<i>Silicon Valley is a lot like Harvard... Why not give yourself the best possible opportunity if you can have it?</i><p>Crikey, you are nearly giving me flashbacks to high school.  I was speaking to an admissions officer from Harvard and, after answering his questions about myself, he asked me whether I had a question for him.  I asked "Well, you know, I probably have a bit of ability to pick where I go to school.  Why should I go to Harvard?"  I remember his response <i>exactly</i>: "If you can get into Harvard, why would you go anywhere else?"<p>That line convinced me not to apply, on the theory I'd have to spend four years of my life with people who thought like that.  (Which, come to think of it, is one reason I would not love to live in Silicon Valley.)