How do you know if someone went to Harvard? They’ll tell you.

If a recent Wall Street Journal story is any indication, though, that classic joke may soon be outdated. According to the Journal, some employers have dropped hiring preferences for graduates of elite universities—and a few even consider an Ivy League degree a black mark. The cases are anecdotal so far. But if this change in hiring practices becomes a trend, it should be celebrated.

A new study in Nature tells us why. The authors consider graduates of a group of 34 elite universities, including Ivy League schools, other ultra-selective private universities, top liberal arts colleges, and a few public flagship institutions (full list here). Graduates of these schools comprise less than one percent of the US population. But in society’s most elite positions, this group is wildly overrepresented.

The Nature study’s authors examine a group of 26,000 “extraordinary achievers”—including members of Congress, Fortune 500 CEOs, bestselling writers, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, Forbes Most Powerful Men and Women, and others. Essentially, a group of people with considerable power and influence in society.

More than half attended one of the “Elite 34” colleges.

Source: Wai et al. (2024)

One reason for this overrepresentation? Elite 34 colleges set their graduates on meteoric career trajectories by helping them unlock coveted first jobs. Economist Gad Levanon has found that recent graduates of top colleges disproportionately find employment at prestige firms such as Bain Capital, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, and the New York Times. Jobs like these are the first rung on a ladder that leads Elite 34 graduates to the top echelons of society.

Elite 34 graduates would insist they’re overrepresented in these positions because of how smart and hardworking they are. That might play a role. But the signaling value of their degrees is likely just as important. Employers simply associate an Elite 34 degree with excellence, and hire accordingly. The bias may persist even if the graduate they hire doesn’t deserve the reputation his degree confers, or if there are stronger candidates who graduated from less prestigious schools.

Hiring preferences for Elite 34 schools have some troubling implications. First, Elite 34 schools overwhelmingly enroll students from wealthy backgrounds. Institutions like Washington University in St. Louis and Tufts University enroll more students from families in the top one percent of the income distribution than students from the bottom 60 percent. Moreover, research has found that elite colleges are more likely to enroll rich students than poor students even after accounting for differences in academic qualifications, thanks to admissions preferences for legacies, student athletes, and padded resumes.

Such elite-college hiring preferences thus select for children of privilege. But they also elevate college graduates who are disproportionately likely to have far-left politics.

One of the worst excesses of campus leftism in recent years was the network of encampments that sprung up on college campuses after the October 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis. Such encampments were associated with violence against Jewish students and destruction of campus property. But most colleges didn’t have encampments. Rather, a Washington Monthly analysis found that encampments mostly appeared at highly selective institutions with wealthier student populations.

Today’s privileged campus radicals become tomorrow’s journalists, tech workers, and Congressional staffers. Later on, they become some of the most famous and influential people in society. Selecting our future leaders from such a narrow population means losing the diversity of background and thought that is essential to sound decision-making.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to arrest this trend. Firms can drop any hiring preferences for graduates of elite or selective universities. Look at the person, not the degree. The influence of Elite 34 schools will wane—and employers will discover talent they might have previously overlooked.