comparative literature phd yale

Department of Comparative Literature

You are here, applying to comparative literature at yale.

Students are admitted to graduate study (only in the Fall) by the Graduate School on the recommendation of the Department. Entering classes now average five students.

Special Admissions Requirements for Comparative Literature

Selection is based on the applicant’s undergraduate record, evidence of motivation supplied in the candidate’s personal statement of academic purpose, evidence of ability to do advanced work as expressed in a writing sample (not to exceed 20 pages) and supported by three letters of recommendation, and preparation in languages sufficient to satisfy the language requirement. We do not consider GRE test scores.   Please read the Frequently Asked Questions   about the Graduate Program for further information.

The application deadline for Fall 2024 is December 15, 2023. The application is available online through the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Admissions page . All application materials, supporting credentials and recommendations, official standardized test scores, and application fee must be received by the deadline to be considered by Yale for admission. Due to current circumstances a fee waiver is possible for applicants suffering from financial hardship additional information may be found on the Yale Graduate Schools admissions website . Admissions decisions are announced by late February.

Combined Programs

The Department of Comparative Literature also offers three Combined Ph.D. degrees with the Department of Classics, the Film Studies Program , and the Renaissance Studies Program . For detailed descriptions of the combined degree programs, please click here .

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The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Programs and Policies , aka The Blue Book, lists policies, programs and courses and is available online in August each academic year.

Please note that first-year students are expected to arrive on campus in late August in order to participate in an orientation program prior to the start of the fall term.

Our Graduate Housing office begins to accept applications for on-campus dormitories and apartments on April 1, and Yale-affiliated University Properties begins leasing apartments now for summer. Apply promptly, as space is limited.

Film and Media Studies Program

Combined phd in comparative literature and film and media studies, program of courses.

16 term-courses will be the norm, taken over a two-year period.  In some cases a candidate may be allowed to take one of these courses in the fifth term of study.

A.  Requirements in Film and Media Studies: 6 courses

• FILM 601 Films and Their Study (offered every other Fall term)
• Four additional seminars in Film Studies

B.  Requirements in Comparative Literature: 6 courses

• Proseminar in Comparative Literature (taken first term offered)
• One course in theoretical issues
• A course involving  poetry and one drama
• Any course can count for more than one designation

C.  Four other courses to be worked out with DGS of both units.

• Students may gain up to two course credits for prior graduate work if approved by the DGSs and the Graduate School  

A.  Excellent English and one other language at admission

B.  An additional research-related language, satisfied by the fifth term:

• Passing the “advanced reading-for-research” course or related exam in the pertinent language
• Passing any Yale course in the language.  

Oral Exa minations

A.  By the end of the third semester the candidate will meet with the DGS of both units to agree on the six topics (also called “questions) to be prepared, paying attention to generic, geographic, and historical range and to methodological or theoretical approaches.  Of the six questions taken up in the oral, half should emphasize literary studies, half Film and Media Studies, though primary texts in both fields may appear on the list drawn up for any question.

B.  By the end of the fourth semester, the candidate will submit to both DGSs the list of readings, prepared for each question.  Final versions of the lists are signed by each faculty member involved a week before the oral, which normally takes place by the end of the fifth semester, in six 15-minute sections.

C.  Should the responses to a question be judged inadequate, the committee may call for its reexamination at a later date or may impose remedial work, such as a bibliographic paper.

The Dissertation Prospectus

The prospectus, prepared with one or two advisors (one from Comparative Literature), is presented to the Comparative Literature Standing committee in the sixth term, and never later than the outset of the seventh term.  At the end of the hour discussion, and with the advisor(s) and a DGS present, the faculty will decide either to pass the prospectus as is, or ask the student to submit a further draft either to the advisor or the standing committee (generally without necessitating a further live meeting). In all cases the finished version of the prospectus will also be submitted to the DGS in Film and Media Studies who distributes it to thst faculty for ratification.  Once final approval of the prospectus comes from both units, the student will be advanced to candidacy for the degree.

Defense of Method

Occurs in the semester preceding submission of the dissertation. This 60-90 minute oral involves the presentation of 80% of the dissertation for discussion and questioning.  At this meeting the DGS, advisor(s) and the three official readers of the dissertation will give advice and correct errors so that the work will be in its optimal form when submitted.  The DGSs appoint the three readers to assess the dissertation, two of which are normally from Comparative Literature and one from Film and Media Studies. Note that the advisor(s) may not write the final assessments of the dissertation.  

Early Modern Studies

You are here, comparative literature.

Course work  Students are required to complete fourteen term courses, at least seven of these (including the Comparative Literature proseminar,  CPLT 515 ) in the Department of Comparative Literature. Students must take at least four courses in Early Modern Studies (offered in several departments), including the core seminar (EMST 700/701); at least one of these courses must be taken outside Comparative Literature. At least three of a student’s overall list of courses must be in literary theory, criticism, or methodology; at least one course each in poetry, narrative fiction, and drama; and at least one course each in ancient or medieval literature and Enlightenment or modern literature. At least two courses must be completed with the grade of Honors. In general, students should take a wide range of courses with a focus on one or two national or language-based literatures.

Languages  Students must demonstrate proficiency in three languages apart from English, one of which must fulfil the philological requirement in Comparative Literature. The languages chosen should be relevance to the student’s chosen area of research and should be determined in consultation with the DGSs in Comparative Literature and Early Modern Studies.

Orals  Qualifying exams follow the format in Comparative Literature; however, a significant portion of the student’s exam lists must be on early modern topics. The exact number will be determined in consultation with the DGSs in Comparative Literature and Early Modern Studies.

