Good, interesting replies.
I’ll admit this: I’m not impressed with the kids that I’ve met & conversed with that attended several of the Ivies/top privates. Yes, they score very on the ACT/SAT. Yes, they tend to be better public speakers. Yes, they tend to produce clearer (sometimes interesting) opinion pieces in their college newspaper. But they are no wiser than those who don’t posses such academic acumen. In fact, I found their naivety to reach almost disastrous, embarrassing levels, if not with a dollop of arrogance. I will always remember reading a response to a question of why state schools were looked down upon, or weren’t considered a serious place to attend higher learning by top high school performers - the response went something like this: “Because the very best don’t want to sit in a calculus class with the kid who floated through high school who got a 26 in his ACT, or Kim from small town nowhere who’s focusing on elementary teaching.”