<p><<<
the “average Joe” student is not your competition. You will be competing with the best and brightest students regardless of where you choose to go because they are the ones who will choose the same classes you do. So I disagree with you that the dichotomy you suggest is even true. In fact, I challenge you to provide meaningful evidence that your claim of “it’s obviously harder at more rigorous schools” to get a 4.0, and I also challenge you to support the claim that those schools you listed are indeed more rigorous.
<<<<</p>
<p>Kristin is exactly right.</p>