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Fully half of yesterday's top ten most active threads were ones that I have previously discussed. That includes the most active thread overall which was the thread about Usman Shahid, the young Virginian whose speeding resulted in a collision and the death of two high school girls. He was convicted of two charges of involuntary manslaughter yesterday. The first thread that I will discuss today was titled, "Nate Silver: ‘Go to a state school’" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Most readers are probably familiar with Nate Silver, a stats-whiz who founded FiveThirtyEight and has been a leader in data-driven journalism. The original poster of this thread linked to an article by Silver in which Silver argues that most students should choose state schools over Ivy League or other selective private schools. Those who have paid attention to Silver over the past few years will know that he transitioned from a purely data-driven, "let the stats tell the story", analyst to a leader in the "take industry". These days, Silver seems to pay a lot more attention to "vibes" than to data. This article is no exception. Silver claims that the Ivy League has lost its luster. His evidence for that? A poll showing declining perceptions of higher education. Not Ivy League education, but higher education in general. The Nate Silver of a decade ago would have been embarrassed to offer such flimsy, and misleading, support for an argument. To be sure, for many students state schools are compelling options. It would be interesting to see an analytical study comparing various outcomes such as salary level, employment opportunities, and other factors between top state schools and top private schools. At one time, that would be the sort of thing to expect from Silver. But not anymore. Instead, we get things like suggestions that Ivy students are "coddled". Exactly how do you quantify that? Silver's article is more a collection of right-wing memes than serious analysis. In the thread, there are those who agree with Silver, including posters who agree that Ivy students are coddled. But plenty of posters disagree as well. Like Silver's article, most of the posts in the thread are based on perception. Perception is affected by many things, not all of them accurate. The value of Silver's past brand of data journalism was that it distinguished what is believed from what is real. We don't get that from him any longer. There has been thread after thread lamenting various aspects of today's Ivy League, yet I doubt that a single poster would turn down the opportunity (for either them or their child) to attend if it were reasonably available (i.e. not financially out-of-reach). As for those claiming that they would not apply, as I have written before, that's like me deciding not to try out to be the starting quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs.