Reply to The Death of Private School As We Know It

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The OP’s initial observation about colleges carries a lot of truth.  If top colleges continue to weighing diversity and social justice ahead of test scores and merit, before long a degree from a “top college” will not carry the value that it did historically.  [/quote]

Exactly! The issue is not the death of private schools, but rather the death of elite colleges.  In less than one generation from now, the Ivys and similar schools will become niche schools, and lesser known schools that base admissions purely on merit and lower the D&I drumbeat will emerge as the new elite education.  [/quote]

Elite colleges didn't become elite because of merit admissions. You really think all those people who got admitted before now were admitted strictly on merit?

I guess you don't have a problem with top colleges weighing legacy, athletic abilities and donors before test scores and merit, presumably since those advantages all heavily skew to whites.[/quote]

I do have to agree that the public perception of elite colleges is changing and not for the better. I have two Ivy degrees but even my opinion of these schools have declined in recent years.

I have more respect for the elite colleges of the past. They were blatantly for rich kids and they didn't hide it the way they try to today with weird social engineering and simultaneously trying to pretend to be meritocratic and progressive institutions. Given that meritocracy and progressivity are increasingly decoupling, it's revealing this ugly ideological chasm that really can't be covered up much longer. The American public is much more meritocratic than progressive, and if the elite colleges firmly become progressive, then they do become niche schools and decidedly out of touch and that can catch up in ways they don't expect. I also assume the younger graduates are decidedly more ideological than soundly educated and they have to prove otherwise when I interview them. Don't worry, many do. But many don't, and that perception is growing. I no longer respect a degree from, say, Yale, the way I did 20 years ago.

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why did you respect a degree from Yale 20 years ago if it was just blatantly for rich kids?  I think you could argue that admissions were less meritocratic 20 years ago than they are now.

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Different kind of hooks now from 50 years ago.  Used to be legacies and selected prep schools.  Now it is URMs, etc.  Associating with the children of the rich and important used to be part of the perceived value. [b] Now your hooked classmates with be URMs and Asian tennis players.[/b]  So how much of an Ivy League degree's value comes from networking, how much from learning, and how much from prestige?[/quote]

man, your argument gets more and more racist every time you refine it. kudos. at least now you're admitting that it has nothing to do with merit and being 'soundly educated'. [/quote]

The PP's argument does not sound racist to me.  It sounds honest and thought provoking.  This is yet another reason why elite colleges may be on the decline, because meaningless racism banter pushes out intelligent discussion.[/quote]

URMs and Asian tennis players being the problem and their attendance devaluing an Ivy League degree isn't a race based argument?

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The point is that the absence of the children of the rich and powerful devalues Ivy League degrees, not that the presence of URMs and Asian tennis players makes the value go down.

Both groups benefit or benefited from hooks.  That has been one of the arguments for affirmative action in enrollments, that hooks were always there but they are being transferred from legacies to URMs and to some non-UMC students.

Also, think about the most meritocratic big name schools like CalTech and MIT.  How many DC private school parents are pining for their children to go to school with bunch of non-rich nerds?  Where are the boasting and social climbing opportunities?
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