I'm very skeptical that the reputation of a state school is really influenced by a single Dean of engineering no matter how silly their recent publication recor

I'm very skeptical that the reputation of a state school is really influenced by a single Dean of engineering no matter how silly their recent publication record is. I'm also noticing a red flag in this comment by stating that they picked the school because it was affordable - while that is true, shouldn't the same grace be applied to students that went to this school because it was the best school they got into and didn't get into any better ones? I've noticed a lot of people justify their attendance at lower-ranked schools by saying the institutions are affordable, but in reality you shouldn't need to justify not getting into elite schools to begin with.