<p>I walked out of cornell sharing above belief, and carried it around with me for years, right up to when my D1 was looking into colleges. At most of the (“good”) colleges we looked at, I found students who seemed to be sweating it no differently than I did at Cornell. </p>
<p>I think what you say is true, but I no longer think it is in any way unique to Cornell. The impression I came away with is, on a certain strata, the schools that have high reputations for academics petty much earn them. I was disabused of the notion that there is any “free lunch” in this regard.</p>
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