A degree from an "elite" college ain't what it used to be
What was once a symbol of excellence isn't that any more
I’m not picking on Harvard. I’ve known some truly exceptional people who have gone to Harvard and who embody what the school once was.
But the “elite” college brand is declining quickly.
We do not write this because of the revolutionary cosplayers running around many top tier schools currently singing the praises of Hamas.* These students are just a symptom of a deep rot within “elite” universities these days.
In the attached article The Wall Street Journal equates Columbia University to a Coach handbag. Coveted by many who want to appear top tier, but who really don’t understand what being elite, in the real sense, actually means. The Journal makes the point that the value of many of these top schools is most importantly the brands associated with them. If that brand loses its lustre the descent from cool to lame can happen quickly.
Do we think the bottom is just going to drop out of Princeton’s brand? No we don’t. But we’ll bet that the slow erosion will continue. With this slow erosion the value of a degree from one of these schools becomes less and less, until one day there IS a tipping point.
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