The Uneducated Academic Snob

One unfortunate attitude I have run into here at Northwestern is the idea, held among some, that people who go to state schools are inferior. This sentiment is expressed regularly in a sub-par campus newspaper called the Northwestern Chronicle that unleashes its bitterness towards state schoolers every week in a mock advice column supposedly penned by a state school student.

Designated as public schools through the Morill Land Grant Act of 1862, wherein endowment from the sale of this land would go to fund the university, state schools have been for many an affordable way to get a good education and attain a good career. So why this elitist attitude towards the state schools from some at my university? How educated can certain Northwestern students claim to be with such an attitude? (If you read some of what these people wrote in the Chron, you would be surprised that they go to school at all. Link is here if you're daring enough to read it. Example: from this week's issue, there is an article claiming that Amtrak is not "revenue generating." Note to author of article: Amtrak is not a private, for-profit corporation. Sometimes, societies decide to collectively create public services that benefit everyone).

Anyway, this attitude seems to be an ungrateful manifestation of ignorance and elitism from people who tend to be privileged and unaware of what they're talking about. It reminds me of the despicable cheers that people in my high school used to chant at sports games to the effect that the students at the other school would be their underlings in the working world. This most anti-democratic, elitist (in the least educated way), and overly-privileged attitude doesn't seem to go away with the best education, or perhaps these fortunate students don't deserve the education that they seem to be squandering.