that he “knows that you’ve already made up your mind. I’m an expert in rejection and I can see it on your faces. It’s sad that you judge us by how we look and not who we are.” He goes on to say that just because they’re not like the Harmon college students, stress freaks and caffeine addicts, doesn’t make them unworthy of gaining a high quality education. The Harmon college dean calls their curriculum a joke and Bartleby a fraud. This is when Bartleby bites back and says that men like him rob kids of their creativity and passion and that is the real crime. He talks about their tradition and how colleges like Harmon haze kids and essentially “other” anyone who’s just a little bit different. He apologizes for lying but says he started South Harmon for one reason but what it became was a creative space where everyone had the opportunity to learn and discover who they want to be without being told what others think they should be. Bartleby even makes a plea to the board of administrators themselves and asks “Did you guys always want to be school administrators?” His speech pretty much wraps up with saying he doesn’t care if they get rejected for accreditation because he doesn’t need their seal of approval for him to know that what they did and learned was real.
After an up-roaring applause, Dr. Alexander makes his decision. He confirms with his colleagues and grants South Harmon Institute of Technology a 1 year experimental probation period, at the end of which they will revisit full accreditation. Dr. Alexander tells Bartleby to not judge them by the way they look. While celebrating their win, Dr. Alexander approaches Bartleby and says to him that he originally wanted to play jazz trombone. Bartley responds with “It’s never too late, sir”. Monica and Bartleby then have their big kiss and South Harmon reopens as a legitimate school. Lewis Black closes out the film with a funny speech that ends with “Enjoy your time here. College is the best 4 years of your life. After that, you’re f***ed”.
Accepted is one of those rare films that came out at the right time. In the early aughts, going to college to discover yourself was a huge thing. Hell, there was a whole arc on the show “Gossip Girl”, also starring Blake Lively, that was all about getting into college. Although this is not necessarily the case anymore, this movie has always stuck with me because of the concept of personalized learning and breaking away from traditional academics. Watching this film again after many, many years, I began to ask myself Why can’t a South Harmon Institute of Technology exist? Taking out all of the legal and insurance aspects, why can’t student led and taught educational institutions be a possibility? Although higher education institutions do encourage students to take charge of their learning, express their creativity, and choose what they want to learn within their chosen program, there has never been anything quite like this fictional college…or at least I have yet to hear of one.
Less and less young adults are choosing higher education these days and revamping the educational environment could help close this gap. According to a recent study, the percentage of students who say college “isn’t worth it” has grown from 8 percent in 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 17 percent in 2021 and 20 percent in 2023. And 35 percent of high school counselors say that fewer students are now considering college than before the pandemic (Jaschik, 2023). In my opinion, young adults and even continuing education students would see more value and see college as “worth it” if there were more environments like South Harmon. I can totally see an experimental school where students, merely guided by a faculty member, create their own classes and develop their own learning experiences in the process. This would increase the desire and drive to seek higher education and even attract continuing education students. Take the scene in this film where a guy delivers kegs to the campus and asks to be enrolled. He says he’s a veteran and wanted to go to college but a lot got in the way for a long time. South Harmon became a place for him to continue to live his dream of pursuing music even though he was working a seemingly meaningless job.
There are many interesting things I want to expand upon in this film, but I want to start out with discussing the South Harmon Curriculum. As an aspiring educator, this aspect of the film was really quite fascinating to me. Although seemingly unrealistic, many of the courses the students create have real academic merit. For example, Rory’s class “Taking A Walk and Thinking About Stuff”, could definitely be a sports and recreation course or perhaps a General Elective. Skateboarding could easily sub for a 100’s level physics course or special topics math/engineering course. Now, although schools couldn’t really accommodate building ramps on campus, perhaps using a 3D modeling software like Blender to build the structure to exact specifications would be a fantastic alternative or perhaps holding a class at an actual skate park and studying how the ramps and other fixtures are built and analyze calculations like speed, mass, and height needed to land a particular trick. Although I definitely did not agree with the guys ogling the girls in the pool, that class idea could be “Introduction to Gender Politics” or even some sort of gender studies course. Prior to the creation of the curriculum, the students of South Harmon were engaging in experiences that contained some sort of academic element. One such example is when Bartleby sees some kids playing craps and tells his dad on the phone that he is studying statistics. I mean, why couldn’t a math class structured around casino games be a thing? In my opinion and experience, people learn best when the learning content resonates with them in some way. This leads to increased engagement in the classroom and a stronger understanding of the learning content. Simply put, people will be interested in learning when what they are meant to learn is presented in an interesting way. Given this, I believe that an entirely student-created and centered curriculum with experienced faculty oversight is not only possible but also necessary if educators want to attract future learners and boost enrollment. With the future of education currently hanging in the balance of uncertainty in these years to come, I think something like this would completely change the academic landscape for the better.
