Alright, let me put this another way.
You think you have made a better choice, by choosing the school you did vs. Those other spendthrifty students who went to private schools. The underlying basis of your argument is that there's no advantage to attending a HYPSM school, therefore the additional expenditure is a waste of money -->> therefore students at state schools are better at managing money.
Contrast my argument where I do think the extra money is worth it, and therefore in my eye's I've made the better choice because I saw value where you didn't.
The choice had little to do with your superior understanding of the value of money and much more to do with the fact that your VALUATION of Ivy/Top School education is much lower than that of the people who choose to attend those institutions.
Now in the hypothetical, I proposed, your choice of "I would pick the state kid because of better financial understanding" falls flat, in face of the knowledge that your reasoning started with a chicken and egg problem. ie. I don't think Stanford is worth it, so therefore this other kid from state must have made a better choice -->> Kid from state is better with money.
Contrast this with the following progression:-
1. I don't think Stanford is a better college
2. But I won't punish the student for what he thought was a financial choice that he/she thought was worth it.
3. Applicants from both Stanford and state look identical
-->> I'll flip a coin
In conclusion, I would say that your bias stems from the fact that you think No-name state is the same as top school, which was the debate at hand in the first place, before this detour of state school kids are better with money.
Are you claiming that the University of South Carolina and Stanford University recruit the same caliber of student? Becuase they don't, and I was pointing out that they don't and that forms the basis of "prestige".
I'll just re-quote myself.
No, that is absolutely not my reasoning or my thought process.
1. I think that an Ivy League is a waste of money FOR AN AVERAGE PREMED STUDENT THAT IS CERTAIN ABOUT HIS OR HER CAREER PATH for the most part (unless you are getting a scholarship or are very very wealthy). Not true if you want to go into almost any other field.
2. I think that much of learning the basic sciences is up to self motivation and being able to teach yourself. I never studied for an A. I studied to understand the material.
3. Stanford and U of SC CAN have the same caliber of student, although the average student is not of the same caliber. IE a top student at U of SC will be about average at Stanford. those at the very top of Stanford are extremely intelligent. I.E. I am not a genius, but had I gone to one of the other schools I got into, I probably would be around average. I'm arguing that I would have most likely ended up at the same medical school. I saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. The two students we're talking about in this hypothetical -- one is obviously at the top of his state school. The other is middle of the deck at Harvard. We are talking about the SAME caliber student. Each just made a different decision of where to go. I think that the student who chose the state school made the better decision because I think he saved a ton of money while ensuring an environment where opportunities would be easy to reach. Basic science education is generally similar wherever you go because of the self teaching component. This is smart, in my books.
4. At schools like Harvard, most classes are taught by TAs. At my school, they are taught by professors.
5. If the state school kid had gone to Harvard or Stanford, he would be in the SAME position, but just from Harvard.
6. Say I had gone to Duke. I would not be a public health major. There is no undergraduate public health major at Duke. So, in this case, I actually gained an opportunity from going to my state school. Mentors and Professors were easily accessible to me. I had an easier time getting resources and gaining experiences that would have been harder to come by at a top tier school. This is true, because I know students who chose these schools. The resources were snapped up by those at the top. In other words, I had a better experience at U of SC. I got a practical education here that I wouldn't have been allowed to have at a top tier school. I designed my own research project and started my own organization. I WOULD NOT have been able to do that at a top tier university. Because I would have been average. In other words, this state school education was more valuable than an Ivy League education.
I AM NOT arguing that the average student at Carolina is the average student at Harvard. I AM NOT arguing that I am as smart as someone at the top of Harvard. I AM NOT arguing that an Ivy isn't sometimes worth the money. I AM NOT arguing that I don't value Ivy League schools (just not in this case and not in the case of someone average like me). I AM arguing that an average student set on being premed is better off at a state school because of the money, the accessible resources, and the accessible professors.
