The disadvantages of a public education

A few years ago, (5 actually) William Deresiewics generated quite a bit of attention and noise with this piece, The Disadvantages of an Elite Education. At the time, I was going into my sophomore year of high school and I was not sure what to make of his essay. From my understanding the general idea is that these elite schools give their graduates many advantages to succeed in a worldly sense but also create stuck up people who cannot relate to the general public. Ok, cool story, you can't make small talk with your plumber so blame your social ineptitude on some of the best schools in the world. There are literally millions of people that would kill to have received your education, Bill. I go to a school ranked outside of the top 100 nationally (by any methodology), and I haven't learned how to make small talk with repairmen either. I think it's quite obvious what the problem here is, we have this mentality that you get an education through x years of schooling and then you're "set for life". A better essay would have been something along the lines of "Why an Elite education is wasted on the people who are lucky enough to receive one". 
    I personally know of many Ivy graduates who all studied different fields yet are very down to earth and relate-able people. Some of them came from highly educated families while others are from less than well off families. What they have in common is a sense of curiosity and a deep sense of humility. These qualities cannot be taught.  Still I would kill to be have the educational opportunities that Deresiewics had, no doubt about it.

The reason I bring up this is whole "elite school" business is because I have been toying with the idea of transferring schools, more on that in another post. It is also one of the major reasons why I study Computer Science, one of the few fields where elite schools don't get all the fun. I know from Career Services that job placement for the social sciences is pretty terrible. At your elite school, you can study almost anything and get a nice high paying job in consulting or finance. At a crappy public like mine, those doors are all but closed to even the brightest of minds. Luckily, if you have an aptitude for code (or can hack it at least), it is still possible to find a job that pays above the national average due to the huge demand for IT type positions. I pity the poor souls who study economics or psychology at UNH. Perhaps they have good connections or know how to win the lottery.