[highpost]

I think we're dealing with garden variety snobbery here. A great school, like a great teacher, is a school that makes a difference in people's lives. If it takes people who could have worked in a factory and gives them a leg up to a better living, then we should celebrate that kind of school. The point of the article is that circumstances have changed in a way that undermines the ability of school like WKU to deliver this kind of possibility.

[measurablefunc]

I agree & the same is true for local colleges but most people are more concerned w/ the perception of prestige that their degree will grant them than the quality of the books in the university/college library that can expand their intellectual horizon.

[Imnimo]

Suppose that a school takes those people and fails to get half of them to graduation? Have they been given a leg up? Is that a "great" outcome?