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Ya sorry, if you want a tenure track position for your excellent contributions to academia, the chances you went to a not very good school are quite low, becaus

Ya sorry, if you want a tenure track position for your excellent contributions to academia, the chances you went to a not very good school are quite low, because those folks typically aren't doing the top tier work. It's not that it's not possible, and we see that with it not being 100% of the time, but by the time you're in grad school, the top talent starts to rise to the top... particularly for the sciences where tuition isn't a factor because the school pays you (so it's not just about how rich you are). Personally I see this actually as a fairly good thing as a student - when I was in less good schools I was always happy to know when a teacher/professor had gone to a top school themselves. You want to be taught by the best. Academia is really hard. There are very few spots, and there's a wide spectrum of talent that exists. The top 25% is a very large spread already (I'd suggest the bottom of that 25% shouldn't really be called elite), and you will easily encompass a huge portion of the best in it just by virtue of pareto distributions. There will possibly be some weaker talent that might get a job that could have been had by an equally weaker talent from a non-top 25% school, but I seriously doubt that's a general rule. There's just not enough slots, and the top talent is so much more obviously capable than the bottom talent. For reference, I've personally attended a wide variety of schooling in the US (public & private pre-grad, community college, lower-tier state college, upper-tier state college, and elite private graduate) and seen the differences in the population makeup. There has been top talent everywhere, but the percentage at the school has varied drastically (from <1% to >50-90%). I don't know why we pretend that all people are created equal, from equal backgrounds, and should be expected therefore to have equal results... and if they don't, then bias must be inherent! This is to me ideals of what society ought to look like forced onto messy reality where it's patently not the case. Not everyone is an A+ talent, and in fact, those are rare by definition. The percentage of A+ talent is going to drop as you go down the totem pole. That's just life.

majormajor 5y ago
> I don't know why we pretend that all people are created equal, from equal backgrounds, and should be expected therefore to have equal results... I think the number of people who truly believe that are low. But you'll find people all over the map in HOW they disagree with it! For instance, if you point out that some people have unequal backgrounds, you might get labeled "woke," especially if you push for certain policies to try to mitigate that!
pauldenton 5y ago
Have you seen the level of indoctrination in these elite schools? The people who say a man who puts on a dress becomes a woman, and sees racism behind every difference in groups is not producing top tier work.

majormajor 5y ago

> I don't know why we pretend that all people are created equal, from equal backgrounds, and should be expected therefore to have equal results... I think the number of people who truly believe that are low. But you'll find people all over the map in HOW they disagree with it! For instance, if you point out that some people have unequal backgrounds, you might get labeled "woke," especially if you push for certain policies to try to mitigate that!

pauldenton 5y ago

Have you seen the level of indoctrination in these elite schools? The people who say a man who puts on a dress becomes a woman, and sees racism behind every difference in groups is not producing top tier work.