<p>Is there a correlation between college selectivity and academic rigor?<br>
It’s not necessarily unreasonable or arrogant to assume that if a college admits higher-scoring (and perhaps more motivated) students, then professors will tend teach at a faster pace or at a higher level. Does that in fact consistently happen? I haven’t seen much evidence either way. I’ve looked at a few journal articles that take up this question (or some variation, for example whether examination questions are more challenging at more selective schools). Findings seem to be mixed or inconclusive. In fact it’s been suggested that at “elite” universities, professors tend to cut their students more slack to turn in assignments late or otherwise work around the rules. ([The</a> American Scholar: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education](<a href=“http://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/]The”>The American Scholar: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education - <a href='https://theamericanscholar.org/author/william-deresiewicz/'>William Deresiewicz</a>))</p>
<p>If more selective does not necessarily mean more challenging, does it still matter? There may be positive effects from greater selectivity that have little or nothing to do with course difficulty. One is what might be called the “Honeypot Effect”. A high concentration of high-achieving students may attract more funding, more (or better) campus recruiting, etc. Another might be called the “Hothouse Effect”. A high concentration of high-achieving students may create more favorable conditions for creating and sharing ideas. </p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone has carefully defined and measured such effects. There’s probably a lot we really don’t know. For example, does institutional size (or location) trump selectivity in employers’ recruiting decisions? Does small class size (or better facilities) trump selectivity in producing strong “hothouse” effects? </p>
<p>It’s hard to tease out these factors and draw objective conclusions without a lot of caveats and weasel-words. Anyway in the long run, wherever you wind up and regardless of the competition, you’re unlikely to succeed without putting in some serious effort.</p>