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As an aside, flagship is not a technical term but the flagship university of NC is not NCSU.

The unified UNC system has 16 constituent campuses organized under a President and Board of Governors. Each campus has a Chancellor and Board of Trustees. UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU are officially designated as flagship campuses by the State of North Carolina. I need read no further to be convinced of your ignorance.

You are an academic who knows only one environment - large state land grant. You make my point by noting that you have been there forever and know nothing else. "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy".

It's telling that you insist on looking at athlete admissions from the athletic department point of view while I talk about athletic admissions from the admissions department point of view. Once again you have demonstrated your ignorance. Duke, in fact, does do blind admissions and has done so for at least the 30 years I have been associated with the school and I presume longer. I'm sorry if that concept blows your mind and you cannot imagine how such a system could work. Read the book and get back to me when you are better informed.

As far as this

ANOTHER case you could make is that while UF and Duke SAT scores are not that much different, with Duke's higher, that Duke has about 15% of the undergrad student body of UF and Duke and UF probably have a similar number of scholarship athletes means that the Duke average SAT is more impacted by special admit students, ie athletes, than UF's average SAT is.

that would be true if the Duke athletes weren't already to be qualified to be there in the first place, i.e., Duke doesn't need many special admits because the athletes are already qualified in the first place and are interested in the superior education Duke has to offer. I know it is a foreign experience to you but there are athletes that can gain admissions to top-notch schools without special consideration. Schools like Duke snap these applicants up and fill their athletic teams.

Your UF math classes have failed you. Can you not figure out that UF's huge (excuse me - this is FR - hugh) freshman class drawn largely from a single state cannot be as competitive as Duke's relatively tiny freshman class drawn nationwide?

Your UF economics classes have failed you. Recall the law of supply and demand? Out-of-state tuition matters because it is the true cost of a not-state-sponsored education. UF's out-of-state tuition is less than Duke's. If UF were all that great, top-notch out-of-state students would be storming the gates to get into UF as a relative bargain. But they are not. They are storming the gates to get into Duke.

You can talk about SATs and National Merit all you want. There's a very close to true joke that if you take three Duke students, one's a valedictorian, one's a salutatorian and one's an under performer. Duke's undergrad population is loaded with students who were first or second in their H.S. class.

I'm more interested in the end of the process (graduation) as opposed to the beginning of the process (admissions). You can talk about cluster analysis if you like. I promise you the "easy" major at Duke would crush the average student. Duke admits athletes and they get through in percentages approaching 100% without being cut slack or any opportunities to slip through truly easy majors. UF and most other schools cannot say that. (BTW, it took a while but Stanley Fish was eventually driven out of Duke a decade ago and is now at Florida International which is oh so proud to have him.)

BTW, you're not the first UF grad I've met with a raging inferiority complex. Must be something in the Gatorade which seems to be UF's only nationwide "academic" claim to fame.

Ruth speaks again today...
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/ruth/index.php?title=prof_takes_me_to_task_for_duke_lacrosse_&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

So, tell me, dear, how do you really feel? Good to see the old fight still surging. :-)

To All -- Missed you guys, one and all. Wanted to tell those of you who may have access to our "boys" that these are the doldrums that are tough to get through. Pass on the "we're behind you" wishes and, hopefully, the AV will decide she can handle the misdemeanor she will incur for making a false statement to the police -- she won't have to risk much in the way of monetary awards for her libel and slander -- can't get blood from a turnip. Mr. Nifong, however, as I have said from the beginning, is between the proverbial ROCK and HARD PLACE and it's gonna' leave a mark.