the purpose of Harvard-type monastic institutions and MIT-type land grant engineering schools are /drastically/ different.
the big H isn't even really a school, it's a social mixing program for the future 1%. a way for the sons and daughters of the elite to make friends with the smartest of their generation, to ensure the latter get funding and the former are never unseated.
> the purpose of Harvard-type monastic institutions and MIT-type land grant engineering schools are /drastically/ different.
And the purpose of employment is 'hiring whomever the boss thinks will make the most money for him', without even pretending to provide a public good, yet the same suspects are hand-wringing about how workplaces should be meritocratic.
Likewise, when AA-admissions were killed, those people were also all for meritocracy.
Mayhaps the demand for meritocracy is just a fig leaf. It's never been about fairness, it's about preserving access to power.
I didn't see this amount of bellyaching when race-based affirmative action admissions were eviscerated by SCOTUS. Then, HN was almost unanimous in the opinion that it was a good ruling, because academic meritocracy is a good thing.
the big H isn't even really a school, it's a social mixing program for the future 1%. a way for the sons and daughters of the elite to make friends with the smartest of their generation, to ensure the latter get funding and the former are never unseated.