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Elite University is not about the learning for many people, it's the networking and jumpstart up the ladder? If you want to learn, even pedestrian University and community colleges can do what you need but sometimes what you buy is not education but a 'foot in the door'.

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The point of the article is that Harvard and other such universities do get your foot in some special doors, but that those doors are mostly to self-serving jobs that enforce the status quo. Noam Chomsky was right to constantly point out that it is elites who are most “indoctrinated” in the sense that they have to be taught to disregard the general public interest.

I went to Harvard in the early 90's. The difference between the diverse interests and ambitions of entering freshmen and what 90% of my classmates ended up doing with their careers (law, medicine, some kind of asset mgt, academia) is profound.

Harvard is as much of a safe space as taking an obvious career choice.

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