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They operate a filter to bring in quality people for the benefit of the other legacy students who pay to get in. It’s like how Google shows and gathers organic

They operate a filter to bring in quality people for the benefit of the other legacy students who pay to get in. It’s like how Google shows and gathers organic results… so they can get eyeballs on their paid results. In fact google doesn’t even need to improve their organic results past a certain point as long as it’s good enough to bring eyeballs. Elite institutions thus only need to get a good enough sample of extraordinary individuals to bolster their status, but they do not live necessarily to bring an exceptional education to those who deserve an exceptional education.

geodel 4y ago
So why would those who deserve exceptional education go elite universities if there is no value to it?
- chrischen 4y ago
  Because the value is in the education?
  - geodel 4y ago
    Even more value in exceptional education. So why go to elite university if its not providing that?
    - chrischen 4y ago
      Yes they do provide that, but also restrict it because they have no incentive to really expand access to those resources. But part of their value offering is also in the selection process (for the merit based part at least). So they select, provide them with resources, and they really only have to do this enough to maintain their position and status to to sell their product: get an education with the best and brightest in our country. Their product is sold to the 1% of legacy admissions and donors who literally buy their way in. Legacy literally means intergenerational wealth preservation here. But my point is they only have to maintain their core product well enough to serve that purpose of letting the old money rub elbows with the actual best and brightest. Their goal isn’t to help the second, or third, or fourth best and brightest get the education they deserve. As someone who hires my goal would be to use these elite college filters, but then try to filter out the legacy admits… but that would be unfair to the truly talented legacy admits. It would be disruptive if somehow that high quality education was scaled so anyone could access it, and that stamp of approval from being associated with the elite colleges was also scaled out and handed to only those that are actually exceptional. For the most part the current system serves the exceptional decently well. Where it fails is with the rest of the population. Given two people of equal 50th percentile exceptional abilities, the one that is really wealthy can buy their way into fake exceptionality and get treated by society as if they were actually smarter.
- darawk 4y ago
  They go because there is value in the stamp of approval. Harvard's role in the economy is to certify people as being in the top x% of quality. If you are in the top x% and qualify for their stamp, it's certainly worthwhile to go get it, unless you think that you are so exceptional that you can do without it. And some people are, and do, but you generally have to be an order of magnitude or two above x to be certain of that working out for you.

geodel 4y ago

So why would those who deserve exceptional education go elite universities if there is no value to it?

chrischen 4y ago
Because the value is in the education?
- geodel 4y ago
  Even more value in exceptional education. So why go to elite university if its not providing that?
  - chrischen 4y ago
    Yes they do provide that, but also restrict it because they have no incentive to really expand access to those resources. But part of their value offering is also in the selection process (for the merit based part at least). So they select, provide them with resources, and they really only have to do this enough to maintain their position and status to to sell their product: get an education with the best and brightest in our country. Their product is sold to the 1% of legacy admissions and donors who literally buy their way in. Legacy literally means intergenerational wealth preservation here. But my point is they only have to maintain their core product well enough to serve that purpose of letting the old money rub elbows with the actual best and brightest. Their goal isn’t to help the second, or third, or fourth best and brightest get the education they deserve. As someone who hires my goal would be to use these elite college filters, but then try to filter out the legacy admits… but that would be unfair to the truly talented legacy admits. It would be disruptive if somehow that high quality education was scaled so anyone could access it, and that stamp of approval from being associated with the elite colleges was also scaled out and handed to only those that are actually exceptional. For the most part the current system serves the exceptional decently well. Where it fails is with the rest of the population. Given two people of equal 50th percentile exceptional abilities, the one that is really wealthy can buy their way into fake exceptionality and get treated by society as if they were actually smarter.
darawk 4y ago
They go because there is value in the stamp of approval. Harvard's role in the economy is to certify people as being in the top x% of quality. If you are in the top x% and qualify for their stamp, it's certainly worthwhile to go get it, unless you think that you are so exceptional that you can do without it. And some people are, and do, but you generally have to be an order of magnitude or two above x to be certain of that working out for you.