The distinction between “yeshiva bochurim aren’t competent enough to go to college,” and “‘few’ Yeshiva guys are competent enough to make it in ‘real’ college” is completely lost on me. And if the point you were making about the SAT only applied in your case, then why did you post it on that thread (without taking into account that it was irrelevant to the OP)?
Okay, so now I’ll share some non-anecdotal evidence with you. I’m a very intellectual person (feel free to contest this, too), and I was in fact very determined NOT to go to seminary in Israel for the reason you’re touting (and some others). I really wasn’t interested in spending a year memorizing trivia and being tested on it – and even less interested in going to a “non-academic” seminary. But then some people pushed me into some actual research, and I talked to some more informed people about it, and I found out that my understanding was based on exactly that – anecdotal evidence from the WRONG people.
I was even able to find a seminary that was started on the exact premise of intellectualism vs. academics. There’s some work there, and you do leave with more knowledge than you started with, but the emphasis is put on the process of obtaining knowledge – being able to read, analyze, and comprehensively compile primary sources, both in the context of class and on one’s own. That’s how I define an intellectual experience, and that’s exactly how they define it in my Honors program at college, too.
There are a lot of reasons why girls choose to go to Israel for seminary. The reasons you chose are definitely among them, but they are not exclusive, or even primary, to all prospective seminary students. There are a significant number of people who are going for the intellectual experience, and that there are a significant number of seminaries that cater to them. So it really does make sense to rank seminaries on that criterion – for the intellect-seekers and non-intellect-seekers alike. Of course, for others there might be other pressing considerations, but that doesn’t dismiss it altogether.
And I must say that your ill-informed objectivity is just as compelling as my subjectivity.