Most know the concept of the “Glass Ceiling” that prevents some people from getting the best jobs or education.

Scott Stern,a junior at Yale University’s Branford College, has some keen observations about the school’s “Glass Floor”.

A little less than a month ago, Richard Reeves, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, published a column in the New York Times that turned some heads. “If we want a competitive economy and an open society,” he wrote, “we need the best and the brightest to succeed. This means some of the children of the affluent must fail.”

Reeves was writing about one of the dirty little secrets limiting social mobility: the glass floor….

…Rather than telling wealthy and educated parents to let their own less gifted kids fail, Reeves and other scholars attack “institutional frameworks” that hold up the glass floor.

One of these institutional frameworks is the American system of higher education. In other words, Yale.

Reading Reeves’s piece, I was repeatedly struck by how hard and durable the glass floor is at a place like Yale. It’s not just that Yale gives all of us remarkable opportunities; it’s that Yale works hard not to let us fail.

“Students at places like Cleveland State, unlike those at places like Yale, don’t have a platoon of advisers and tutors and deans to write out excuses for late work, give them extra help when they need it, pick them up when they fall down,” former Yale instructor William Deresiewicz explained in a controversial piece in The American Scholar.

If we’re having a hard time at Yale, we are told again and again that there are resources to help us out. In the case of sickness, difficulty or tragedy — get a dean’s excuse, go see a writing tutor or meet a counselor. If all else fails, talk to the professor. Many professors are more lax at places like Yale than at other schools, because they know the kids are smart and will do the work — eventually. “Extensions are available for the asking … students at places like Yale get an endless string of second chances,” wrote Deresiewicz.

From the moment we arrive on campus, Yale’s remarkable safety net kicks in. ….

…. Yale needs to expand its recruitment of low-income and first-generation students in general, particularly in areas that usually don’t receive ample attention or resources.

For better or for worse, a degree from Yale or other elite institutions leads to unparalleled opportunities. As long as Yale provides such an extraordinary safety net, we should make sure it’s there to catch the most deserving students possible.