<p>Coming from the master of invective and the adhominem attack - yourself - that is saying something.</p>
<p>You tend to rely exclusively on stats that put Princeton in a good light and attempt to suppress stats that don't. </p>
<p>The "endowment per student" stat is an excellent example. </p>
<p>If it is OK for you (or Alumother) to crow about this impressive number, why is it not OK to point out: </p>
<p>(1) that the stat is distorted in the case of schools with large numbers of (profit-making) part-timers and extension students, and</p>
<p>(2) that Princeton's edge with this stat has substantially erroded over the past 10 years vis a vis its peers. Did you know that 10 years ago the Princeton endowment was 98% of the size of the Yale endowment, but that is now only 73% as large? Or that 10 years ago, the Stanford endowment was only 79% as large as the Princeton endowment, but that it is now 110% of the Princeton endowment?</p>
<p>Plenty of money there, to be sure, but the edge isn't what it was.</p>
<p>these stats aren't at issue; your intent in posting them is. consider, your first post on this thread, which had until then been about the stated topic of princeton's #1 ranking, was a harvard-friendly portion of an old news article you've been recycling ad nauseam here.</p>
<p>ah, yes, "perspective." of course, a rather particular perspective, one that requires you to attempt to diminish every piece of positive news about a rival of harvard's, at any and every opportunity, on the board of that rival or elsewhere. and to insert harvard at the same time.</p>
<p>Yes, Byerly does perversely relish posting anything negative about Princeton. Yes, Byerly can seem personally insulting to other posters. Yes, Byerly's knowledge of arcane statistics goes to an extreme. However, I give him credit for probably the two best post on cc I ever read. Based on his encyclopedic knowledge of admissions statistics he advised the following. First, anyone interested in a highly selective schools should apply early...anywhere but apply early. Second, any HS guidance counselor should be fired for incompetence if he doesn't advise his kids interested in highly selective schools to apply early.</p>
<p>It's fun to watch y'all go at it, but I could never get in the ring with any of you. I'm just one of those fish who watches from the bottom while the rest of you rise to the bait. It's a regular feeding frenzy! :)</p>
<p>I'm sorry, I've been lurking on this thread for a while, and I can't help but say something utterly illogical, offering evidence of nothing, and absolutely unrelated to the topic at hand. Although Byerly seems to have invaded the thread with a modicum of success, and quash Princeton's good news prematurely, I cannot help but think that Princeton has never fallen for a prank such as this. Just something to think about.</p>