<p>jym626,</p>
<p>I think it's not too ethical to have Ad Hominem attacks in this forum. Shoot his arguments if you want, but not his profile, i.e. grammar, attended school, etc. This is a 'quick post' forum, not an official essay forum. Proofreading can be cumbersome, especially if English is not their first language. Try to appreciate that.</p>
<p>Well said! :)</p>
<p>Exceptional students apply and go to many different universities. Rankings reflect part of a college's assets. My chosen degree major isn't offered by the Ivy League (BFA Musical Theater). With 1550 SAT, 3 800 SAT II, 6 5 AP, GPA of 4.8, and ranked 2/780; Ivy's were within feasibility. For me how many of the graduates are working in their chosen profession was the most important "ranking". Academics and training were important in my selection, but the traditional school ranking is meaningless.</p>
<p>My point is that not all the "best and brightest" even apply to the top schools. Oh and FYI, the chances of being accepted into a BFA program in Musical Theater are worse than the Ivy's or Med School. Based on the most recent figures, acceptance rate is 3%. </p>
<p>Just some food for thought.</p>
<p>Dustyrose, which school is it going to be? Michigan? NYU? CMU? NU? Do tell!</p>
<p>Alexandre,
Still have some auditions to go through and I haven't heard from all of them yet. Also applied to some not on your list: Baldwin-Wallace, Otterbein, Millikin, Elon and Illinois Wesleyan. NYU has the largest number of graduates on stage, but they also have the largest number of students. I'm just hoping to be in that 3%!!!</p>
<p>RTK-
You seem to have misunderstood-- This was by no means an attack-- the intent was to lighten things up a bit because of the tension that was escalating in this thread. Obviously in some cases, it didn't work... Shyboy got it... but I guess others didn't. That said-- I find it ironic that people discussing the top schools make basic grammatical errors. It strikes me as humorous-- and this thread needed a little levity. Yes-- it was dry humor-- and perhaps it got right by you. Do relax a bit-- life is too short...</p>
<p>jym626,</p>
<p>Certainly I didn't let my emotion involved when posting in this forum. Not all posters here are as big-hearted as Shyboy, and such dry joke may look condescending. Do you think it's appropriate if I say: My school is a top school, hence you better not argue with me about top schools if your school is not one ?</p>
<p>rtk-
That's exactly my point-- everyone DOES seem to say "my school is the best so don't waste your time arguing with me". The air of superiority on this thread was getting pretty thick- it could be cut with a knife. I was trying to abate it, not add to it- and I am sorry if you still cannnot see that. Ironically, I commented to someone a few weeks ago on another thread about their humor and got the reverse response. I purposely put :) s in my post so it would be EVIDENT I was teasing. Don't know why that wasn't seen. And I am glad Shyboy has a sense of humor and wasn't so touchy. He took no offense. He thought it was funny, and responded accordingly.. Perhaps the moderators could suggest how they best feel humor can be presented on CC. And for what its worth-- I didn't see shyboy as particularly "bighearted"-- I just think he gets it. He wasn't in the least bit defensive. Shame you DIDN'T let your emotion get involved when you read the posts -- maybe you would have smiled. I repeat-- life is too short-- In the scheme of things, with the # of nastygrams that seem to go back and forth, unfortunately all too often , on CC, I've taken to enjoying the humorous ones. For everyone who enjoys humor, take a look at "The worst titles for college essays" thread in the Confidential cafe. There are some pretty clever ones, and people are genuinely enjoying the thread. Its pretty funny. For those of you needing a stick-ectomy, don't bother.</p>
<p>jym626,</p>
<p>Teasing the ability to convey words properly and use grammar correctly is often regarded by the other party as saying: your english sucks, your education is not enough, you must be from a bad school!
I believe many posters here will tell you the same thing.</p>
<p>Do so if you want, but I'm telling you that many people may take your humor as an offense regardless whether life is short or long. If your humor which is intended to lighten up the situation turns on some negative response, it becomes an irony, isn't it?
