<p>wutang, you're being a complete ass to say the least. You're way off base.</p>
<p>Just look at the girls at Berkeley.</p>
<p>sorry, but you said that you got into BU with mediocre stats, and that the kids weren't very intellectual. It's not a coincidence. BU is full of rich kids with little motivation. The top schools have moved towards established meritocracies.</p>
<p>To change the topic, I love that the top schools are more accepting of gays in general. It's a ticket into elite circles, and therefore more accepting environments. Sure, you could find this environment in many places, but it's a little harder. If you go to a top school, it's right there-- you don't have to look. It really is nice to feel you're appreciated and even embraced for who you are. It also gives people who don't go to top schools a reason to second-guess their homophobic tendencies, especially when the gay kid in the top school is surrounded by other top-school kids.</p>
<p>The kids at the top schools are also a lot less cheesy in general (by cheesy, I mean people who wear their hearts on their sleeves looking for sympathy, people who are trying so hard to be funny [when it's perfectly okay not to be] because they think that's the standard of being cool, people say things just to have something to say, etc.). Sure, you could find non-cheesy people at any school but at the top schools, they're everywhere (the majority).</p>
<p>I feel neutral about going to a top school. I mean it's nice and everything but I don't feel that the people here are necessarily any smarter or better than anyone else.</p>
<p>
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sorry, but you said that you got into BU with mediocre stats, and that the kids weren't very intellectual. It's not a coincidence. BU is full of rich kids with little motivation. The top schools have moved towards established meritocracies.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sorry, but you're the one who is considering dropping out, because McGill isnt good enough LMAO @ you</p>
<p>Virtuoso, don't you go to Yale? If so, how could you not feel that the people there are smarter than the average crowd? Do you honestly "feel" that?</p>
<p>It's not like you have a basis for comparison since you've never been a full student at another university. I expect a school like Yale to have a much more intellectually vibrant and diverse environment than many other schools in the country (and I'm not just saying that because I got my admit notice yesterday)!</p>
<p>"Virtuoso, don't you go to Yale? If so, how could you not feel that the people there are smarter than the average crowd? Do you honestly "feel" that?"</p>
<p>I think I would probably feel the same way if I went to Harvard or Stanford or wherever. There's high expectations of intellectual culture at any elite university, but they aren't necessarily fulfilled. I've talked to other Yalies about this same subject and all genuinely agreed that if we took a sample of students at a less "elite" university, say, UCSD, and compared them with a sample of students at HYPS, there would not be a huge difference in "intelligence", whatever that means. </p>
<p>amb3r, it's true that I haven't been a full student at another university, so It's unfair for me to judge, but it's mostly based on gut feeling. If you met from a local state U and one from Yale, you probably could not tell the difference just by talking to them. Students at HYPSM aren't gods.</p>
<p>are you serious? If you took a girl from that show Beauty and the Geek and compare her to a Yalie, you wouldn't notice the difference?</p>
<p>That would be a specific person, not someone from a typical university setting.</p>
<p>What would be a person from a typical university setting? Okay, I didn't know the producers deliberately selected what you're implying as less-intelligent-than-average girls?</p>
<p>I have friends that are pretty typical state school attendees. Pretty bright ones, actually. Put next to my friends at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, even NU, you could instantly pick one from the other.</p>
<p>Tell me something</p>
<p>Why do people want to go to these top schools, when really, you're paying close to $50,000 a year simply so that you can have a certain name on your diploma? It would seem to me, as crass and pedestrian as it may sound, that one could get the same quality of education at any one of our nation's fine state supported schools....</p>
<p>right, mirabeau, that's ALL you're paying for: a name.</p>
<p><em>rolls eyes</em></p>
<p>haven't we had this conversation about how top schools supposedly "suck" like 5 million times on CC?</p>
<p>but, no, you're right mirabeau, i'm sure harvard is really sought after because back when it started, it picked the coolest name out of the magical hat for college names. that, ladies and gentlemen, is the secret to harvard's success.</p>
<p>
[quote]
sorry, but you said that you got into BU with mediocre stats, and that the kids weren't very intellectual. It's not a coincidence. BU is full of rich kids with little motivation. The top schools have moved towards established meritocracies.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You sure this isn't BC? Just kidding, I'm not going to rag on my school. As soon as I got here I stopped thinking about prestige for the most part, though it is obvious that I'm surrounded with bright people from all over the country (and world).</p>
<p>God. For the last time, Harvard has an incredibly good return on investment, and incredible financial aid.</p>
<p>It's the 2nd tier privates that have a bad return on investment, i.e. BU</p>
<p>This is a great idea for a thread, I have no problem feeling arrogant or seeing others acting arrogantly when they get admitted to a top school. It is a great feeling to be recognized for your achievements and hard work. It is also nice to be able to look back and see the payoff from all those nights when you were studying and your firiends were out partying.</p>
<p>The sad thing is that some kids without connections who do exactly what you say still can't get into some top privates. I've seen people who I've thought would be a shoe-in for my school get rejected, so I'm surprised that I got in myself. One could make the argument that if you spread your risk and apply to all the top 20 schools, you're likely to get in to at least one if you have the stats, but not all of us have the money to do that.</p>