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An academic Great Gatsby Curve – How much academic success is inherited?

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33 points nabla9 | 2 comments | 21 Dec 24 14:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.398s | source
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77pt77 ◴[21 Dec 24 16:22 UTC] No.42480503[source]▶
It's the Mathew principle all the way down.

Actually it's a bit worse, in the sense that if you exhibit competence without the "appropriate pedigree" all you'll get is punishment.

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SubiculumCode ◴[21 Dec 24 16:38 UTC] No.42480586[source]▶
Not my experience at all, as a first generation college student, now research faculty at a highly regarded University.
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77pt77 ◴[21 Dec 24 16:42 UTC] No.42480608[source]▶
"Pedigree" assumes many forms.

The fact that you are a "first generation college student" is irrelevant and conclusively shows that you do not understand what's at stake.

I can assure you, you are wrong.

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1. Al-Khwarizmi ◴[21 Dec 24 17:04 UTC] No.42480770[source]▶
Not the person you're replying to, but if you are going to make sweeping statements like "you are wrong", you should explain a bit more, because your argument is somewhat too vague to engage with meaningfully.

Obviously one can find discrimination anywhere, but I don't think it's as systematic as you seem to imply. Most academics are under considerable pressure to publish or generate results, so e.g. when faced with hiring a postdoc or a PhD candidate, they don't have the luxury of rejecting a brilliant candidate that could be productive for spurious reasons.

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2. 77pt77 ◴[21 Dec 24 17:14 UTC] No.42480842[source]▶
Well, the person I replied to aparently understood, so it wasn't as "sweeping" as you are implying.