<p>“At any rate, if you really knew about elite universities, you’d know that many of them, including H, have a lot of slacker students who know they will get their B without working” Slackers perhaps, but if so they are either URMs, athletes, or bloody rich. </p>
<p>“Yea, they have some outstanding students. So does U of I. They also have some pretty ordinary ones. We just don’t hear about those.” How do you know if you haven’t heard of them? And I would say that the “ordinary” kid at Harvard is a tad bit more exceptional than the ordinary kid at UIUC. </p>
<p>“What you forget is that the average student at yale is no more competitive for a G/T/U scholarship than an average Pitt student. So the scholarships measure the quality at the very top, which seems to compare well.” I understand what you are saying, but then it also coincides with my point and does not contradict it, as obviously those who are competitive for those scholarships go to Yale in disproportionate numbers as compared to their overall enrollment. Also, you cannot deny that Pitt’s size DOES in fact skewer the numbers towards itself. Maybe not as big as one would expect because of the reasons you have noted, but still, via random chance or people who might become better students in college, the advantage is there.</p>