@PABaseball posted:Admissions are absolutely rigorous, there are plenty of very bright and hard working students who do not get a sniff of consideration from the schools we are referring to. And yes, I would say it's a safe argument that the average student at a HA school is smarter than that of a mediocre school. What I'm saying is - what makes a HA school more rigorous than a state school in terms of curriculum?
Physics 101 is an entry level course wherever you go. First semester freshmen aren't taking quantum physics at Penn, it's still intro to physics. American history is the same at both schools. Honors level courses in HS are not comparable to the same exact course at two different schools. And if they're more rigorous at a HA - what makes them harder?
Like I said, the hard part is getting in. Staying in has more to do with the work ethic and motivation of the student than it does the brain capacity so to say. Son is friends with two Ivy League athletes for an Olympic sport, neither would be confused with an honors student. One was injured and enrolled in the local juco for a year before transferring back into the Ivy to preserve eligibility (common in some sports). He swears the local juco was just as hard if not harder than the Ivy. The other transferred out to a party school for his sport and claims it's harder when not everyone around you is as motivated as the kids at his Ivy were.
While the degree may be better from certain schools. I don't buy the idea that the education is better.
One of my cousins went to Harvard. He also ran track. He said the hard part was getting in. He didn’t feel the classes were extraordinarily hard even though he was pre-med. He said when he applied to med schools he was glad he was Harvard pre-med. He went to Tufts Medical.