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To be clear if you did any of this sort of stuff at any non-elite institution it would be even worse for you. The elites get a lot of lee-way that the rest of us don't.

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Frankly, whatever "elite" was characterized by the MIT of the 20th century is the kind of elite that's good. There were far more kids with middle-class backgrounds at MIT than at your typical Ivy and they were there because they loved science and engineering. In general, they weren't the moneyed 1% or the politically-connected. That was generally reflected in the school's administration which was much less political and PC than at other universities. As such, "hacks" were treated in the spirit in which they were done as good-natured attempts to achieve the very difficult. As a notable example of that, the police car on the dome hack included detailed instructions for its disassembly and removal. Rumor has it that in the last decade or two, that spirit has been in decline at MIT. If so, that's truly sad.

They might not be part of the moneyed and politically connected elite but by their presence at MIT they are certainly part of the elite.

Let me just say if someone did the dome hack at my alma mater 1) nobody would get the reference 2) the perpetrators would be expelled or criminally charged.

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