The role of Ivy League colleges hasn't changed much over time: they're schools for the children of the elite, plus talented members of other classes who'll learn to do their bidding. The system's worked pretty well for 300 years. --CGE
On Mon, 21 May 2001, Justin Schwartz wrote:
> There are at least two kinds of people at the Ivies. One--not a
> mjority, but a substantial minority--is "legacy" admits like W, who
> are often, not alwys, more or less good natured dolts. At my alma,
> Tigertown, a legacy (child of an alum) has a 40% chance of admission,
> as opposed to about 10% for a normal applicant. This does not apply
> only to the rich, but I imagine it cannot hurt your chances if Dad has
> a fortune to donate for a new Engineering Building. The other kind of
> person are the normal admits, some small percentage of which are
> reallly brilliant. Three of my friends from college--no, four--have
> won McArthur grants, in all but one case, for really amazing
> achievement. Most of us, rich and middle class alike, are just small
> beer, of course, neither extraordinarily brilliant not especially
> accomplished. --jks
>