Would you then blame that respondent of being touchy?</p>
<p>Sorry, you are not making any sense. The other party DIDN"T regard it as anything other than the way it was intended -- the person having the problem with it is not the respondent but YOU. So who is touchy, Mr/ms irony??? Ironically, I note that you have also attacked democrats and Berkeley faculty and students (though in all fairness, you apologized for being nasty to the Berkeley folks). I guess I am in good company :) Let's move on-- This is just silly.</p>
<p>Not to pick a fight here, just to give my opinion on two comments Shyboy has made here.</p>
<p>As far as students equally choosing Berkeley and MIT, the study by Christopher Avery, Mark Glickman, Caroline Hoxby and Andrew Metrick (knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1287.pdf) would seem to indicate that between students accepted to both MIT and Cal, they will choose MIT. (MIT is ranked 5th with an Elo score of 2624, Cal is ranked 23rd with an Elo score of 2115. This difference of over 500 on the Elo scoring would indicate that >92% of the time (and actually higher) a person accepted to both MIT and Cal would chose MIT.</p>
<p>As far as Berkeley having the same number of bright students (we're talking SATs and perhaps other academic extracurriculars), this is slightly misleading. Cal being a much larger school, has a smaller percentage of these students than MIT. Since learning as an undergraduate is by large part also from ones peers, it is easier to be paired up with someone amazing at MIT than Berkeley. Not to say that I couldn't seek out very talented students at Berkeley. But studies have indicated that you are most likely to interact with someone in college who you live with or near to.</p>
<p>Just my two cents. Peace.</p>
<p>hormesis-
Are you sure you wrote that correctly?? Did you mean to say, based on the stats, that students would chose MIT over Cal, and not the other way around?? (See line 3 of your second paragraph). Or are you just trying to confuse us? :) (JUST KIDDING!)</p>
<p>Oops, I corrected it. Thanks.</p>
<p>hormesis, the only people choosing between Cal and MIT are going to be those in the science/math/engineering fields. The students at Berkeley in those fields are typically the best of the bunch. English majors aren't choosing between Cal and MIT. </p>
<p>It's not like the engineering/math/etc. students are going to try and get help with their homework with Berkeley's (typically lower intellect) "American Studies" majors. Cal engineering is not as rigorous as MIT/Caltech, but it's close, and the few engineering students who aren't amazing are not going to be there very long.</p>
<p>In the end, MIT is surely the best science school in the country. Comparing it to Berkeley's entire student body is pointless. Comparing it to Berkeley's science student body narrows the gap between the institutions. </p>
<p>The ranking you use is not particularly useful in this argument. Should Williams and MIT really be in the same list? How many people have to decide between them? In the end, the best college ranking should always be a personal thing. If someone wants to major in English, and they only get accepted (theoretically...) into MIT and UCSC, UCSC would be the better pick. If someone really wants to live on the east coast and they get accepted into University of Maine and Stanford, Maine would be the better pick. There is no universal ranking, and there never will be.</p>
<p>I think there is a lot of opportunity to meet other smart students IN YOUR CLASSES. Where do you get this crap??</p>
<p>" Ironically, I note that you have also attacked democrats and Berkeley faculty and students (though in all fairness, you apologized for being nasty to the Berkeley folks). I guess I am in good company Let's move on-- This is just silly."</p>
<p>Ah really, when did I attack democrats and Berkeley faculty/students ? This really shows your ignorance. So now, instead of taking on my arguments, you are taking on ME ? Again, what an irony ?</p>
<p>I wonder if anyone here really thinks you are in good company? At least not for kk19131.</p>
<p>" If someone wants to major in English, and they only get accepted (theoretically...) into MIT and UCSC, UCSC would be the better pick. If someone really wants to live on the east coast and they get accepted into University of Maine and Stanford, Maine would be the better pick. There is no universal ranking, and there never will be."</p>
<p>Uh.....that makes no sense. If a student was admitted to MIT and UCSC, he will most likely pick MIT because the name is so great. It doesn't matter about whether he wants to major in English or not. In fact, MIT has great humanities departments even though its focus is on science and engineering. People come out of MIT as music majors and even dance majors at times.</p>
<p>Now as for somebody picking University of Maine over Stanford.......that just doesn't make any sense.</p>
<p>They must not teach you critical thinking skills very well at the farm, rooster, if you can't imagine scenarios like that. Here let me blow your mind: I know a person who decided to go to community college instead of Stanford.</p>
<p>Yeah, there are probably THOUSANDS of people who choose a community college over Stanford. In fact, the only reason I am at Stanford is because my local community college didn't accept me. I also got rejected by the Unversity of Maine, so alas, I could not attend the clearly superior school.</p>
<p>Anyway, the ranking doesnt say that EVERYONE will choose Harvard over Yale or Stanford over Princeton. It just says that it is 95 percent sure that on average a student is more than 50% likely to attend the higher ranked school instead of the lower ranked school. Sure there might be a case of a person picking Devry over MIT or the University of Maine over Stanford. But most students don't do that. You can't present extreme circumstances and play that off as the norm. That just doesn't make any sense. </p>
<p>Here is the ranking methodology I am talking about:
<a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1287.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1287.pdf</a></p>
<p>Go do some reading before bashing me.</p>