Did people used to try to be intellecutals?

Today a thought that has often popped into my mind reentered. This thought will come off as shameless elitism written down, but I have to say it one way or another: how do so many apparently unimpressive people get into selective universities? Or at least my selective university? I'm not saying this because I think I'm brilliant but rather because I'm surprised people don't have more interesting interests. Like academics for instance. I'm not saying that life revolves around schoolwork, or that I expect everyone to be as much of a nerd as I am, but when you that someone's favorite book is The Notebook or chick lit--favorite book, mind you. I guess I do not understand the conformist tendencies of my generation to the point where I expect that people at good universities would rise above the banal