12 ms·
I would really like universities to be meritocracies. However I went to a highly ranked school for undergrad and I can assure you it was nowhere close to a meri
by opportune 8y ago
I would really like universities to be meritocracies. However I went to a highly ranked school for undergrad and I can assure you it was nowhere close to a meritocracy, nor did it really try to pretend that it was.
That narrative may exist for you and others, but it's entirely accidental.
- leftyted 8y agoI also went to a highly ranked school. It wasn't a perfect meritocracy but it was at least oriented towards merit. But my initial point remains: the idea of the meritocracy is necessary. I don't think universities can exist without it, at least not in this form.
- opportune 8y agoSee, I really don't think they are oriented much towards merit either. At least, not my idea of "merit". My idea of merit would be purely academic: test scores, grades (though these are very leaky), and academic achievements outside the classroom (e.g. performance in academic competitions). Yet many, if not most, people at highly ranked/competitive universities don't fall into the "academic" admissions bucket: there's also athletes, musicians, people with "quirky hobbies" (many of which are invented purely for college admissions), people who might have had standards relaxed a bit to meet demographic targets, and most of all kids from rich feeder schools + legacies. Then you get the rest of the students who get in purely on academic merit. In my experience those maybe make up a plurality but not a majority. They're basically there to lend legitimacy to the rich kids.
- CydeWeys 8y agoIsn't research the main driving force behind many universities? Would they really be affected that much by how some undergraduates got in, especially since they likely wouldn't even be participating in research anyway?