<p>newmassdad,</p>
<p>Your point is good. NU has only recently gained more attention as a powerhouse for producing scholars. But I have to disagree with your other 2 points. First, it is only the present that counts. I don’t care much about US News Ranking but I hate when people go bashing at UC for being “lower” 5 years ago. I used to think Windows was better than Mac, you know :-)</p>
<p>Second point, the # of awards, in my opinion, is a representation of the strength of the school fellowship program. Some schools with many many many winners start preparing their top students by their 2nd year. Once in a while, you of course get self-motivated student who is assertive enough to do everything on their own like you said. But I don’t think this is the majority. My personal experience coming out of a fellowship program is (1) everyone has a story (2) fellowship program will train you to present it well.</p>
<p>But on this point, I believe we can argue forever. If you count an effort a student takes to show up at a fellowship office a “reflection of his/her character”, I already lost to your argument that fellowship winning is about a student, not a fellowship program :-D</p>
<p>Sam Lee, if you would so kindly look up the Goldwater data for all the top schools for this old man, I am sure 2.5 is pretty darn good, if not above average.</p>