<p>Generally, I jump in when I spot an underdog on CC. I’m happy to attack all judgmental statements (except maybe those involving sports vis a vis university admissions, where you already know we disagree.)</p>
<p>Who is the underdog in this thread?</p>
<p>I felt that the Baylor student became the “underdog” at post #26. I jumped in at post #27. Before that, I thought that the comments were pretty even-handed, perhaps even tilting a bit in favor of the Baylor student overall.</p>
<p>Really? I thought I was the underdog. ;)</p>
<p>Oh, no, Bay! Anyone who is good at sports is never the underdog in America, by definition! :)</p>
<p>Good to know :)…</p>
<p>
I mean what I said. At many colleges, saying that you think gay people should be denied equal rights, including the right to marry, will cause you to be viewed much as somebody who said the same thing about black people would be viewed. This view really isn’t tolerated very much by a lot of young people. As for not believing in evolution, perhaps it’s too strong to say you’ll be “condemned.” But people won’t respect that view.</p>
<p>In our society at large, atheists and those who have a strong commitment to the separation of church and state are the underdog.</p>
<p>Just yesterday I received a facebook cartoon from an internet acquaintance that was supposed to be amusing stating that this was “one nation under God” and if you didn’t like it you should kiss their posterior and get out. The attitude that it is wildly unreasonable to ask that religion not be injected into public events and areas seems to me to be quite prevalent. How many times have we been told “it says so on the money/in the Pledge” or “this was founded as a Christian nation”? Both statements display a woeful lack of historical perspective, but those views are commonly held.</p>
<p>Is there a smiley face thing that indicates you intended the comment to be snarky?</p>
<p>^^^^^That’s not needed for certain screen names. ;)</p>
<p>“Indeed. But apparently the god-free among us are running all the liberal schools on the East Coast. So we got that going for us.”</p>
<p>…and most of the colleges in the Midwest and West, ABC, NBC, CBS, NY Times, Wash Post, Newsweek, Time, Letterman, the ACLU, and most public K-12 schools in the country. Even though that’s not much, I’m sure your word will squeak out somehow. [s] snarky face [s]</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I pray you’re right.</p>
<p>Notice that I thought “propaganda” was too snarky and switched it to “word.” Even though my tolerance for snark is off the charts, I usually know when I’m in danger of having my poetic license revoked. I wish I could say the same for other people here…let’s just say that after post #373, I wouldn’t stand next to absweetmarie in any open spaces today unless I was wearing rubber-soled shoes.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to distinguish between atheists and people who just aren’t very religious. I saw a survey of Yale students asking them their religious affiliation. Only about half answered the question, but among those who did, only about 2% said atheist or agnostic. About a quarter were Catholic. Maybe the kids who didn’t answer were all atheists, but I doubt it. I would argue that the “typical” kid at Yale is not very religious, and just doesn’t think about religion much at all. He’s not going to be particularly interested in challenging the beliefs of evangelical Christians or atheists.</p>
<p>Schmaltz, rolled eyes might work for your snark, if not maybe you could get CC to create one!</p>
<p>[College</a> Confidential - Smilies](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies]College”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies)</p>
<p>"Oh, no, Bay! Anyone who is good at sports is never the underdog in America, by definition! " </p>
<p>and a gun… :p</p>
<p>Second, I would like to reiterate that, in my opinion, people who are atheists or agnostics, or who just don’t think about religion much at all, do not find themselves defending their beliefs at secular colleges (in particular, colleges like the Ivies), because nobody much cares what people think about such things as long as they are reasonably tolerant of what other people think. </p>
<hr>
<p>My son is an atheist (yes, I am religious; no, I don’t have a problem with him believing or not believing as he sees fit). He attended a midwestern state university freshman year, and I can tell you for a fact that he defended his beliefs MANY times. He is at another state university now (no, he didn’t leave because of the religion thing!), where he is happy to be a member of the school’s Atheist Club.</p>
<p>Bay and I both own guns.<br>
I am trying to think of something either profound or snarky to say about that. </p>
<p>I can’t. :(</p>
<p>But since I am a poster who finds it useful, and a great time saver, just to go ahead and admit my ignorance before someone else points it out… that is not much surprise to me. ;)</p>
<p>I am using the wink for signaling a snark on myself.</p>
<p>This has been a fascinating discussion.</p>
<p>Dialing it back to the original proposition–why would a top applicant select Baylor over Harvard, et al.–it occurs to me that placing Baylor in context among national universities might be illuminating.</p>
<p>The fact is, Baylor’s just as highly regarded for its academics as a long list of schools that are very popular choices among CC’ers. Without debating the value and accuracy of the USNews ratings, but simply using them to create a familiar context, here’s a snapshot:</p>
<p>[ul]
[li]Ranked just above Baylor – Northeastern, Purdue, SMU, Syracuse, U Georgia, Worcester Polytech, Clemson, Rutgers, U Minn, BYU, Michigan State, U Iowa, Virginia Tech[/li][li]Ranked #75 with Baylor – Colo School of Mines, IU-Bloomington, U Alabama <a href=“probably%20CC’s%20#1%20suggested%20school%20if%20you%20are%20NMF%20and%20need%20$”>b</a>**, UC-Santa Cruz, U Delaware and U Tulsa[/li][li]Ranked just below Baylor – American, Auburn, Marquette, SUNY-Environ/Forestry, U Denver, U Vermont, Drexel, Stevens IT, SUNY-Bing, Miami U-Oxford, St. Louis U, U Missouri, Clark, U Colorado, U Mass-Amherst, et al.[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>Interesting, eh?</p>
<p>A couple of additional data points that may be of interest:</p>
<p>[ul]
[li]Here’s a profile of the 2010 and 2011 entering freshman classes. Note that 74% are Texans and 26% are legacies: <a href=“http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/151565.pdf[/url]”>http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/151565.pdf</a>[/li][li]Here’s a summary of the current demographics of Baylor students and faculty:[/li]<a href=“http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/159317.pdf[/url]”>http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/159317.pdf</a>
[/ul]</p>
<p>I’d also echo what others have said about the Texas factor being critical.</p>
<p>For the past 17 years—basically the entire lives of the current applicant Class of 2012—we’ve had just two governors: George W Bush and Rick Perry. </p>
<p>Think about that. Even Turkey’s got Perry’s number. [insert one of those smilies that shows how embarrassed I am to claim him as my governor today!]</p>
<p>Edited to add: :o - thanks, Kajon!</p>