Prospectus and dissertation  The prospectus should be completed in September of the fourth year. Procedures regarding the dissertation will follow departmental practice, however at least one member of the dissertation committee must be an affiliate of the Program in Early Modern Studies.

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• Share This: Share Ariel Bardi (PhD ’15, Comparative Literature) on Facebook Share Ariel Bardi (PhD ’15, Comparative Literature) on LinkedIn Share Ariel Bardi (PhD ’15, Comparative Literature) on X

Ariel Bardi (PhD ’15, Comparative Literature)

What did you study at yale, and what is your current profession/job.

I’m a New Delhi-based freelance journalist, writing mostly on human rights and development along with culture and travel, and I’m a consultant for international development organizations. So I work in a few different roles. I completed my PhD in Comparative Literature in 2015, and my particular field was postcolonial studies and visual culture. I also did an MA in History of Art while at Yale, which I finished in 2010. After I graduated I went to work as a consultant for the World Bank group in Washington D.C. When my contract ended I moved to India and started freelancing.

What do you like most about your current role? What do you find most challenging and/ or rewarding?

I like the flexibility of freelance writing and consulting, but I struggle with the same challenges that I did as a PhD student, namely lack of structure and the desire for meatier, more collaborative work. Journalism has also suffered from the same process of casualization and corportization that universities have. My current role still feels intermediary, a bridge between my program and the post-ac world. Ultimately, I’d like to branch out from research and communications and find a program role that connects my background in arts and culture with my training in international development and human rights.

How did your time at Yale shape your career trajectory?

I applied to study at Yale when I was only 23. I was living in Paris at the time, and had just returned from two long trips to India, where I had just given my first conference presentation. I had the same interests then that I do now, but I didn’t have a sense of what careers a person like me might pursue. I wanted to study more, and hoped that the rest would fall into place, which it more or less did. I knew from the beginning that academia was not a good fit for me, either personally or professionally. But I got a lot out of my years at Yale. First of all, I am deeply invested in the value of a humanities education, particularly in international development, where economists and technicians abound but what is always needed are people who have fluency in multiple cultures along with respect and even love for the places where they work. They need to know not just the standard development metrics, but they should also have a sense of that region’s music, heritage, art— its unique practices and principles. I was reading in an Indian newspaper recently that the hard sciences ask “how?” but the humanities ask “why?” Outside of academia, I see how badly those critical thinking skills are needed, even among efficient and experienced practitioners. In that sense I really value my time at Yale.

What are the main skills that you acquired as a PhD student which help make you successful in your current career?

Yale gave me the time and resources to spend years in professional exploration, developing a unique skill set that I am now proud of. I was the recipient of several major research grants, and those were instrumental in preparing me for what I do now. Learning how to write a successful grant proposal through trial-and-error was one important skill. And also, just knowing how to arrive in Ramallah, or Lahore, or Srinagar, knowing virtually no one, and having to get settled, make contacts, and carry out a research project— all that was hugely valuable to freelancing now as an independent journalist. This spring, I went to Nepal to cover the first anniversary of the 2015 earthquake. I also contributed articles from Sri Lanka and northwestern India.

Did you acquire any professional experience related to your line of work while in graduate school?

I did a lot of different things while in graduate school. I started volunteering with IRIS, a nonprofit organization in New Haven that aids incoming refugees, while I was in my third year. I spent the next year in Israel and the West Bank on a long grant and continued volunteering with NGO’s while conducting my own research. That was also when I first started writing journalism articles. The next year, I went through a training program in development reporting at the United Nations in New York City. I also worked with a Fair Trade craft company that employs women artisans in Central Asia. I explored many, many different paths and activities. I lived in New York City for two years, and went to a lot of networking events in the city. I also volunteered as a translator with an advocacy organization that works with detained immigrants and as an arts teacher at a non-profit working with recent Arab immigrants, and I trained as an abortion escort. I wrote my dissertation pretty quickly and never got that stressed about it, except towards the very end. I think it’s because I was continually doing things outside of academia, and that helped me keep a realistic perspective. When you’re working with communities that just fled war and still manage to seem upbeat compared to the hysterical, miserable PhD students you know, the whole system starts to seem pretty ridiculous.

What advice would you offer humanities PhDs who are interested in your line of work?

Be open and honest with professors and peers. In my day, there was a taboo around admitting that you wanted to work outside of academia. That meant I didn’t reveal my plans until my last year of school, which is a shame, because some of those professors might actually have been in a position to help me. Take advantage of the time and resources you have at Yale. PhD students seem to think that they’re exceptionally busy, but trust me, you will probably never have this much time on your hands again during your working lives. Take advantage of it. The stipend means that you have a financial safety net that you can fall back on as you explore. Listen to your gut. If there is something that excites you—a project or person that you read about—get in touch and try to get involved. Have fun with it. For international development specifically, figure out what role you’d like to have, where you’d like to be based, and see how your skills translate. But be critical and be savvy. Don’t conform to existing models of development and aid. See how you can innovate and reform. Follow the industry and appreciate its complexities. For freelance journalism, find a news hook then turn your research into an Op-ed. Or think of an interesting story idea, do a bit of pre-research, and think about what outlets it fits with. Look for editors’ emails on Twitter and send in a cold pitch. Look for guidelines online. Keep pitching. Editors are busy and can take weeks to respond. It takes a long time to get started, and work is slow, but it’s an exciting way to get your writing to a much wider readership. Academics tend to think they need to spend twenty years on a subject before they’re qualified to discuss it. The rest of the world does not feel that way— to its detriment, often.

