One can make the case that, in California, the higher education system was purposefully, consciously stratified along career and status tiers, as you described.<p>Community college system = workers in the practical trades<p>Cal State system = office workers<p>UC system = technologists, scientists, managers<p>Big name, elite, private universities = executives and high level politicians, the people who actually run society and its institutions<p>And, if you look at the architecture on the various campuses, it more or less reflects that.<p>Also, all of the community colleges, and an awful lot of the Cal State schools are commuter campuses. You come and you go. It&#x27;s not your home. You&#x27;re a renter. The place shuts down around 10 pm. (Get out of here, kids.)<p>By contrast, the elite private schools have sufficient dorm&#x2F;house space to allow most of the students to live on-site: the students have a lot more access to buildings and more or less &quot;own&quot; the place while they&#x27;re there.