<p>I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at. I’ve always felt that there are a lot of smart, talented, amazing people out there, many more than could ever fit into an incoming class at Harvard. Assuming that these amazing people tend to gravitate to elite schools (a hard thing to assume, as I’m sure many go to public schools for financial reasons), I would say that all of the elite schools are more similar than different in terms of the quality of student who attends.</p>
<p>What’s the elite cutoff? I have no idea-- you tell me. Certainly Harvard and U of C are included, wherever you may decide to draw the line. But as long as some of my most academically minded and intellectually stimulated friends go to schools like Oberlin, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, and Wash U and have an easier time finding likeminded people than my friends at Harvard, I’m not so sure what the big difference is.</p>