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Graduate Achievement Awards 2024

The Department of English and Comparative Literature is honored to celebrate our graduate students’ accomplishments in research and teaching. Graduate students are integral to the DOECL and the university community. To commemorate our exceptional students, the department gives annual graduate achievement awards to highlight the outstanding work of DOECL graduate students across fields and stages in the program.

Read about this year’s awardees below.

Rene Marzuk was awarded the Ruth Rose Richardson Award for an outstanding record in the first year of graduate study. Marzuk’s research interests are in literary instances of emergence and intertextual approaches that reveal the production of knowledge as a collective endeavor spanning times, cultures, and disciplines.

The Joseph Breen Award for outstanding work in the field of Medieval Studies went to Krista Telford. Telford researches forms of prayer in medieval and early modern literature, using an interdisciplinary approach that considers the performative aspect of many poems and prayers and draws on musicological research.

Lanier Walker was given the Howell-Voitle Award for outstanding work on a dissertation in the Early Modern Period. Walker’s dissertation examines the epistemological value of the documentary medium in Elizabethan and Jacobean England by asking how, when, and why early moderns decided to trust the documents they encountered. She argues that the vocabulary of documents offered playwrights and poets an invaluable framework with which to explore social, political, and spiritual uncertainties.

The Lee Green Award for outstanding work in race or ethnic studies was awarded to Victoria Valle, who specializes in Latina/o Studies, the digital humanities, and 19th/20th century Multi-Ethnic literature.

Angelique Bassard was awarded the Robert Bain Award for excellence achieved by a second-year student in pre-1900 American Literature or in Southern Literature. Bassard’s research is in American literature in the Long Nineteenth Century, with particular interest in Postbellum African American Literature, Southern Writers, Reconstruction, the memory and haunting of the slave past, and Southern realism and romanticism.

The C. Hugh Holman Award for a student with an outstanding record writing a dissertation in pre-1900 American Literature was given to Jordan Williamson. Williamson studies transatlantic literature of the Long Nineteenth Century and modernism.

Brendan Chambers got the Linda Wagner-Martin Award for a student with an outstanding record writing a dissertation in post-1900 American Literature. Chambers’ research focuses on phenomenology, exploring how writers across genres represent consciousness and perception in their writing.

Fred and Joan Thomson Award for outstanding work on a dissertation in 18th or 19th-century British Literature went to Katherine Stein. Stein studies figures of the child and children’s literature in the Victorian Era from an interdisciplinary and transhistorical approach reaching into the early twentieth century.

Jessica Ginocchio was awarded the Diane Leonard Teaching Award for outstanding foreign language teaching. Ginocchio teaches Russian and researches late 19th and early 20th-century Russian and German fiction, with special interests in the depictions of animals and death in literature.

The Graduate Essay Prize in Comparative Literature was given to Emily Singeisen. Singeisen’s research investigates the ways in which contemporary theory might enrich our reading of ancient literature.

Margaret Maurer earned the Dougald Macmillan Award for the outstanding dissertation in English. Maurer’s research focuses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature and science, especially alchemy and chymistry.

The Eugene H. Falk Award for the outstanding dissertation in Comparative Literature was awarded to Chloe Hamer. Hamer’s research focuses on 20th-century Francophone Caribbean literature and memory studies.

Congratulations to all the Graduate Achievement awardees.

The graduate program provides qualified students with a framework for studying a broad range of literatures, for exploring literature and other arts, and for pursuing translation studies or other forms of interdisciplinary inquiry. In addition to the body of knowledge and methodology appropriate to their individual programs of study, students are expected to acquire a considerable familiarity with world literature and with literary theory and criticism. Students work closely with the departmental director of graduate studies to formulate a curriculum that meets their needs and maintains the standards of the discipline. While the normal requirements for the PhD are described below, students may have certain courses waived because of their previous training or professional goals.

Doctoral studies in comparative literature assume a foundation in the study of literature approximately equivalent to an MA in Comparative Literature. The doctoral program provides opportunities for the study of literature from a comparative point of view, extending the reach of inquiry into fields such as philosophy, history and art. Basic to the program is a solid foundation in critical methodology and in the history of criticism.

The Comparative Literature PhD offers two tracks: the Doctoral Program in Literary Studies and the Doctoral Track in Philosophy, Literature and the Theory of Criticism (PLC).

Doctoral Program in Literary Studies

Students in this program are expected to achieve the following objectives: an in-depth knowledge of one literature, including the main critical sources for its study; a knowledge of a substantial number of works in a second literature; a knowledge of a large number of masterworks of world literature (such as those represented in our MA reading list); a concentration in a period, a genre or other area of study encompassing at least two literatures; and a good knowledge of the history of criticism and of contemporary literary theory. Highly unusual major or minor areas of study require the approval of the departmental faculty.

Admission Requirements

Formal admission to the program entails one of the following procedures:

• Students in Binghamton University’s Comparative Literature MA program who have passed the MA examination with a grade of B+ or better may be recommended to the program at the discretion of the departmental examination committee.
• Students presenting an MA degree in national literature from another department or university, or an MA in comparative literature from another university, are normally not required to take the master’s examination.

Applicants to the doctoral program should include in their application some samples of their writing (e.g., one or more term papers).

Program Requirements

Course requirements.

The total course requirement for the MA + PhD program is 60 credits. Students entering with an MA will need to take 36 credits to complete the course. All students must take COLI 592 Proseminar, usually in their first semester. Students are expected to design their own curricula in accordance with their scholarly interests and their professional goals in consultation with members of the faculty.

