could they have been cherry picked?
True story: I started majoring in journalism in college. Most of my colleagues on the campus newspaper interviewed each other or people in their circle of acquaintances for stories.
I actually interviewed people in the community such as the mayor and a prominent banker. Partly, it was due to the fact that I worked in the community and commuted to campus. Mostly, I think, it was because I wasn't a liberal and lazy by nature.
Long story short, was that while I got good grades from the professors and was even quoted in the local papers in my stories, I was not popular with my colleagues. By my junior year, I knew I would either end up taking some kind of marginal job or major is something serious and marketable. I chose door #2, but I got a real good look at the kind of people who choose door #1.