Not all decisions are driven by finances. I went to URI because I wanted to be an engineer (later switched to physics). Brown and other "better" schools did not have has good a program available in 1961. WPI was chosen because I went there for a Summer Science Institute and bonded well with a couple of the research professors there. UNR was chosen because I became interested in atmospheric research and they were one of two places at the time that had an aircraft suitable for the type of research I was interested in.
I still have no clue what you other comments mean.
Bob at PC
-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of David Appell
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 6:47 PM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] If Bob LaMontagne had blue eyes
LaMontagne, Bob wrote:
Whoa! How did "lazy black people" get into this?
That's the clear implication when you wrote, of your ancestors, "The
"system" supposedly held them down in a depressed state that they
couldn't shake off and enjoy the comforts and privileges of the "Yankee"
North Americans. And yet, some few simply refused to play the game and
got up and left."
I'd still like to know why your vaunted ancestors were able to rise
enough to send you to a state college, but not to a really good
university like Brown or Harvard or Yale. Did they just not try enough?
Not ambitious enough? Not care enough?
If they had sent you to Harvard, would you too have become a
billionaire, like Bill Gates?