Comparative literature courses at Binghamton are, basically, of two kinds: broadly-based seminars covering the evolution of a genre, the history of criticism, etc., or monographic-type courses concentrating on one or more authors, a development in literature or in literary theory, a particular interdisciplinary approach, etc. A student’s program should aim at achieving the objectives of the program through a balance among the studies of literary history and theory and the comparative study of specific works and authors. In addition to the courses and seminars offered by the Comparative Literature Department, students are encouraged to take courses offered by other departments in their fields of specialization.

Foreign Language Requirement

PhD candidates must demonstrate a solid reading knowledge in two languages other than English. Both languages must directly relate to the student’s areas of research and must be approved by the director of graduate studies (or program director). Satisfaction of the language requirements is a prerequisite for acquiring the ABD status.

Choosing Advisors

All PhD students are encouraged to seek the guidance of an advisor at the beginning of their third semester to assist them in designing their programs and choosing dissertation topics.

Exam Requirement

The comprehensive examination consists of four parts:

• Dissertation Proposal (in the format of a substantial paper): This paper is expected to review primary and secondary sources and articulate the problem(s) that the student will focus on.
• Historical Construction of a Topic: This section of the exam is devoted to a theme that treats the student’s area of expertise in its historical dimension. This is a 72-hour take-home exam.
• Minor Field: This is a second area of specialization that may be conceived in such a way as to complement the major area of expertise or to represent an altogether different focus. This is a 72-hour take-home exam.
• Oral Examination: This segment is based on the dissertation proposal and on the preceding portions of the exam and involves all of the examiners. Students are expected to make an oral presentation of their doctoral project at the beginning of the examination.

Students choose an examination committee (subject to the approval of the graduate director) with a minimum of three examiners, at least one of whom is to be a core faculty member in the Department of Comparative Literature. Reading lists for parts two and three of the examination should be developed through close collaboration with the examiners. The dissertation proposal must be submitted no later than March 15 for an examination in the spring semester and Oct. 15 for an examination in the fall semester. The oral examination should take place while classes are in session in fall or spring.

The student is formally admitted to candidacy upon passing the comprehensive examination. Once formally admitted to candidacy, the student has five years in which to complete and defend the dissertation.

Dissertation Requirements

The dissertation should be comparative in its scope and implications, and demonstrate the student’s ability to deal with theoretical problems and to organize and present the research methodically. The Graduate School requires that the candidate, while working on the dissertation, register for one credit hour of COLI 699.

On the initial approval of the dissertation by its readers, the candidate is expected to defend it at an oral examination lasting from one to two hours.

Doctoral Track in Philosophy, Literature and the Theory of Criticism (PLC)

This program offers students a course of study responsive to the interdisciplinary nature of work in literary theory, literature and philosophy. It provides an extensive background in literary history and methods of reading, as well as significant preparation in philosophy and modern theories of language and interpretation informed by research from such fields as anthropology, the humanities, linguistics, psychoanalysis and semiotics. This doctoral track draws on the campus resources in the areas of philosophy and modern theory of criticism and seeks to bring these into vital interplay with literary research and work in the visual arts.

Qualified students holding a bachelor’s or master’s degree are eligible for admission. Check the website of the Binghamton University Graduate School for application instructions. An undergraduate specialization in philosophy or literature is desirable but not essential for admission. Students considered insufficiently prepared for work in the program may be required to do additional work to make up for deficiencies.

For students entering with a BA, the minimum course requirement for the PhD is 60 credits; those who enter with an MA need to take 36 credits. Students are required to take: COLI 592 Proseminar; courses in literary criticism, theory, and literature; and six semester courses with philosophical content.

PLC students entering with a BA are expected to take the MA exam in comparative literature with a PLC focus. This includes a reading list with core texts in philosophy, available in the department office.

Students in the PLC program will also be required to complete the comprehensive examination. This exam consists of four parts:

• Dissertation Proposal (in the format of a substantial paper): This paper should review the significant primary and secondary sources relevant to this area of work and should articulate the problem(s) that the student will focus on.
• PLC Core (Philosophical Texts): Based on the reading list provided by the student. This is a 72-hour take-home exam.
• PLC Core (Literary Texts): Based on the reading list provided by the student. This is a 72-hour take-home exam.
• Oral Examination: This segment is based on the dissertation proposal and on the preceding portions of the exam and involves all of the examiners.

Additional Information About the Program

For more information on the Comparative Literature PhD program, please refer to the Comparative Literature website for more information. To apply to the Comparative Literature program, please visit the University Admissions website .

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Twenty-seven graduating seniors, recent yale college alums win fulbrights.

Twenty-seven graduating seniors from Yale’s Class of 2024 or recent Yale College alumni were offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards for the 2024-2025 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

In partnership with more than 140 countries worldwide, the program enables graduating college seniors, graduate students, or young professionals to pursue graduate study, research, or teach English abroad. During their grants, Fulbrighters meet, work, live with, and learn from the people of their host country.

Recipients are selected based on academic and professional achievement, as well as their record of service and leadership potential in their respective fields. 

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered at Yale College through the Office of Fellowship Programs in the Center for International and Professional Experience. Yale has long been a top producer of U.S. student Fulbright awardees, with more than 80 Yale students or alumni winning the prestigious honor in the past four years alone.

Information about this year’s Fulbright recipients follows:

Julia wang , fulbright spain and american space valencia teaching assistantship.

