<p>Well, I’m going to my state’s flagship which is a top 10, but I suppose you could have asked why not go to a lesser ranked school (and I’ll pretend that the lesser ranked school would have been cheaper, which it wouldn’t have been) and had a higher class rank. The reason I choose to go to my state flagship is because the recruiting is better, and that outweighs the increased difficulty. And to be honest, I feel that the increase in difficulty couldn’t be too huge between UMich and MI-Tech, which are the two schools I’m looking at for this example. </p>
<p>Personally, I’m not that worried about not graduating, and I feel that anyone Michigan admitted, could graduate (atleast in Engineering) if they put in the effort. I came in at test scores around the 20th percentile, somewhat more favorable HS GPA (around the median, probably an about average schedule), and ended my first semester with a GPA around 80-85th percentile. Instead of weeding out, I see some “encouragement” out. I don’t see how anyone here could be trying their best and fail out of college, but I can see some putting a reasonable, though underwhelming effort in, getting Cs, and deciding that they’re probably better off doing less work and getting a better GPA in liberal arts.</p>