The purpose of an “elite” university (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.) is not to identify the top N most brilliant students: it’s to manufacture the power elite of the next generation. (Contrast this to something like the Indian Institute of Technology, which does aim to identify the most brilliant students, has done a good job of this, but does not manufacture the political/social power elite).
As a quick glance at Washington DC can demonstrate, this country is not run by 1600 SAT scorers and hasn’t been since the Clinton Administration. The university’s job is to pair a striver class with a gentry class, providing the gentry class with a trusted hiring pool and providing the strivers with social mobility to the uppermost echelon. Academics are thus only one of many factors in selection.
The purpose of an “elite” university (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.) is not to identify the top N most brilliant students: it’s to manufacture the power elite of the next generation. (Contrast this to something like the Indian Institute of Technology, which does aim to identify the most brilliant students, has done a good job of this, but does not manufacture the political/social power elite).
As a quick glance at Washington DC can demonstrate, this country is not run by 1600 SAT scorers and hasn’t been since the Clinton Administration. The university’s job is to pair a striver class with a gentry class, providing the gentry class with a trusted hiring pool and providing the strivers with social mobility to the uppermost echelon. Academics are thus only one of many factors in selection.