When I was on staff at the US Naval academy, I had the interesting experience of interacting with the bottom 2% and top 2%. There's a line in the US Code that s

When I was on staff at the US Naval academy, I had the interesting experience of interacting with the bottom 2% and top 2%. There's a line in the US Code that says we have to identify midshipmen who lack the aptitude for commissioned service. Like porn, it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. So the job also was in charge of identifying the best of the best and we had all sorts of metrics to assess the whole spectrum of midshipmen. Anyway, so I got to work with a lot of the Rhodes, Fitzgerald, etc scholars. And I was doing my med school pre-reqs, so I sat next to several of them in class. During the summers they'd intern for me. I've had a bizare number of academic elite as my direct reports. Then, in med school, I interviewed applicants who had made it to the interview process, who are from the same end of the gene pool. Before all of this exposure, interviewing the best of the best, I had been a division officer on a Navy frigate, and then an air craft carrier. Those jobs had some real leadership responsibility. Literally, "go this way, not that way", "do this, not that", "Yes, I said don't shoot" leadership. So, that added a different flavor to the experience of interviewing these kids. Frankly, my reaction was about like the author's: dismay. Despair. Disbelief. Conversely, I knew a few of the Rhodes kids when I was a midshipman too. We weren't surprised when they got the nod. Now, what I was surprised about was how they got the applications. At least at Canoe U. They'd set up a booth. In the Poli Sci hall. Which was further from the dorm than all the science and engineering halls. Basically, if you weren't a Poli Sci major (and there were plenty), some one had to, still has to, advise you to stop by. I thought that was an interesting twist in the dynamic.