Hacker News Reader

The education is probably nothing special but it's more about the social network.

If you cut down on legacies then you lose the advantage of the social network. Kind of a catch-22.

Not entirely. If the selection process ensures that the brightest (and luckiest) minds are all together, they will still be able to benefit one another over time, even if they didn't gain access to capital or connections beyond their cohort.

Amazing to think that one movie could change a college's appearance so profoundly!

What movie?

> Is a Harvard education really that spectacular anymore or is it more a social indicator?

Harvard has always been a social indicator that is also decent educationally in some areas (but not, AFAIK, superlative in any undergraduate field.)

It is not clear that formal education in general is a causal factor for lifetime income, or merely a symptom of the same underlying cause(s).

if Harvard is not spectacular then what is? I mean what is replacing it’s role?

MIT

Princeton

IIT

When IIT research is knocking people's socks off, let me know.

I was thinking more about power shifts, not inequitable comparisons :D