@NJEngineer3 When you yourself have degrees from elite universities (UNC Chapel Hill, undergraduate degree and Columbia, graduate degree), and advance through an organization (New York Times) that cultivates staff with elite academic pedigrees… then, heck yeah, you have no right to hector anxious students and parents about the purported nugatory value of a degree from an elite university.
If Bruni himself had a “I grew up poor in Appalachia, went to UWV, and through gumption ended up as an editorialist at the New York Times” life story, then he might have a leg to stand on… There are indeed people in America that have that kind of life story. I would gladly read biographies written by those folks and listen to their advice. To me, Bruni’s meme is: “do as I say, not as I do.”