[swearwolf]

No, the author’s hypothesis is that the professional middle class carved out a space for itself between the working class and the rich, using their specialized knowledge as the differentiating factor, and that they use all kinds of gatekeeping mechanisms to make sure that anyone who wants to enter their professions has to be credentialed, which typically involves dedicating the first third of their lives to education. The purpose of this gatekeeping is to ensure that there is enough of a scarcity to ensure good wages for those who have the right credentials, and to make sure that self taught or informally taught amateurs can’t enter the field.

Within that context, Organic Chemistry is put forth as an example of one such gate that all aspiring doctors must clear, even though they promptly forget the material when the class is over. The admission policies you pointed out are another such gate.

The book was written in the 1980s, and in the later chapters the author explores how the events of 20th century have impacted the system described above. For example, the substantial cuts to government spending enacted during the Reagan administration, and worsening prospects for jobs like professors and social workers, caused students to switch the focus of their college education towards getting a degree that would enable them to enter a field that would allow them to make a lot of money, rather than one they may have been intrinsically interested in. The distillation of this effect is, in my opinion, what we’re seeing here with the NYU students.