Julia Wang ’24, who is from southern California, majored in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology on the pre-medicine track at Yale College, with an intensive certificate in education studies. On campus, she was involved with Splash at Yale, Camp Kesem, and the Yale Symphony Orchestra.

Maya Albold , Fulbright Mongolia English Teaching Assistantship

Maya Albold ’24, who is from St. Augustine, Florida, majored in history (politics, law, and government) and East Asian studies. At Yale, she served on the board of the Yale International Relations Association, volunteered through the Migration Alliance at Yale, and directed the East Asian Studies Student Advisory Council. Last year, she studied human rights in Nepal, Jordan, and Chile, and then interned at the Department of State in the Human Rights Bureau’s East Asia Office. She looks to apply the lessons learned during her time at Yale in Mongolia next fall as a Fulbright ETA.

Eric Linh , Fulbright Taiwan English Teaching Assistantship

Eric Linh ’23, ’24 M.P.H., who is from Philadelphia, graduated from Yale College last year with a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering and a language certificate in Chinese. He recently finished a Master of Public Health in health policy through the accelerated 5-year program. He will serve as an English teaching assistant in Taiwan during the upcoming academic year.

John Nguyen , Fulbright Vietnam English Teaching Assistantship

John Nguyen ’24, who is from Saint Paul, Minnesota, graduated with a B.A. in English, with a concentration in nonfiction writing. He will travel to Vietnam next year on an English Teaching Assistantship. He’s been recognized by the Frederick Mortimer Clapp Fellowship, the National YoungArts Foundation, and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and represented Yale in the Connecticut Poetry Circuit.

Chase Daneker , Fulbright-Garcia Robles Grant, Binational Business Program

Chase Daneker ‘24, from Bethesda, Maryland, majored in global affairs with an advanced language certificate in Spanish. At Yale, he received the Thomas C. Barry Travel Fellowship, which supported his independent research on collective memory formation following the Peruvian internal conflict from 1980 to 2000, and the O’Leary Cepeda and Leitner International Fellowships, which supported his work for CEDRO, a Peruvian NGO implementing alternative development projects in the Amazon. Next year, he will participate in the Fulbright Binational Business Program in Mexico.

Francesca Nyakora , Fulbright Brazil Research Grant

Francesca Nyakora ‘23 studied political science and African studies at Yale while also receiving certificates in French and Human Rights. She also served as the president of the inaugural Yale Model African Union, on the board of the Yale International Relations Association, and as a Kerry Fellow. She also interned at the Department of State and the United Nations Development Program. Since graduating, Nyakora has worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a junior fellow. Upon completion of her junior fellowship, she will begin her Fulbright in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ravi Balasubramanian , Fulbright France Research Grant

Ravi Nicholas Balasubramanian ’24, won a Fulbright Fellowship Independent Research/Study Award to France, where he will work at the Institut Curie in Paris, researching the biological principles and mechanisms of developmental synchrony, with the goal of understanding how cells in an organism coordinate their growth and divisions. At the same time, he will be pursuing the Integrated Masters in the Life Sciences (IMaLiS) degree at the École Normale Supérieure. At Yale, he double majored in molecular, cellular, developmental biology (MCDB), with a focus in quantitative biology; and comparative literature, in the literature and comparative cultures track, with a focus in Spanish.

John Klein , Fulbright Taiwan English Teaching Assistantship

John Klein ’24, who is originally from Fairfax, Virginia, studied history at Yale on the Empires and Colonialism track. At Yale, he was a peer mentor for the Department of History, a research assistant at the Yale Institution for Society and Policy Studies, and a member of the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps. He also competed for the Model United Nations Team at Yale (MUNTY) and was a member of the Yale International Relations Association. Next year he will travel to Taiwan as an English Teaching Assistant through the Fulbright program.

Emily Lau , Fulbright New Zealand Study Grant in Indigenous Studies

Emily Lau ’24, who is originally from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, but has lived in Maine for several years, studied math and computer science at Yale. She was also a member of the Yale Glee Club and the women's club basketball team and has been a peer tutor for various math classes for four years. This summer she will return to Hawaiʻi to learn more about loko iʻa and food sovereignty in Pacific islands and will then travel to Aotearoa New Zealand next January on a study/research Fulbright for a Masters in Indigenous Studies.

Sean Piñón , Fulbright Switzerland Research Grant

Sean Piñón ’24, who is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, aspires to pursue both neurological research and medicine. At Yale he conducted biochemical and intravital neuroimaging experiments for a research project concerned with the development of novel cell-type specific pharmacotherapies for the potential treatment of chronic neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative disease within the Grutzendler Lab. He received a Study/Research Award to conduct a study on vascular remodeling post microstroke in a glial-vascular neurobiology lab at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland.

Alexander Goldberg , Fulbright Italy Research Grant

Alexander Franco Goldberg ’22, ’23 M.M., who graduated from Yale College with a B.A. in philosophy, is a violinist who “ties music to larger aesthetic and literary concerns that illuminate his performances.” Goldberg, who is interested in linking musical performances with literature, poetry, and art, is currently studying with Salvatore Accardo in Cremona at the Stauffer Center for Strings. At Yale, he also completed a masters in violin at the Yale School of Music, where he was the first and then-only student admitted to the new B.A./M.M. dual-degree program. He was also awarded the Head of College Cup for “outstanding scholarly achievement and creative promise,” and the Selden Award for “verve, idealism and constructive interest in music and the humanities.”

