PageRank a factor in .edu domain trust when receiving links?

Is PageRank a factor that should be considered when receiving a link from a .edu page? Will there be benefits to receiving the link even if the page has no PR?

Is it worth boosting the PR of an .edu page by getting backlinks from other sites and then consolidating the PR in that .edu page into a link for another site?

huge factor

I would say the higher the PR the better. Or course, if you can't get a high-PR .edu link the trust carried the the link is going to be nice anyway.

According to the devil (MCutts), .edu links carry *large* amounts of juice compared to pretty much any other TLD. That being said, PR is always a huge factor, but I'm happy to get any backlinks from .edu domains. You can give me a PR2 .edu link over a PR2 .com any day.

I don't know if I'd go through all of the work of trying to boost some .edu pages PR just for your link though (unless for some odd reason it's your .edu page).

I got one of my sites indexed in google in less than 20 minutes after getting a backlink from .edu site

I personally feel that link juice (which is represented at a delay of 3 months in a page's PR score) is the biggest factor here.

I've not seen any evidence of the magic power of .edu links in helping my sites rank more than regular high PR links. Still, the idea that they are pure gold is so ingrained into everyone that my eyes still pop out of my head when I find a nice PR7 .edu page where I can get an easy link.