Reply to The New America: Elite Privates forever out of reach for UMC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]The OP is simply arguing for a redefinition of “poor”.[/quote]

Yes.  And no.  Not arguing that one can't get a wonderful education at a lesser private (with merit aid) or a public.  Elites are different in status and theoretically offer entrance into the ruling class.  In the post WWII period they were open to this demographic.  Had many high school friends at IVY's and Stanford.  None of their families could be described as rich, just reasonably comfortable.

What I am describing is a structural shift in American higher education which seems at this point to be permanent.  
[/quote]

Yes. This is real and a big deal. Several middle class kids at my not-so-remarkable public high school went to Ivys. Granted that they were of course the academic high achievers at our school, I don't think that happens as much any more. It is an important development and people should not roll their eyes about people feeling "entitled" to the Ivys or anything. The Ivys are the gateway to a certain type of elite in this country and the fact that middle class kids don't have an on-ramp to it is part of what is going to give us an increasingly insular, removed and aristocratic elite class, which is bad for the country as a whole.

Two immediate contributors here are that the Ivys hold down their class sizes and take kids from all over the world; they now aim to be a global Davos training school and not just an American one. That doesn't leave much room for "ordinary" American high achievers.

The best solution to this would be trying to open up the elite, not open up the Ivys -- we need to open up opportunity way beyond the .1% and their Ivy degrees. Affirmative action for state school graduates!

FYI there has not been a president without an Ivy degree since Ronald Reagan. It didn't used to be that way. [/quote]

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