Melina Joseph , Fulbright Kyrgyzstan English Teaching Assistantship

Melina Joseph ’24 studied comparative literature and psychology with a certificate in translation studies. On campus, she served as a fellow with Dwight Hall, was a peer liaison with the Yale Chaplain’s Office, and co-president of Bridges ESL (English as a Second Language), a nonprofit sponsored by Dwight Hall and the Asian American Cultural Center. She served as an undergraduate fellow in European Studies as well as Latin American & Iberian Studies at the Yale MacMillan Center. She has also completed research assistantships at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School, and has served on the boards of the Yale International Relations Association and the Yale Undergraduate Legal Aid Association. 

Lisbette Acosta , Fulbright Spain English Teaching Assistantship

Lisbette Acosta ’24 studied psychology, education, and pre-medicine studies at Yale College. Originally from La Vega, Dominican Republic, and currently based in New Haven, she bridges the two locations with her research centered on improving the health outcomes of Eastern Caribbean adults. Her teaching experience ranges from local to international. On campus, Acosta served as an instructor for the Yale Young Global Scholars Solving Global Challenges Track and an Organic Chemistry Course-Based Peer Tutor for the Department of Chemistry. She was also involved with Matriculate as a head advising fellow, outreach coordinator, and curriculum creator, guiding hundreds of low-income high school students through the college application process nationally and on Yale's campus. She also served as an academic strategies peer mentor for the Yale Prison Education Initiative, tutoring incarcerated students in math, chemistry, and English.

Sai Rayala , Fulbright India Research Grant

Sai Rayala ’24, who is from Powell, Ohio, studied history at Yale and received a certificate in human rights from Yale Law School. Her research interests include South Asian environmental history, forced migration, and international human rights law. At Yale, she served as the project leader for the Lowenstein Human Rights Program's Crimes Against Humanity Project, city editor of the Yale Daily News, and online managing editor of the Yale Review of International Studies. With the Fulbright Research Grant she will spend next year in Delhi, India, studying how dams have shaped India’s developmental path in the post-independence period.

Benjamin Everett-Lane , Fulbright Taiwan English Teaching Assistantship

Ben Everett-Lane ’24 graduated from Yale with a degree in environmental studies on the Climate & Energy track with certificates in Chinese and data science. His interests center around climate change communication, particularly at the international level. He received an English Teaching Assistant Award for Taiwan.

Steven Lewis , Fulbright South Africa Research Grant

Steven Lewis ‘18, who was born and raised in New York and currently lives in Brooklyn, is an M.D.-Ph.D. student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stony Brook University studying breast cancer epigenetics and the tumor microenvironment at Cold Spring Harbor Lab. His fellowship project will focus on analysis of genomic sequences of children with cancer and healthy controls in South Africa.

Em Tchorz , Fulbright Uzbekistan English Teaching Assistantship

Em Tchorz ’23, who studied neuroscience at Yale, was also a four-year varsity sailor and a member of the Polish Society. Since graduation she has been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and plans to continue working in the public sector after her grant period. 

Nicholas Wade , Fulbright-Garcia Robles Grant, Binational Business Program

Nicholas Wade ’21, who is originally from outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, received his bachelor’s degree in political science and Middle Eastern studies at Yale, while also earning a certificate in the Arabic language. Previously he had travelled extensively to the Middle East via the Critical Language Scholarship. He worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, specifically in the infrastructure and structured finance team. He currently works in the investment office at the Andrew Mellon Foundation, focused on real estate, private equity, and public equities. 

Daniela Naumov , Fulbright Mexico English Teaching Assistantship

Daniela Naumov ‘24, who is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, majored in neuroscience on the pre-med track at Yale. The daughter of immigrants from Serbia and Macedonia, she is dedicated to supporting immigrant communities through accessible and equitable healthcare initiatives. A former co-director of patient services at the HAVEN Free Clinic and of student programming at Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS), a New Haven-based nonprofit, she works to increase access to comprehensive health services among New Haven community members.

Eli Kennard , Fulbright Algeria English Teaching Assistantship

Eli Kennard ’24 majored in computer science and psychology. In his senior thesis he explored game-based disinformation interventions. His passion for understanding how people learn has inspired him to teach community and consent courses as well as lead backpacking trips for young adults in transitional periods of their lives. A throughline in his educational journey has been the use of language to explore new places and connect with new people; At Yale he took courses in Arabic, Italian, and Swahili. He will teach English in Algeria next year.

Mariela Barrales , Fulbright Mexico English Teaching Assistantship

Mariela Barrales ’24, who is from East Los Angeles, was a double major in political science and Spanish. Her first-generation, low-income background inspired much of her work at Yale, which largely centered on higher education accessibility. She worked as a Dwight Hall Community Response Fellow and interned with The Perfect Blend, an education nonprofit in New Haven. She has also served as an admissions fellow with College Match LA, coaching high school juniors through the college application process. With the Fulbright grant, she plans to take a year to work as an English Teaching Assistant in Mexico.

Scott Hicks , Fulbright Istanbul Study Grant

Scott Hicks '18 will be in Istanbul, pursuing a master's degree from the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University. He will be researching the recently discovered diaries of Eveline Thomson Scott, an English-American woman who was born in Istanbul and lived in the city until her passing in 1976. For the past four years, Scott has been traveling while working as an essay coach.

