
How Harvard helps its richest and most arrogant students get ahead - neo4sure
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/09/19/how-harvard-helps-its-richest-and-most-arrogant-students-get-ahead/?utm_term=.ca63a84333f6
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huac
previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15288168](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15288168)

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gxs
I'm very happy that there are people out there calling this stuff out and
fighting the good fight because that's how progress is made.

It makes me especially happy because practically speaking, day to day, I
really don't care. At all. And I'm not being sarcastic or cynical, it's just
an approach to daily life.

Stress about the stuff you can control. Luck, privilege, timing; some people
have them some people don't. All you can do is work hard. Keep taking shots
and hope for the best.

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strgcmc
As a HYP alum (don't want to be more specific than that), this jives with my
own experiences, both at college and in high school (where some students kept
their heads down and worked for their grades, and others worked but also had
the temerity/privilege to go ahead and ask for a better grade).

In some sense, you can't really blame the students for asking. The system
allows for it (may even encourage it), so from a game-theory perspective, the
better strategy is to exploit all the advantages you can.

The unfairness comes from the way such things are handled unevenly. Student A
who's richer/better connected/more famous/etc. will get better outcomes from
asking, compared to student B who's maybe just a regular smart person who went
to public school and managed to squeeze past admissions but isn't connected to
anybody important. Just regular old privilege, pure and simple.

For the record, I graduated with a 3.2 GPA that probably would've been lower
at somewhere that somehow magically didn't have "grade inflation" problems...
and that was after my school went through implementing a controversial "grade
deflation" policy. I feel like I benefitted from being part of a system that
was afraid to harshly grade its students, but I also never asked any
professors directly to revise my grade higher.

I did receive indirect/unsolicited help, such as a dean who showed concern
after I failed some midterms the semester I broke my ankle and missed weeks of
class and became depressed and unable to socialize, or a professor who graded
a senior project much more generously than I felt the work deserved (a B+ for
something I crammed together in the last 4 weeks, when my roommate who did
something much more involved and much better researched, also got the same
B+).

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sven11
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

They wouldn't have had to write the line, if it was self-evident. Or true.

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frenchy
Self-evident is not necessarily the same thing as obvious.

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hari_seldon_
This is why grade inflation should be curbed at an institutional level. When
you compare schools like Harvard and Stanford, where As are very common, to
schools like Princeton and MIT, that have some sort of deflation in place, it
becomes clear that the latter do not "help" their richest and most arrogant
students.

That said, schools like that probably have other informal systems in place
that ensure the powerful have their kids stay ahead.

~~~
TuringNYC
A cynical view would be that the schools are just preparing those kids for the
world ahead -- where the same rules apply (e.g., Bailouts)

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hari_seldon_
That's a very fair point, that is probably just as "real" as it is "cynical."

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ageek123
I don't think this is unique to Harvard or privileged students. The idea that
the student is a "customer" and should be treated as such, including being
indulged by professors and administrators, has been gaining significant
traction over the last decade everywhere. You can also see it in how
administrators bend to the demands of activist student groups asking for some
of the most absurd accommodations, punishment of their enemies, restrictions
on allowed speech and events, etc.

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designium
It is incredible to see that prestigious academic institutions have to bend
over instead of promote true meritrocacy. Not only this further the notion
that the well offs are getting an edge in everything but also, adding insult
to injury, no matter how hard you work, there is no way you can win this game
by meritocratic means.

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hari_seldon_
I think your last statement only holds true if the _only_ people coming out of
Harvard that have any chance in society are those with straight A's. I'd argue
that anyone at the school is already "winning this game."

