[PapaBear3625]

Perhaps Princeton should stop requiring applications and just accept students chosen at random from 12th graders across the country. Then we shall see how the education at Princeton, supposedly superior, will work out.

Parents want to send their kids to "elite" universities, because of the perception that graduates of these places do very well.

The reality is that they do very well because the elite colleges are (or were) very selective, only admitting the smartest and hardest-working.

An elite university that stops admitting the smartest, most driven applicant, will descend into mediocrity.

[redgolum]

In a few generations, maybe.

When I worked for Koch, there was a clear anti Ivy directive.

That Harvard MBA will cost more and do less than the guy from Wichita.

Same in engineering.

However, they do come with connections. Sometimes that is what is being bought.