[tennispro9911]

A lot of people outside FIRST, for the most part, think along the lines of smart=knowledge=experience=intelligence=ability=.. ...

Thats not true. Its not how much knowledge you have, its how much you want to learn. Its how much time you are willing to spend learning X Y and Z. Thats what is important. The senior who comes in knowing everything about programming, and just writes the code he already knows how to write doesn't gain nearly as much as the freshman who goes in knowing next to nothing about robots and emerges in four years knowing a heck of a lot about robots, and even more about leadership, teamwork, and the term is overused, but gracious professionalism.