Today in the Observer, Doree Shafrir has a funny little story about how sometimes Ivy League graduates have to have degrading media jobs, like being someone's assistant. It's a story archetype that seems to come out once or twice a year: All of them could essentially be retitled, "Can You Believe Graduates of Elite Schools Really Don't Automatically Have It Made in the Shade?" Here are some examples:

• The Worthless Ivy League? It's No Guarantee Of Success. Podunk's Competent Grads Will Beat Princeton's Incompetents [Newsweek, 1999]
• Personal Business; A Tight Job Market Dampens Ivy League Hopes [NYT, 2003]
• Who Needs Harvard? Why big corporations are hiring fewer Ivy Leaguers. [Slate, 2005]
• The Price of Prestige: Is an Ivy League Education Worth the Investment? We Do the Math [WSJ, 2005]
• Big Paycheck or Service? Students Are Put to Test [NYT, this Monday]

There are dozens more. The thing is, obviously going to an elite school (particularly in the increasingly irrelevant Ivy League category) doesn’t guarantee a job or any level of immediate success or ease. Which makes us wonder: Are these stories for the people who went to Ivy League schools and love reading about their own drama? Or for people who didn't and may want to hear about the cracks in the ivory tower? Either way, it seems kind of patronizing, doesn't it?

Ivy League Slaves of New York [NYO]