Originally Posted by Dude
Originally Posted by Bostonian
the prestige and ever-increasing wealth of Harvard et al. suggest that these institutions know what they are doing.

There's a causality problem here, because going to Harvard or Yale often leads one to riches and/or fame... but those qualities are often necessary to attend in the first place.

Originally Posted by Bostonian
If you assume that people are self-interested and will try to game any system created, you will not despair and burrow under a scrap heap.

Yes, the supremacy of sociopathic greed in our society comforts me like a cup of warm milk.

Amy Chua has written a new book with her husband. It's about success and touches indirectly on college admissions, topics in this thread. The NY Times has an interesting perspective on it:

Originally Posted by New York Times
“Jed and I are wild fans of breaking away, kicking away the ladder,” Chua told me that first rainy day in their house. Their own excursions outside the academy might be seen in this light. But as “breaking away” goes, theirs is a fairly safe bet. They were law professors before. They will be law professors after.

Chua has been attuned to the plight of the outsider in each of her books, aware of how smug and insular success can seem. But there’s a kind of ingenuousness that can settle in after years spent in a safe space, one that stands at a considerable remove from the marketplace where most people make do. “The Triple Package” conveys a message familiar from self-help books: Adopt these values and you too can take control of your life. But you have only to step outside of Yale’s campus to see that the world doesn’t operate according to the same principles of effort and reward. For most Americans, especially now, striving and insecurity are likely to be rewarded with more striving and insecurity; you can do everything right and still have little to show for it. Kicking away that ladder will sound like a fantasy when you’re clinging to it for dear life.