Bless you, suevv! I have a funny anecdote that you'll like.
I'll only add a summary of the single best response I ever saw about the ego associated with "elite schools." Kurt Vonnegut was giving a talk at Stanford and did a Q&A after. An oh-so-smug Stanford student got up and opened with a smarmy, wink-wink, aren't we special attitude. Vonnegut's response was short and stunning. Here - roughly - is the transcript:
Student: Mr. Vonnegut, thank you for being here tonight. You've given us all a lot to think about.
V: You're welcome.
Student (smirking): I'd like to think of myself as well above average, ...
V (cutting in): You're not.
Student stammered unintelligibly for a minute about the middle class and education. Then sat down.
I think about this exchange often. It's hard for me to explain why I found it so satisfying. I think because V's point was that, even if you put fancy dressing on your resume, even if you go to the right places and all that, you're not that different from your fellow humans. You're not that different from the laborer or waitress or whatever job you think of as below you (or your child).
I guess it goes back to the point above about wishing people would give up on more, MORE, MOST!!! as their goal in life. That's not what it's about.
I will never let DS weigh "prestige" in his choice of college. Never.
My sister-in-law, whose boyfriend is doing a postdoc at Harvard, bought Harvard sweatshirts for her sister and father, who never attended the school. FIL wears his shirt around everywhere, and the receiving SIL (who is currently a student at our local--and good-- university) wears her Harvard shirt on campus. My in-laws are the kind of insecure people for whom titles are everything, and they spend family gatherings impressing themselves with talk about their credentials. I find it pathetic, though it can make for some fun sport. (Bad aquinas!) Case in point below:
When DH saw his sister and Dad in the shirts, he asked wryly, "Oh, did you buy that because I applied to Harvard?"
