I know kids that have gone to all these schools and I wouldn’t consider them appreciably different when it comes to their intelligence. Often the reason some attended the latter (Pitt etc) is for financial reasons - feeling that they can get an excellent education without breaking the bank. At many large state flagships you will, of course, get a wider range of students in terms of their preparedness/seriousness but there will always be a very large cohort of incredibly smart and driven students who are working hard.
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