<p>It’s true. Data is data. All of it is reasonable and creates real, true, conclusions that cannot be questioned. Brown University has had no suicides this year, Cornell has had 6 suicides. Obviously I would be completely accurate in saying that Cornell students are far more unhappy and they’re far more suicidal, psych services are worse at Cornell, no one has good networks of friends, and gorges are ideal places for more than just looking.</p>
<p>That being said, Brown has lost two members of its community to car accidents (one on campus, one in NYC). Obviously Brown students are magnets to cars, can’t cross streets, are day-dreamers unaware of reality in the form of thousands of pounds of metal careening toward them, etc.</p>
<p>^^^^
In case you are a dolt, this is obviously nonsense, totally insensitive, unfair, and pointless. But when you have people who are convinced that simply having a number justifies whatever conclusion they want to draw from it, my brain wants to explode. Cornell is a wonderful place and the recent losses in their community is tragic and should not be seen as a reflection of the school itself, necessarily, without further examination. Those Brown students who were hit were both acquaintances of mine and I do not mean to be disrespectful in anyway. The absurdity of claims that all data is good data and all conclusions “based” on data are strong conclusions requires me to be absurd as well.</p>
<p>The holier-than-thou, I’m an expert on all spaces at all times attitude that is often found on this site is ridiculous. While I’ve been accused of being a shill for Brown, 98% of the times when I post it’s mostly to say, “All the differences you’ve heard are fabricated or simply not a big deal, here are the things I see as unique based on my experiences and those of my friends and if that’s attractive to you, then Brown deserves a serious look.” The fact that there are people out there pompous enough to believe they can reduce a complex place and experience like higher education to an objective reality based upon selective citing, constructing straw men, and holding their own claims to a different burden of proof than the claims of others is absurd. “My data is fact!” is just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on College Confidential.</p>
<p>Ask yourself, is that the kind of deep, careful thought we’re teaching our nation’s top students?</p>