Holden Caulfield once pointed out that Pencey Prep’s claim that “since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men” was “strictly for the birds,” since “I didn’t know anybody there that was splendid and clear-thinking and all. Maybe two guys. If that many. And they probably came to Pencey that way.” Then as now those who spend a lot of money for educational prestige don’t really require the splendidness and clear thinking as advertised. They know that what they learn at places like Pencey will matter far less than the fact that they have been there. But what has always been true for the educational elites is now true for the prestige-seeking masses. Nowadays, even quite humble state universities are selling prestige—not the prestige of brand-name institutions but the generic prestige given by our credential- obsessed culture simply associated with having been to “college.”
Mr. Bowman is the American editor of the Times Literary Supplement.
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