Yale and the Leadership Class

Yale Elite Series

The Power of Privilege by Joseph Soares, 2007, Excerpts

Yale is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in America. Its role in our society, from colonial times to the present, has been extraordinary. Founded in 1701 by Puritans who thought Harvard, established in 1636, had gotten lax. Yale’s original purpose was the same as its rival, to provide a supply of educated clergy to Calvanist Congregationalists in New England. By the time of the American Revolution, however, Yale was already producing more lawyers than ministers, and careers in industry, trade, and banking took off after the Civil War. Throughout our history, Yale has provided prominent lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and politicians, for the latter Yale is best known today. When George W. Bush, a fifth-generation Yalie, completes his second term in 2009, a Yale man will have been sitting at the president’s desk for twenty years. [Note: both Hillary/Bill Clinton are Yale Law, Obama is Harvard Law].

Determining who had the personal ability to play a leading role in society was what the admissions game was all about. Yale was there to nurture the leadership class in America and that social role provided the criteria enabling it to select from among its many academically qualified applicants. The admissions challenge was how to identify who had the most personal promise at the age of seventeen to become a leader.

Yale Alumni Magazine May/June 2004: “Yale is the extraordinary power of privilege: the intense web of connections knitting together America’s upper classes through family ties, business relationships, philanthropic and civic activities, social and recreational life, and of course, education.”

Church of Yale Law