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It seems to me that in order to get into Harvard, you need the highest level of academic records, no? They have higher standards of admission than, say, a state college. So there is selectivity based on past performance.

As for getting the Harvard name, so what? It's a winning brand name. People try to get jobs with big name corporations for the same reason. They want Coca-Cola or IBM or Google on their resumes. What's wrong with that? Has Harvard's cache diminished?

Anyway, I didn't bother with college and I'm doing fine. I'm not a big booster of college. I just think Theil's argument is goofy. And oh yeah, anyone who didn't see the dot com bust or the housing bust coming is a complete moron.

Not necessarily. There are plenty of kids with the academic record, work ethic, etc. to theoretically get into Harvard, but who will never even get a plane ride out there (or to Yale, or to CalTech, or to Stanford, or to fill in the blank) because there's no way they can afford the tuition, they don't have any connexions, and they aren't the children of alumni. The "Harvard number," btw, is the amount that you have to donate to Harvard to get your marginal (at best) kid off the waiting list and into a slot for the next freshman class. Reportly, it's currently sitting at about $5,000,000, mainly because the hedge fund guys drive it up.

The fact that there even is a "Harvard number" suggests that getting into Harvard isn't so much about your academic abilities and whether you were in the jazz band as an extracurricular activity, but is instead more about who your parents are, and who you know.

Sorry, but schools like Harvard, the rest of the Ivy League, and a few others are, as Thiel hints at, more about the perpetuation of America's ruling than they are about providing a "quality education." Most schools can give you as good of an education - from a mere technical and information standpoint - as Harvard does. What most schools CAN'T do, however, is open the door to an elite law firm or trading house for you, based merely on the name on the piece of paper.

I'm sorry, I know there are some people who think this is all jim dandy, but seeing how the Harvard/Ivy League set has monumentally halped to screw up the country over the past two decades makes me think that it's time to end the game. We really don't need these people as an aristocracy, and it's time we start reforming our education system - from the ground up AND the mindset behind it - so that true meritocracy gets a chance.