[Philo]

There's nothing more I can do to demonstrate what I've claimed. I've given evidence that students at Ivy league schools have said themselves that they can get an A in a class just by turning in a semi-intelligible paper. This is not a generalization--it does not mean that for any class at Princeton a student can get an A by turning in a semi-intelligible paper. It means that in that particular class the grading standards were lax, such that simply turning in a paper that was not incoherent sufficed to receive an A. If you want to discount the Princeton student himself who said it was easy to get an A in that class be my guest.

I've been a student at eight different schools that run the gamut in terms of rankings, and I've experienced first-hand the fact that some classes at lesser ranked schools can be harder to get an A-range grade in than at an Ivy League school. I've also taught students at Columbia University, so I'm well aware of the abilities of students at an Ivy League school. I've never claimed that students at Ivy League schools aren't more intelligent on average than students at an average state school, though for some reason people keep making that inference.

You consistently misrepresent what I've claimed by saying things like, "Even if it is easier to get an A- at an Ivy League school than a typical state school, I would still bet that an A- at an Ivy League school represents more understanding on average than an A- at Iowa State." I've never claimed otherwise and in fact I agreed with David when he said the same thing. Get your facts straight. I've also never claimed that in general it's easier to get an A- in a class at a state school than it is at an Ivy league school, which your remark seems to imply, or that an Iowa State education is the equivalent of a Harvard education. It's not, I've never said it was, and it's just silly to keep making inferences from what I said to conclusions that do not follow.

Here is what I'm claiming, and this is the last word I'm going to say on the subject. If a student at Iowa State gets an A- in a class, let's say "Social Psychology," and a student from Harvard gets an A- in "Social Psychology," that does not by itself mean that the A- from Harvard was a harder grade to earn, or that the student from Harvard necessarily had a higher level of academic achievement in that particular class than the Iowa State student. This is a fact that I've experienced first-hand in comparing the grading standards for classes I took at the University of Louisville, Amherst College, Columbia University, and five other private and public institutions. Turning in a 'semi-intelligible' paper will not get you an A in every class you can take at any state university.