> Status wise, I'm not sure there's much difference
OP is from the UK where status is...complicated. Having a physics PhD from Harvard is potentially lower status than having gone to the right British high school and then done PPE at Oxford...
'Status' is jokes here but yeah I certainly have been getting a lot of my identity from having money and earning good money. Not something I'm proud of.
My point was that, looking from the outside in, it can be hard to guess what leads to status in the UK. Your comment in a sense reinforces that: to an outsider, why would one specific humanities undergraduate in one specific university be the "gold standard" of status? It doesn't make sense unless you know about status in the UK, IMO.
As opposed to the US where status is simpler IMO and more strongly correlated with money.
OP is from the UK where status is...complicated. Having a physics PhD from Harvard is potentially lower status than having gone to the right British high school and then done PPE at Oxford...