<p>Yeah, where would we all be without Al Franken?</p>
<p>"...in many other countries, universities center only on producing students with great academic knowledge."</p>
<p>Thank God we don't allow that kind of crap to go on in THIS country!!</p>
<p>TourGuide446,</p>
<p>Tons of knowledge isn't great if the student can't apply it analytically.</p>
<p>May I humbly suggest that if the Ivy League and other elite schools really want to recruit the best of the best, they should fork over better financial aid.</p>
<p>A lot of the country's best students are going to state universities because they know that their professional goals will require additional education beyond the bachelor's degree, and they don't want to start graduate school with many tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt from their undergraduate years.</p>
<p>Back to the original post, I don't think the truly brilliant kids are getting skipped over. The truly brilliant still get in, the slightly less intelligent get passed on for very smart kids who might also happen to be involved and socially capable. Although, I'm sure there's lots of kids who think they're truly brilliant who just really are not.</p>
<p>"May I humbly suggest that if the Ivy League and other elite schools really want to recruit the best of the best, they should fork over better financial aid.</p>
<p>A lot of the country's best students are going to state universities because they know that their professional goals will require additional education beyond the bachelor's degree, and they don't want to start graduate school with many tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt from their undergraduate years."</p>
<p>The Ivies have absolutely no problem filling up their classes with excellent students. Of course, they'll lose some students to lower priced colleges and ones giving great merit aid. However, even with that, the Ivies yields are still some of the country's highest. Indeed, Harvard's yield regularly is the country's highest.</p>