I’m not sure how a “collapse” is supposed to happen.
The reason everything remains awful is because everyone is already acting in their best interest. The employers want the elite students, the elite students want degrees from elite universities, and all the other students want to look as close to “elite” as possible (by attending the most elite institution available to them)
Unless you tell motivated and well-connected teenagers they’re not allowed to attend Harvard or Yale, the prestige signal of Harvard and Yale will continue to live on, as yet another class of motivated and well connected 22 year olds graduate.
Short of government action (like make it illegal to discriminate in hiring based on which institution you graduated from?) I don’t see how that prestige signal (or the structure of incentives associated) goes away
The reason everything remains awful is because everyone is already acting in their best interest. The employers want the elite students, the elite students want degrees from elite universities, and all the other students want to look as close to “elite” as possible (by attending the most elite institution available to them)
Unless you tell motivated and well-connected teenagers they’re not allowed to attend Harvard or Yale, the prestige signal of Harvard and Yale will continue to live on, as yet another class of motivated and well connected 22 year olds graduate.
Short of government action (like make it illegal to discriminate in hiring based on which institution you graduated from?) I don’t see how that prestige signal (or the structure of incentives associated) goes away