For a while, I used to believe that elite colleges don’t necessarily create excellence — they select it. They admit the top 1% of driven, intelligent, resourceful students. These students would likely succeed anyway, because of their mindset, discipline, and social capital. So when Ivy Leagues or IITs claim “our graduates are world leaders,” that’s partly because they chose world-leader material to begin with. This creates what’s called a “selection bias” — the college’s success is entangled with who they let in, not what they do for them. The real measure of an educational institution’s quality isn’t how their top 1% perform, but how far they can elevate their bottom 50%. If a college can take an average, uncertain, unmotivated 18-year-old and transform them into a confident, skilled, purposeful individual, that’s actual educational value. It's unfair, and there's no actual impact created if you only take in people who are already capable to begin with and who could have anywa...