<p>guys - and especially truazn, johnnyK, pearfire and others - I really need to protest here.</p>
<p>This thread, if you read it objectively, has been (for a while!) little more than a "my school can beat up your school" whine-fest. Sure, you might be doing it with supposed statistics and arguments and opinions disguised as facts (such as rankings), but it's still whining. And it should stop. Why? Because it makes us all look like prestige-obsessed tools. Prestige may be important to the value we get out of our education. But you don't need to prove it to everyone who walks by, and you sure don't need to try to convince "True Believers" of other schools, because that's pointless. That's like trying to talk someone out of a religion.</p>
<p>I think we'd all rather have threads around here with people talking about why they LIKE COLUMBIA, as opposed to why other schools suck. That's why the admissions office tells interviewers to resist the temptation to do just that. It's called "taking the high road". It shows maturity, and confidence. Can we please try it?</p>
<p>Please?</p>