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by watwut 602 days ago
Being able to pay better healthcare, food and housing is not merely social status element. Having a choice in terms of which employer you will have is not merely social status element. The fact is, if you have a choice between no-name new university and elite school, you will have more control and agency over your own life if you pick the elite school.

Rebels are found on the whole spectrum of "smart" however you define smart and we are talking about statistics here.
1 comments
bradlys 602 days ago
Strawman.

There is no reason to believe someone who is rebelling will do all the socially accepted status seeking norms to get into an elite college. They will not seek an elite college to begin with because they do not believe in the status of it.

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watwut 602 days ago
> They will not seek an elite college to begin with because they do not believe in the status of it.

My claim is that smart will believe in advantages it gives them, because well it gives them better position in life.

Rebels can be both smart and dumb. But neither group has any reason to go to no-name university that was just created.

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ndriscoll 602 days ago
Being smart doesn't mean you value optimizing for economic advantage in life. If you can coast through a stress-free life and have fun with friends while still being decently successful, you might opt to do that rather than grind at a status competition. And that's just when being analytical about it; people may also make irrational decisions due to things like depression where they just stop caring altogether.

The choices aren't elite or no-name. There are large institutions called state schools where tons of normal people go. They're not very picky (the one I went to has an 86% acceptance rate and a student body in the 10s of thousands), and if you're shooting for middle or upper-middle class they're probably fine.

The median engineering graduate for example makes $100k[0], and almost tautologically did not go to an elite school. They can afford food, housing, and healthcare just fine.

[0] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/field-of-degree/engineering/engineer...

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bradlys 602 days ago
It also doesn’t mean that you need to sell your soul during your teenage years so you can “have your options open” later.

I went to a state school and still had a 7 fig income before I was 30. It’s by no means a requirement and I think most “smart” people would agree.

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watwut 601 days ago
There is massive difference between going to state school and going to new no-name university OP just created. The claim was about the latter.

State schools are mostly good schools and standard start, sure. Statistically you are beyter off going to top schools, but that is about that.

OP proposed to create new university that will attract smart students. And there, chances are it will be as successful as Trump university and attract only that not exactly smart crowd.

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