Ben Kramer , Fulbright Sweden Study Grant

Ben Karmer ’24, who is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, double majored in music and linguistics at Yale while also pursuing a joint master's degree in linguistics. His research interests lie in phonetics, laboratory phonology, and sociolinguistics. At Yale, he was a member of the Yale Phonetics Laboratory and the Yale Undergraduate Linguistics Society, and he was the winner of the Abraham Beekman Cox Prize for Music Composition. For his senior project in musical theater composition he wrote a musical about the AIDS epidemic, and previously served as musical director of the Yale Whiffenpoofs and sang with the Yale Spizzwinks, Redhot & Blue of Yale, and the Yale Glee Club.

Fiona O’Brien , Fulbright France Study Award

Fiona O’Brien ’22 graduated from Yale summa cum laude with a B.S. in environmental engineering and a certificate in French. While at Yale, she participated in the Global Health Studies program, supported several volunteer organizations, including Engineers Without Borders and Community Health Educators, and went on many long runs and bike rides in New Haven. She currently works in climate and sustainability consulting in New York. As the recipient of a Fulbright France Award, she will pursue her Master of Science and Technology in Smart Cities and Climate Policy at École Polytechnique.  

Sandhya Kumar , Fulbright India Study Grant

Sandhya Kumar ‘23 continued her studies at Yale as a Master of Public Health student in Health Policy with a concentration in Global Health at the Yale School of Public Health. Originally from Rochester, Minnesota, she is in the accelerated 5-year BA/MPH program and received her bachelor’s degree in global affairs and global health from Yale College. On campus, she volunteered with the Neighborhood Health Project in New Haven, led a summer high school program with the Yale International Relations Association, danced with the Yale Rangeela Bollywood fusion dance team, and was co-president of the South Asian Society. She will continue exploring topics in global health in Mumbai during her Fulbright year. 

Renee Deminne , Fulbright Armenia English Teaching Assistantship

Renee Deminne ’24, who is originally from Charles County, Maryland, recently completed a degree in Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies. At Yale her interests have been in film, transnational culture, and education. She has worked in the Poorvu Center as a Pedagogical Partner and with Dwight Hall as a public school intern. Previously, she received scholarships for study in Moldova, Armenia, and Poland. This fall she will begin an English Teaching Assistantship in Armenia.

William Salaverry , Fulbright Open Study/Research award in Guatemala

William Salaverry ’24, who graduated this year with a B.A. in Latin American Studies, will complete the Fulbright Open Study/Research award in Guatemala.

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The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Going to College

Benjamin B. Bolger has spent his whole life amassing academic degrees. What can we learn from him?

Bolger has spent the last 30-odd years attending top universities. Credit...

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By Joseph Bernstein

• Published June 3, 2024 Updated June 5, 2024, 1:39 p.m. ET

Benjamin B. Bolger has been to Harvard and Stanford and Yale. He has been to Columbia and Dartmouth and Oxford, and Cambridge, Brandeis and Brown. Over all, Bolger has 14 advanced degrees, plus an associate’s and a bachelor’s. Some of Bolger’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 M.F.A.s from Ashland University and the University of Tampa, for example.

Listen to this article, read by Robert Petkoff

Some produced microscopically specific research, like Bolger’s Harvard dissertation, “Deliberative Democratic Design: Participants’ Perception of Strategy Used for Deliberative Public Participation and the Types of Participant Satisfaction Generated From Deliberative Public Participation in the Design Process.” Others have been more of a grab bag, such as a 2004 master’s from Dartmouth, for which Bolger studied Iranian sociology and the poetry of Robert Frost.

He has degrees in international development, creative nonfiction and education. He has studied “conflict and coexistence” under Mari Fitzduff, the Irish policymaker who mediated during the Troubles, and American architecture under the eminent historian Gwendolyn Wright. He is currently working, remotely, toward a master’s in writing for performance from Cambridge.

Bolger 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 Pond — he met his wife there, on one of his early-morning constitutionals — and as he expounds upon learning and nature, it is easy to imagine him back in Thoreau’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 anachronistically earnest, even romantic, about the reason he gives for spending the past 30-odd years pursuing college degrees. “I love learning,” he told me over lunch last year, without even a touch of irony. I had been pestering him for the better part of two 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 a 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 Bolger as the wacky byproduct of an empty system. Then again, Bolger 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 Bolger, and the vast majority of those came from universities within the state of Michigan (no disrespect to the Broncos, Eagles or Lakers). Because Bolger is just 48, and Michael Nicholson, of Kalamazoo, is 83, Bolger could surpass him, according to back-of-envelope math, as soon as 2054. In other words, Bolger 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 values. But what are those values, exactly? Of course, there are the oft-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 percent — 41 percent! — 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 C.V. that you’ve 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,” Thoreau observed, famously, after his experiment in simple living. (Though, rich of Thoreau: he went to Harvard.) In a much different, much opposed way — one involving central heat — Bolger 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 know?

In 1978, Bolger was 2, riding in a Buick Riviera in Durand, Mich., 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 schoolteacher. Bolger’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. Bolger and his mother began splitting time between their comfortable home near Flint and his grandfather’s ramshackle farm in Grand Haven, which was so drafty they sometimes curled up by the wood-burning furnace.

Bolger’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 Bolger 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 home-school him — though “home” is perhaps not the right word: The two spent endless hours driving, to science museums, to the elite Cranbrook Academy of Art outside Detroit for drawing lessons, even to the Smithsonian’s 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 passed 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 Lansing and do the same thing the next day.

“I saw the university as a home,” Bolger says.

Bolger wore secondhand clothes and had only one close friend his age. Yet he felt he was on a grand adventure. At 11, he began taking classes at Muskegon Community College. Still reading below a third-grade level, Bolger 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, Bolger decided to apply to law school because of his admiration for the consumer advocate Ralph Nader, whose crusade for safer vehicles resonated with Bolger after his accident as a toddler. He was administered the LSAT questions orally and was admitted to Harvard, Stanford and Yale.

