<p>Well, I've just gotten around to reading all of the posts since my last visit to this thread and I am heartened by all of the discussion (while being a little disappointed that I personally was the target of some posters). In any event, just a few responses:</p>
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<li><p>To Truazn: Your impassioned post #26 personifies the mentality that I most want to challenge. I have heard such perspectives for much of my life, personally and professionally, and find it flawed in so many ways. There is this knee-jerk reaction of many in the Ivies and the NE that the historical powers are inherently better than everybody else. Isn't it obvious-we're the ones who get the jobs at Goldman Sachs??? Hey, there are a TON of smart, talented students at the Ivies and these are all terrific academic colleges, but they do not have a monopoly on brains. You really need to get out more and take a closer look at these other schools that I have been mentioning. Not only might a visit to the Midwest or the South give you a better understanding of the world than what goes on in Manhattan, I think you'd be surprised and impressed by the people that you'd meet. They're smart, they're driven, they're building successful businesses, they're making a lot of money and living good lives…and they usually are pretty darn nice. </p></li>
<li><p>To 45 percenter: I mostly concur with your description of the artificial groups that I created although the lower Ivies moniker was conceived by someone else. I chose this method because my objective is to broaden the view of top high school students beyond the usual and most visible top schools. My hope was/is to introduce and familiarize high-achieving high school students with several colleges that I consider full of talented students and faculty and which, given the demographic realities, should be on their college shopping lists of top schools. I'd be happy to compare any of these individually with any of the lower Ivies and the quality of the full undergraduate experience (academic, social, athletic). I think that such a comparison would serve the positive purpose of revealing to previously closed minds how strong some of these colleges actually are and how happy and successful their students are.</p></li>
<li><p>To UCLAri and thethoughtprocess: I strongly agree with your comments on the relative value (or really lack thereof) of research to most undergraduate students. This is a large reason why I oppose PA so strongly as I think it is heavily influenced by institutional research activity (undergraduate or graduate) and usually in technical fields that 75% or more of the students of a school aren't even involved in. </p></li>
<li><p>To my benevolent fellow posters who enjoy targeting me rather than the facts and the arguments: You remind me of the Star Trek movie, "The Wrath of Khan." Following multiple unsuccessful attempts by Khan to kill Admiral Kirk, the reply by Kirk to an obviously mad and infuriated Khan was "you keep missing the target."</p></li>
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