One problem with people that come out of a state school environment is that it delays the "day of reckoning" until graduate school. I get all my information from my advisor. "get good GPA, perfect GRE, take grad classes. Competition for astrophysics is very STIFF at competitive departments....
Yup. One problem with life is that there isn't a reset button. I'd be curious to see what would have happened had I gone to big state school, or if I had focused a bit more and gotten myself in the Harvard grad school. Really? I know tons of totally ignorant people that tend...