This is just supposition but it's entirely possible there is some causality at play. The ivies are the most competitive universities in the U.S. (modulo some ou

This is just supposition but it's entirely possible there is some causality at play. The ivies are the most competitive universities in the U.S. (modulo some outliers like Stanford and MIT). If you are successful at cheating in academia then by definition you are going to end up teaching/researching at a more competitive university.