<p>Ok, hostile tone noted. </p>
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<li>No, I’m saying that less than half of the student body at Wash U is also mediocre. And I think the question as to how someone “acts smart” is a bad one. </li>
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<p>My point was that from my experiences with students at elite universities, the extensive conversations I had with many students at elite universities as a prospective student deciding where to attend, from the words of my fairly large sample of friends who attend said universities, all from the perspective of someone admitted by the university in question, there isn’t as notable a difference in the perceived intelligence level of the student body in daily interactions as one might expect. </p>
<p>So the idea that the fact that the Wash U student body has higher SAT scores than almost any college in the country translates into this ultra intellectual student body where you can feel that these students are smarter than those at other elite schools with lower scores doesn’t really pan out in reality, based on above experiences. </p>
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<li>I’m sorry that my hasty construction of that sentence troubled you to the point that you had to comment on it; I’ll be more careful from now on…</li>
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<p>The blunt version is: I found Wash U’s campus, and other students confirmed my sentiment, to be slightly anti-intellectual. </p>
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<li>This is the one point where I don’t think you were simply questioning my opinions and anecdotes. The faculty at Michigan is indisputably stronger than the faculty at Wash U as evidenced by higher departmental scores, PA scores, USNews teaching scores (whatever those mean), history, reputation. I don’t get why even Wash U’s biggest fan wouldn’t cede that it doesn’t have as strong a faculty. Wash U isn’t trying to be a Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, or a Michigan.</li>
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