SDSU has some smart kids too (who like to party)

I actually went to SDSU (let us be forthright from the beginning) for my Masters Degree. I remember the conversation with my friend Nizhoni went like this:

Me: So I can either go to Iowa or I can go to San Diego.
Nizhoni: Are you a total dumbass? Hllo, SAN DIEGO. Have you ever BEEN to Iowa?
Me: It could be an experience.
Nizhoni: If I call you in a few months and find out you've moved to Iowa I will never speak to you again.

*End Scene*

And so the adventure in San Diego began. People have their thoughts about San Diego State but I have nothing but the best to say about my Professors (except this one, oh man, since that was back before Rate My Professor I just had to talk crap about her to other people in the class) and even the one undergraduate course I took (though, there were more than a few people in there I just wanted to shake and go "just TRY AND LEARN SOMETHING TODAY!") reminded me a lot of the undergraduate courses I took at Stanford (yep, that was undergraduate).

Now come to find out that SDSU is actually a DESIRABLE place to go. I can believe it. But from the tone of Sign On San Diego, they can't, really, even though it's apparently true. Check out the opening sentence.

San Diego State may not be what Harvard is to higher education, but it surely ranks among the most sought-after college campuses in the United States.

Yeah Sign On, you know what is the Harvard to higher education, um, HARVARD. And that's about it. The article goes on to discuss the finer points of why, after all this time, people might actually want to go to SDSU. Is it that it is affordable?

SDSU also is more affordable than most private schools – $3,428 a year for undergraduates compared with $32,300 at the University of San Diego.

Is it because of the international business program?

Freshman Jeremy Poincenot of Carlsbad turned down the University of California Irvine, UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis to attend SDSU because he favored the international business program.

Is it because Playboy said so?

For some, SDSU's party reputation continues to be a draw. Playboy magazine ranked the campus fifth in the nation for that distinction last year.

Or is it the classic "hey, look at that kind of average guy over there telling the hot girl he won't go out with her! He's so hot now!" I call it the Can't Buy Me Love factor.

But the single biggest reason given by SDSU officials for the surge in applications is rejection.
Eight years ago, for the first time, San Diego State was forced to turn away students who met minimum admissions requirements in order to manage enrollment. That upped the school's cachet. The more students SDSU rejected, the more applicants it got, Weber said. “People's esteem for the university began to rise when some people were turned away,” Weber said. “It always works that way. That's the way human beings are.”

Somebody break out the African Ant Eater Dance, straight up.