At Yale Law School, Bolger floundered. The method Bolger and his mother had devised to cover reading assignments fell apart: There was so much of it, and it was so detailed. Bolger’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 Bolger at the time. Bolger failed two classes his first semester and dropped out.

To attend Yale, Bolger 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 home-schooling. Then he just kept going, embarking on an odyssey through the Anglosphere’s great universities, during which he improved his reading but still leaned on his mother. From Oxford, he went to Cambridge, where he took a master’s in sociology and politics. After three years in Britain, Bolger moved to California, where he studied for a master’s in interdisciplinary education from Stanford, and then quickly to New York, where he got another master’s, in the politics of education, as well as a master’s degree in real estate development, both from Columbia, in a single academic year. He found time in the summers to work toward a master’s of arts in liberal studies from Dartmouth. He slept four hours a night.

And he kept on stacking degrees: a master’s in design studies with a real estate concentration from Harvard; a master’s in international development from Brown; the “coexistence and conflict” master’s from Brandeis; a master’s 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, Bolger has done a trio of M.F.A.s 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 Bolger 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 à la National Lampoon’s Van Wilder? Many of us love learning, too, but we don’t do what Bolger 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, Bolger 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 Bolger do.

Over the past 35 years, acceptance rates to the United States’ most elite universities have shrunk to about 6 percent from nearly 30 percent. 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, Bolger became a full-time private college-admissions consultant. “No other consultant has Dr. Bolger’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 Bolger runs at least $100,000. (In the world of elite college coaching , this isn’t exceptional: A five-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 Belichick, Mr. Miyagi and Yoda.

On a humid morning late last summer, Bolger saw clients in an upstairs room at the ‘Quin 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 staid Union Club, opposite Boston Common, and the Harvard Club, which feels loosey-goosey by comparison.

That day he was meeting with Anjali Anand, a sunny then-17-year-old who was in Boston for the summer to do research at Boston University; and Vivian Chen, also 17 at the time, also sunny, also in Boston to study on B.U.’s campus. Anjali and Vivian 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 U.S. News and World Report college rankings. These accomplishments must be arranged into stories so compelling that they stand out from the many other compelling stories of the teenagers clamoring for admission.

And so Bolger 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 Anjali to be vulnerable. “Someone who is 100 percent confident with no hesitations isn’t as compelling,” he said. “This is why there are more movies made about Batman than Superman.” With Vivian, he tried to connect her desire to become a dentist to a deeper narrative thread.

“Why the mouth and teeth?” Bolger asked.

Bolger said his business has enabled him to mix with “the 1 percent crowd.” In addition to his condo on Cambridge’s tony Memorial Drive, Bolger owns a house in Virginia and his family farm in Michigan. He has an Amex invite-only Centurion card. In 2016, he donated more than $50,000 to support Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, for which he received a special Jeff Koons print; more recently, he has donated more than $2,500 to the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He loves to attend celebrity talks: Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney, Joe Montana — anyone who, in his mind, defines a category.

Bolger carries about 25 clients at a time, but his most important pupil is his 9-year-old daughter, Benjamina, whom he home-schools and considers his best friend. Bolger models his daughter’s education after his own: hands-on, interactive, wide-ranging, lots of time in the car. (Bolger’s son, Blitze, is also being home-schooled, but he’s only 4, 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. Bolger 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, Bolger took Benjamina to Concord’s North Bridge, for a holistic lesson but also a lesson in holism. He was joined there by his friend Dan Sullivan, a fellow polymath, who has also collected a staggering number of credentials. (The 42 entries under the “Experience” section of his LinkedIn page include Ambassador at the Parliament of the World’s Religions and Colonel at the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.) Bolger 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 McNamara, 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 “Concord Hymn.” There the three of them stood in contemplation, looking a little like a child star and her security detail.

“Was that shot actually heard around the world?” Bolger asked.

“I don’t think so,” Benjamina replied.

“Yes,” Bolger said. “So this is an example of a metaphor.”

​​After stopping in Concord for a bite, Bolger and Benjamina drove the two miles to Walden Pond. The pair sat on a wooden plank above the beach on the pond’s east side. Except for the sounds of teenagers flirting and retirees shifting in folding chairs, it was quiet. Bolger explained Thoreau, the woods, the essential facts.

“I don’t know if you find this inspirational or not,” Bolger 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,” Bolger said. “A year just seems too long.”

Thoreau’s experiment made him one of the most important men in American history. Bolger’s experiment has, well, not done that. Instead, it has done something even weirder. To spend any time around Bolger 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, Bolger’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 Kreisler’s thorny violin piece “Sicilienne and Rigaudon” at Carnegie Hall with grace, élan 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: Bolger had a B.L.T., 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?” Bolger asked.

Benjamina didn’t hesitate. “Yes!”

Read by Robert Petkoff

Narration produced by Anna Diamond and Krish Seenivasan

Engineered by Devin Murphy

Source for illustration at the top: Photographs from the Bolger family; Arnold Gold/The New Haven Register, via Associated Press.

David Hilliard is an artist and educator from Boston. He creates narrative multipaneled photographs, often based on his life or the lives of people around him.

An earlier version of this article misidentified one of the degrees that Benjamin B. Bolger earned from Columbia University. It is a master’s degree in real estate development, not in architecture.

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Joseph Bernstein is a Times reporter who writes feature stories for the Styles section. More about Joseph Bernstein

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