<p>I think that one of the main differences between elite schools and non-elite ones is that the former are breeding grounds for a certain intellectual consciousness and personal taste (more so than the latter anyway). For example, the gender norms among the academically elite are different. Their dress style is different (I could so tell the difference between a Northwestern girl and a state school girl wearing high heels). In conversation and even when crossing paths on campus, I could tell that Northwestern students are more sensitive towards class, racial, sexual inequalities. For example, very few people here wear Abercrombie and Fitch (<em>vomit</em>). Their degree of confidence is sincere and genuine. For example, when a non-Northwestern student walks around campus, they look up no matter what (because they buy into this false notion of confidence that compels them to do that). A Northwestern student, on the other hand, would look towards the ground even when they’re not intimidated, a deliberate choice not to have a power struggle with the person they’re crossing paths with. You should experience it for yourself. The sensitivity, compassion, and consciousness that comes across is so intensely moving and real. Maybe they came to the school with those tastes and sensitivities or maybe they acquired it from being around other people disposed to acquiring them (thus creating norms). But in any case, elite school students are just different, though not necessarily more likely to be financially successful (I’d say that among the roughly 600 people in my immediate social network, the elite school ones are less money hungry in the first place, even the poor ones).</p>