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The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

theamericanscholar.org

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Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#21

Post by Spooky23 »

munchbunny wrote: post #15
Spooky23 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was on the Harvard tour, the guide was an Ivy League groupie -- she had applied and failed to get into Harvard, went to a good "backup school", (I think Case Western) and finally transferred into Harvard in her sophomore year -- without transferring any credits. It made an impression on me. I checked out the 2nd tier of school and found a bunch of white bread people from Jersey looking forward to a career in i…

I hope you don't mind if I challenge you on your very last sentence. Why do you consider losing the opportunity a plus?

Not at all. At that time in my life, I would have been attracted to that kind of gig, and having been a customer working with those kinds of firms, I wouldn't have liked it.

Fundamentally, the best thing hat I learned about in college was myself. Surrounding myself with type-As on some track would have stifled that. Honestly, I'm really happy with how life has turned out this far!

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#22

Post by akiselev »

peteretep wrote: post #18
dibstern wrote: post #14

These aren't the disadvantages of an elite education, it's the disadvantages of not having sufficient breadth of experiences with people from a sufficient breadth of social-economic backgrounds. Get your kids to do extracurriculars where they'll meet kids from lower-income households. It'll make them able to relate to them and understand them better.

You are missing: in order to gain access to these institutions, many people apparently have to forgoe those extracurriculars and focus only on their studies.

No, to gain access to these institutions you are basically required to have half a dozen extracurriculars on your resume. They receive applications from so many white straight-A/4.0 students that extracurriculars are the only differentiating factor. Few high schools (in California, at least) would even let you graduate without 50-100 hours of community service.

Whether these extracurriculars would expose you to different ethnicities and world views is dependant on demographics.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#23

Post by Mz »

peteretep wrote: post #20

Brits figured this shit out a long time ago: you talk about the weather.

Brits also are much more okay with embracing the idea that there are separate classes. Americans like to think we are better than that and (like to imagine that we) treat all people in some idealized egalitarian fashion. In practice, it is a lot, lot harder to treat everyone equally well and try to ignore class divides than to have protocols in place for bridging the gap between people explicitly of different classes.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#26

Post by dangmurderparty »

paulsutter wrote: post #24

The solution is near. The "elite" will be a lot less smug when their jobs also get replaced by technology. No need for melodramatic navel-gazing. Anyone notice that some the most "elite" schools are total no-shows in AI research?

The elite own the machines, stupid.

The new plutocracy will be balanced by iron fisted CEOs, algorithmically advised and steered boards, and a chosen few human elites that bear each other due to a wealth standoff. The rest of us die hungry, cold, and broke as shit, while the elites mine galaxies and excavate the stars by the trillions.

The end

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#28

Post by badminton1 »

I would say that the upper class of each country has a distinct subculture. And now those subcultures have somehow converged into a global subculture of the rich.

A golf club membership for example can cost $100,000. Some people will probably never save up that much, and if they did, they would never spend it in a golf club membership. But for some it's completely normal and part of their everyday lives.

Same with schools, same with restaurants, etc... by being strictly exclusive you set yourself apart from the rest and miss out on a lot of things.

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#29

Post by tokenadult »

Summer 2008, and widely criticized from then to now. I wonder if a professor of English can ever have the same perspective as a professor of biology or a professor of mathematics. I don't think he has made the case that higher education that can properly be called "elite" is actually disadvantageous.

https://psmag.com/the-problems-with-william-deresiewicz-s-ne...

Re: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)

#30

Post by jeffmcmahan »

I have a bachelor's degree in philosophy and linguistics from an elite university. My parents owned and auto parts store in a small town, which was next door to my grandparents' bakery. Based on my experience, it seems this guys' problem is a boring backstory; no university can or should make up for the fact that you don't regularly mix with non-university types.
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