The next aspect of this film that I want to talk about is college as a whole. What it’s meant to be, what it represents, and what students are meant to get out of it. It is my opinion and belief that, just as Bartleby states near the end of this film, that a college or university is an educational environment that contains/is formed by a group of individuals with the shared desire to learn. I believe in this statement wholeheartedly, however I feel that this definition has become a little warped over the years. Much like Harmon College in this film, many colleges and universities both in and out of the United States have adopted an intense sense of elitism that bleeds into the professional or “real” world when it comes to students beginning their careers. I mean think about it, it looks so much better on a resume when you can write you received a degree from Princeton, Stanford, or Oxford University rather than some community college or low level state school. This perception can even lead to the way we view others. I’m ashamed to admit it, but if I were in a situation where I needed to hire an attorney, I would definitely pick one that received their law degree from an Ivy league or high end school rather than someone who received theirs from a lower tier one. And this is the problem and conundrum.
If colleges and universities are just places filled with people with a shared desire to learn and nearly all the same learning content, why are certain schools and the people in them deemed more desirable or credible than others? As I have stated before, it is that elitism and sense of superiority that fuels this train of thought. Therein, as one would expect, with elitism comes those that are left behind. What happens to the kids who don’t get into those Ivy league or “high quality” schools? Do they have other options of where to continue their education? Absolutely! And there should be absolutely no shame in that. I think back to the scene in this film where Daryl laments the loss of his football scholarship. Instead of encouraging him to apply to another school, his father instantly wants to get him into the workforce. Rory outright gives up when she doesn’t get into her dream school. Although these scenarios help feed the plotline in the film, those decisions do not really make sense in the real world. There are plenty of athletes that hurt themselves and end up going to college for something outside of athletics and many individuals who do not get into their dream school often pick an alternative. A big part of this film that really bugged me was that no one even considered doing a year or so at a community college. Think about it, the first two years of undergraduate studies are typically simply reserved for completing general education requirements. Those could be done easily, and much cheaper, at a local community college. During that time, a student can save money, work, and then reapply to whatever school they want to go to. Doing a gap year at a community college can also give a student time to figure out what they want to major in. This leads into the next point I want to make. College is not only a place for learning but also one of transformation. College is where you grow as a person and you develop important skills and knowledge to navigate the world outside of school. It is the place where you network and grow your community, it’s the place where you discover who you are. My time during my undergrad was truly the best 4 years of my life. I learned so much, met people from all over the world, and had once in a lifetime experiences that I look back on fondly. No matter where you enroll, experiences like this are the backbone of a college education and are vital to the development of young adults.
Accepted is a rare film that takes a deep look into traditional academics and asks the daring question: What if we did education differently? As an aspiring educator, I wholeheartedly believe that unconventional learning experiences not only have legitimate academic merit but are also vital to reaching this new generation of learners where they are at. Personalized learning is a vital educational element and is being used to adjust the learning content in a way that actively engages learners. Gone are the days and ways of institutions like Harmon College. This new generation of learners needs more than sitting in a big lecture hall listening to a tenured professor flip through slides while they scramble to take notes and stress out about quizzes and tests. Learners need to be actively engaged and consume content in a way that not only makes sense to them but also caters to their interests and unique intellectual abilities. With all of this in mind, a college like South Harmon Institute of Technology is exactly what the future of education needs.
References
Hanson, M. (2024, December 26). Average cost of college and tuition. Education Data.
https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college
Jaschik, S. (2023, June 12). Why students opt not to enroll. Inside Higher Ed.
