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I'm confused. Institutions which prefer people educated at elite universities aren't "maintaining a polite fiction." They're using a proxy for quality. They'd a
by isamuel 17y ago
I'm confused. Institutions which prefer people educated at elite universities aren't "maintaining a polite fiction." They're using a proxy for quality. They'd admit as much. It's imperfect, and they'd admit that too, but I don't get the "anti-anti-meritocracy" sentiment here.
When firms go recruiting at elite universities, they say it's because they want the best of the best. They don't say "all individuals are equally gifted." This strikes me as a total misunderstanding of why educational credentials are valuable.
I agree with the original poster, though. The "clubbiness" of elite schools is part of what gives them value.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- mojonixon 17y agoIt's the Chronicle of Higher Education, written for academics. I suspect most faculty, Harvard faculty included, do not wish to be intellectual caddies for the rich kids at the country club.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- unalone 17y agoYou're spouting some fine bullshit. Suggesting that Harvard could expand to handle more students than it's handling now isn't "socialism". It's rational unless you're suggesting either that there aren't more brilliant students now than already go to Harvard, or that there aren't more brilliant professors now than already teach there. If both those are false, which they are, then Harvard can be seen as wasting its endowment on non-practical things rather than both growing and helping a larger community than it is now.
- misuba 17y agoNo it isn't - at least, not by your arguments here. Harvard could theoretically scale its operation to select more people of the same quality - or indeed to create more people of the same quality. No one thinks there are only 1600 people of a given age and a given quality in the world; Harvard could potentially put their imprimatur on more of them, in such a way that didn't damage the value of the imprimatur in people's minds. The author of this piece is asking, why don't they want to use their incredible resources to try?