Like every other gatekeeper at the nation's most besieged campuses, Amherst's harried Dean of Admission Eugene S. Wilson finds himself warning applicants against name brands in colleges. Says he: "Learning is something a student does with books and a teacher who cares. A student's intellectual growth depends far less on geography—which college—than on what advantage he takes of the opportunities that surround him wherever he is." In sum: if at first you don't succeed, look far, travel wide, and find another good college. The U.S. is full of them.
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