Uhh i think you're underestimating how smart kids top 30% at a top uni are. Top 30% at a community college could probably do decently at umich, but I really doubt a lot of them excel as well as top of the class at umich. Not to say that it doesn't happen or it's impossible but as a general case, no way. A lot of my friends who struggled at math/physics at umich took classes at WCC and they aced the courses.

Grades are immaterial to the discussion. Actually with the amount of grade inflation at CCs, "top 30%" is a pretty useless figure in that context.

I'll reword it this way: the best three or four coders in my CC's programming are as bright as the vast majority of CS students here. I have met more impressive people here, but then again there are quite a lot more of them. So I'll give you.. the top 10% there are comparable to the top 30% here? There we go.

Absolutely ridiculous. I have a pretty respectable gpa in CS, above 3.5, and I'm everyday blown away by how fucking smart some of these kids are and what they accomplish given time and effort along with their brilliance.

Me too. But you know what? They exist outside here too. If you end up working as a software engineer, you're going to be meeting those people for the rest of your life. Many of them won't even have college degrees.