[Philo]

[ QUOTE ]
Philo,

Here, I think, is the crux of the disagreement you and Sklansky are having.

Completely making up some numbers, it may be that 5% of students at Louisville get A's in their calculus class, whereas 20% of Harvard students get A's in their class. Sklansky, I think, is saying that because Harvard presumably has a smarter population to begin with, being in the top 20% at Harvard compares favorably to being in the top 5% at Louisville.

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This may be a fair characterization of the disagreement. I might agree with the claim as you have stated it, but I think it is more tendentious than most people realize.

I also think that there are also clear exceptions to the generalization, which is the main point I have been making. The exceptions are those students who do very well at a less heralded institution, and whose actual performance would translate well into any Ivy League type setting, but who are then penalized both for not having attended an Ivy league school, and for having their comparable GPA devalued for that fact alone. If I understand David's view, he doesn't see this as a reasonable possibility.