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University of Southern Illinois is perfect for sedimentology/coal geology. </p>
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tk21769:
I like Midwestern schools (ACM colleges, Chicago) as alternatives to the Ivies and NESCAC colleges, primarily for three reasons. First, as IBClass mentions, the Ivies (and NESCACs) generally don’t give scholarships; the top Midwestern schools do. Second, I don’t like the crap-shoot aspect of the Ivy/NESCAC admissions policies. Not just that they’re so selective (which is a reflection of their appeal), but also the use of mysterious “hooks” and practice of “crafting a class”. Other schools do this too, but the Ivies/NESCACs set the standard. Third, for as selective as these schools are, I think there are others that are at least as good in intellectual atmosphere.
Actually, I found that <em>I</em> am in error. Just out of curiosity I hit Wikipedia (as a quickie ed. source) and found my understanding of "Ivy League is way off. I was with the understanding it was based on the first four colleges in the US after the Revolutionary War (thus “IV”).</p>
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tk21769:
All that aside, I don’t think it’s true that you’re paying for the name and prestige alone. By quite a few objective standards and measures, these are top schools. Compared to most other schools, their students are higher scoring going in, higher paid going out. The libraries have more books. The average classes are smaller. The professors are better paid, better published, and better recognized with significant awards. They are better endowed and spend more on research. Etc.
True.</p>
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Goat. You forgot the goat.</p>