Don't understand the 2nd guessing.

cobrat
Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:06:24 +0000

This may be necessary for students who need to be in the middle of the academic curve, but I have seen other students who decided to attend state schools or " lower tier" private schools on generous scholarships excel because they had the drive and the intellect to benefit from college no matter where they are.



That’s assuming the state schools or lower-tiered privates had a critical mass of students who could match their academic capabilities and had bureaucracies which allowed them to advance without red tape. That was not the situation with the above-mentioned high school classmates who ended up being so hamstrung by that very red tape that they were bored to tears and felt they were wasting their time effortlessly getting A/A+ grades while the vast majority of their classmates were struggling to pass/flunking the courses.

You’re right that they’re the types that want to be challenged and prefer to be in the middle of the curve. However, the mismatch of their first undergrad institutions is further underscored by the fact they still excelled at the elite schools they ended up graduating from as mostly STEM majors…top quarter to fifth at the very least.

You’re right that one can get a great education without having to attend a Williams or Columbia…but in the case of those classmates…they needed schools with comparable academic rigor to feel sufficiently challenged and not feel they’re wasting time at schools where the course pacing and rigor has been reduced to extremes.

Also, keep in mind that not every state has great state universities like UW, Berkeley, UMich, U Wisconsin, UVA, UNC, etc.