Interview 258: Evan Mandery on “How America’s Elite Colleges Breed High-Status Careers and Misery”
- Evan gives his background
- Evan talks about his book Poison Ivy, and he tells us how it led to a non- profit organization called “classactionorg” that fights legacy preferences for great educational equality on elite campuses
- Evan gives an overview of the article that will be the basis of our interview; it was written in Mother Jones, and it is entitled, How America’s Elite Colleges Breed High-Status Careers—and Misery
- Evan discusses why we don’t teach and how to live a happy life
- Evan distinguishes his scathing criticisms of elite schools, and how he differentiates between the colleges that are steering kids to 3 professions vs the students who end up in these professions
- Evan talks about how Ed Blum is now going after legacy preferences, and he briefly talks about class-based legacy preferences
- Evan and I go off topic and talk about anti-Semitism on college campuses
- We talk about whether donor preferences are valid because they lead to increased generosity, which enables a college to support more under-resourced students
- Evan advises parents who are listening to help them to help their student from falling into the trap that they need to either go into a Wall Street job, a tech job, or management consulting
- Evan talks about the value of starting your career with service
- Evan and Mark have a debate about how much it matters where you go to college
- Evan and I spent almost the entire segment debating whether you need to go to an elite college to have limitless career opportunities. He says some things we totally agree with and others I push back on, but I think you will find it interesting; honestly, the truth is somewhere between his view and my view
- Evan shares what other writing projects he is working on
- Evan shares his concerns about where our country is at
- Evan closes by picking Mark’s brain about my own kids and their educational journeys

