<p>Well, in my part of the south, Wash U, Northwestern, Chicago, the Claremont colleges, Grinnell, Carleton, etc., might as well have been on Mars. Duke and Vandy were familiar, though.</p>
<p>Maybe there are 100 schools in the top 10 now.</p>
<p>there may well be, when you factor in the techs and the LACs and the universities, 100 schools in the top ten.</p>
<p>CBreeze, I can’t tell if your comment disagrees with me or not: I said that looking at ROI in purely monetary terms is, what I would consider to be, uneducated.</p>
<p>You wrote:
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<p>If you are implying that most people who went to top schools do not see a return on investment other than monetary in education, I would really question how many people you know who went to top schools.</p>
<p>@poetgirl Well, we know she knows at least one person who went to a top college. Her son is a fancy graduate who’s been on TV.</p>
<p>poetgrl, I read CBreeze as agreeing with you.</p>
<p>I don’t think that many people who attended selective schools think that it will pay off financially over other schools, but there are certainly some parents who think this. They are the ones who are upset when the kid goes to Harvard, and then decides not to be a premed because he wants to study Classics.</p>
<p>I think some folks just don’t believe me, and others like me, who say that it’s just really cool and energizing to be around a lot of really smart, motivated, high-achieving people,</p>
<p>Hunt, one does not need to go to a prestigious university to find a group of smart people to socialize with. I did not attend a prestigious university and I was surrounded by smart, high achieving individuals in college. Again unless your social skill are totally inadequate you can easy meet these types of people at excellent schools that are not considered prestigious</p>
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Of course. The difference, I think, is that at the most selective schools everything you do is full of these smart, high achieving people–every class, every extracurricular, every group of people hanging out in the dining hall. Whether this is paradise or purgatory may depend on your personality, but it’s a pretty big difference.</p>
<p>“everything you do is full of these smart, high achieving people–every class, every extracurricular, every group of people hanging out in the dining hall”</p>
<p>Hunt I can say the exact same thing about my college.</p>
<p>Well, it may depend on exactly how you define smart and high-achieving. There’s smart, smarter, and smarterer.</p>
<p>Yes, and I would go so far as to argue, from my own point of view, that having a kid who is not solely academically oriented but bright, that going to one of these schools, other than one of the flagships, would have been a waste for her. Mine will get much more out of an environment where the basketball game is very, very important, as well as the academics. </p>
<p>I like that there are lots of different options these days, personally.</p>
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I know a kid for whom this is true, and Duke is his dream school.</p>
<p>Hahah. Funny. You may not be aware that mine will be a tarheel, as am I, and Duke is our mortal enemy. :eek:</p>
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<p>I think that being at any semi-selective+, 4-year university will surround you with students that are relatively high-achieving just by comparison to hs, where everyone HAS to be there whether or not they are academic/have any interest in being there. At least in college everyone a) had to be “good enough” to get in, and (more importantly) b) cares enough about school/academics to want to attend a university.</p>
<p>That said, there will be an obvious difference between students at X State and Harvard/Yale/Princeton. There will be very smart students at both places; the difference is that at HYP, they will be the overwhelming majority.</p>
<p>One thing that is rampant in this thread is this point: Elite schools are chock full of smart people so being innovative/finding friends is easier. </p>
<p>I don’t even understand how this is a point. If a supposedly smart/bright/talented kid is all of those things then they should be able to get along just fine in a place where %99.99 of the kids aren’t at the same level as they are. If they can’t deal, I consider that a handicap. </p>
<p>It just does not make sense to me. How can a student not find driven students at a regular university? They’re in there.</p>
<p>Niquii-- I think we actually all agree with you. We are so busy dancing on the top of a needle here because, for us, this is like fantasy baseball. But, yes, you will find plenty of very bright students where you are going.</p>
<p>Are you doing the honors college?</p>
<p>Sometimes I think no one wants to admit that there are hordes of high schoolers who take regular classes for which they have very little homework, who spend hours watching TV shows like Jersey Shore, who twitter and facebook nonstop, who spend lots of time just hanging out with friends such as at the mall, who get wasted or high every weekend, etc. Meanwhile, there are others who take all honors and AP classes with hours and hours of homework, who almost never have time to watch TV, who seldom go on FB, who spend loads of time founding charities, reaching a national level of excellence in their sport or music or other EC, and who prefer to keep their wits about them so they can achieve all their goals. Some members of the second group simply don’t want to go to school with lots of members of the first group. Call it snobbery, elitism or simply a preference or good judgment, but that’s the way it is.</p>
<p>@Niquii77, I can only speak for myself but I’m making a similar point to what you’re discussing. I’m not saying that a student can’t find high-achieving students at a non-elite school, nor am I saying that they can’t deal with having kids not be at their level. I’m just saying that at an “elite” school, it is easier to find high-achievers because everyone is a high achiever in some way.</p>
<p>Also, being surrounded by top top students can be a motivation boost for students who are competitive (which is not necessarily a bad thing). And personally, being surrounded by people as smart as/smarter than me is important to me because the social/extracurricular world will be better suited to me, and more importantly, I will learn SO much from my peers!</p>
<p>Edit: @TheGFG I am one such student (group B). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a student like you described (first), but I have little in common with someone like that and would prefer to surround myself with group B kids. :)</p>
<p>mine is somewhere in the middle of that, GFG. She would be miserable at Yale, even though that is where her best friend is going. I’m good with her being the way she is. I like her.</p>
<p>It’s nice to find a group who has the same viewpoint! Over the past few weeks I’ve seen posts where all I can do is scratch my head. The way some parents talk about where they want their kid to go to makes it seem like they’re afraid a student with a <2100 SAT score will steal their 2300 SAT child’s smarts. Last time I check (above) average students aren’t the plague. It’s college who cares what another kid did in high school!?</p>
<p>Yes, I’m in the honors college. I’m pretty excited for it!</p>
<p>@TheGFG Nice to meet you. I’m one of the few who’s in both groups. I love me so Dance Moms, I don’t do my homework at times, I stay up late for no reason, but I can solve a calculus problem just like the rest of the Group 2 kids.</p>
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<p>Right. And when I did my college tour in the early 1980’s and visited U Va and William & Mary (both schools I was fond of), those were unfamiliar to my set of friends in the midwest, with one exception - a friend of mine whose mother was also from the east. </p>
<p>I still think there is so much regionalism to this whole thing, in terms of what people “know” to be good and what they have experience with.</p>