Privilege

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>Has anyone read this book? It just came out. I'm halfway through...</p>

<p>It's called Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class</p>

<p>Amazon link</p>

<p>by Ross Gregory Douthat, a Harvard 2002 grad who describes his four years at Harvard with more than a little sting. He describes Harvard as a place all caught up in its own success, further and further removed from America. Topics include Harvard's attempts at diversity and failures, the culture of wealth, and the unforgiving academic nature, characterized by gloryhounds. I'm not saying anything in support or against his views, but it is an interesting look at it.</p>

<p>For example, he states that from .3 of the nation's schools come 22% of the Yale, Harvard, and Princeton classes. Compelling.</p>

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<p>Previously discussed in this thread:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=46547%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=46547&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>lol, I see...I do find it interesting that the discussion turned to the author's social skills, rather than the significant number of statistics and logical conclusions he presented.</p>

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<p>Statistics? It's a memoir, not a research paper. And whether he's a wannabe poser who failed to impress the successful posers is directly relevant to the amount of weight we should give to any "logical conclusions" he comes to based on his own social experience.</p>