<p>Sranford and Harvard are also impossibly hard to get into. Why isn't anyone mentioning THAT as a negative characteristic. Why should a school be considered so great if nobody normal can possibly get in? </p>
<p>Also, if they accept only the best of the best of the best, then is it such a huge accomplishment that they have the best grad school placement rates and that their alumni are all so rich and powerful?</p>
<p>I think the measure of a good school is how well it educates a person. Anyone can educate a genius and make him come out a genius. But what schools can educate a mediocre person and make him come out measureably improved? I think the answer to that question are the community colleges. They take high school dropouts and turn them into productive members of society. In the end, they can improve a student way more than superstars like Stanford and Harvard can. </p>
<p>Public schools like Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, etc are a waste of taxpayer money compared to the community colleges. They don't do anything except try to copy the educational models of Stanford and Harvard (which they don't do NEARLY as well). Leave the big universities to the private sector and distribute more money to the school that matter (elementary school, high schools, community colleges).</p>