What can I say? I can't argue that my position reeks of elitism and is definitely aligned with talented tenth thinking. There is definitely an ugliness to the whole thing, so at least know that I acknowledge this. Also, it is inescapable that I would see the decision in some way that leads to the whole HYS thing. Now, me choosing SLS for myself over a Dillard while advising others to take the money and run would truly be weird. Another thing that is useful to disclose is that as an old fart, I've had this decision before with respect to professional school (business school). Back then, I chose the CCN equivalent (I'll spare the thread the business school ranking discussion) and though I ended up with the equivalent of a law school good outcome, I directly and personally experienced the deficit that not being an HSW kind of person brought with it. I always regretted not maxing out. Now, this could have had much more to do with my own personal foibles and failings, which are considerable, but regardless, the regret was and always will be real. You have me dead to rights...I can't quantify it, and the mechanism of it would be good fodder for at least two doctoral theses.Skool wrote: I just think we should leave the admissions decision to Dean Deal and trust them to sort out who is going to succeed at Stanford and who isn't. I think trying to influence such a big goal through individual decision making is not likely to be effectual and, surprise, surprise, it aligns with your own self interest in going to HYS. It's the TLS URM version of the Talented Tenth. So yeah, I think it's a weird way for an applicant to analyze an enrollment decision, but I'll leave it to others to consider for themselves whether it makes sense. But maybe I misunderstood your point.
But I do take your point about distinguishing between what is important to me and what should be important to others. But If I'm too skeptical, I think you're too credulous about the advantages of HYS outside of the narrow range of elite jobs that we both agree on. It's just not clear to me the mechanism by which HYS social capital gets translated to more professional opportunities outside of this range. Nor is it clear to me how we can measure these advantages so as to incorporate them into a cost benefit analysis.
So, all of this leads me back to the point that you and I both keep arriving at--this is a very personal decision and I at the very least hope that our exchange here has informed people about some important objective realities that must inform and some other subjective considerations that could possibly inform their decisions. Put more clearly (hopefully), no one should ignore the objective facts about any school choice, which are really just cost and employment, and each person should absolutely feel free to take or leave all the other stuff.
