“Those institutions make up a tiny percentage of U.S. collegians, but the overwhelming majority of NYT columnists."
This is a true statement, but very misleading. I think we would all agree that to become a NYT columnist, you have to very qualified (extremely intelligent, an excellent work history, and of course, a love of writing). Unfortunately, many “U.S. collegians” do not possess all of the above qualities. So you need to exclude all of those, in order to have a valid comparison.
I think that list of 11 columnists proves Mr. Bruni’s point – 4 of them did not attend an “elite college” (whatever that means!)
Just this weekend I had a discussion with the HR manager of a software company. She does not even look at the college name on the resume. We have all read the numerous true stories of MIT grads working side-by-side with “no-name U.” grads, earning the same salary.