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So I agree with you that people have choices. But what are you going to do about those people who make bad choices? I think that just tossing them onto the trash bin is unconscionable. Let's face it. People are going to make bad choices.
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<p>So you're saying someone in the tail end wouldn't be able to resist temptation for quick rewards, which may lead to poor results? And that because Berkeley tends to have more temptation, people are more likely to make a poor choice? Fair enough.</p>
<p>What if those people never went to college? What if those people didn't come to Berkeley at all, but instead went to a community college or just into the workforce with a high school diploma. You think THOSE people are better peers than what they'd get at Berkeley? You think they'd make BETTER choices there, and see MORE success? Further, allowing a sub-par student to attend Berkeley isn't exactly leaving them in the trash bin. Not giving them an opportunity is doing just that, however.</p>
<p>So the tail end is better off here than elsewhere. What about the better students? If they make bad choices, fine, they'll fail. Big deal. Most likely, though, if they're good students, they're pretty good at making good choices, otherwise they probably would've failed earlier in the path. A smart student can choose smart peers and friends and avoid all of the pitfalls you're saying are a problem.</p>
<p>Now, about dormmates. Your roommate might be a complete slacker. Completely irresponsible, does nothing, etc. You might bond with him, might choose to make him a good friend, or might not. Thing is, he's not your only choice. If you're in a suit, you have 9 others to choose from. If you're not, you've got a floor of people you're very near to choose from. I hang around with a couple of people from the dorms I was in last year who lived in my suite. The rest live elsewhere and we see them occassionally. I know I couldn't live with them, because they're very different from me. That's fine. I had a choice. You're talking about an extremely rare situation where every individual in your suite or on you floor is an idiot. While less likely to happen at MIT, it's already so unlikely here that the difference is negligible.</p>
<p>I agree that in some situations, you can get stuck. Getting a bad lab partner (which I had to deal with last semester) is a problem. It won't affect how much you learn, but it will affect your grades. In fact, I probably learned more as a result of having a bad lab partner, because I had to do more work as a result. This is the more likely effect of having a bad partner. The only way you'd actually learn from a lab partner is if s/he's smarter than you (and by some reasonable amount). If you're a crappy student, the smart guy will help you learn. If you're a good student, you're not going to get paired with someone significantly smarter than you. If you're equals, nobody really benefits. Hence, the top bring the top up, the bottom force the top to be good, and nobody gets brought down.</p>