<p>I believe Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area has one of the most sophisticated populations in the nation with 3 major universities, high tech industry, medical research going on there. It is also tobacco country! </p>
<p>"No one is trying to convince you that TCNJ (or Rider, or Montclair State for that matter) offers the same opportunities as Harvard or Stanford. That’s a red herring.</p>
<p>But if on a scale of 1-100, if Harvard is 90 and TCNJ is 20, you might be well served to understand that in other parts of the country, Harvard might only get you 80 and the state flagship gives you 75. Or in the south, Harvard might only get you 60 and the state flagship gives you 75."</p>
<p>Of course we get this. Why do you think so many kids from Massachusetts are vying to get into UVA, and why so many kids from NY end up at U Michigan? And why UMD has had so much success attracting out of staters that many of its own citizens are given January admissions to balance the load? I have cousins in Maryland- they estimate that half the kids from their HS who got admitted to UMD last year (not Towson, the flagship) were told to show up in January; they could enroll in community college for the first semester but not another university.</p>
<p>You guys seem to be arguing a point that those of us in the northeast have known for a generation- you can often get an elite level education at a prestigious flagship outside of your own state. Yawn. Moving on.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not actually “arguing” anything, just chatting about things. But, also, having been most places, lived most places, and watched the portrayal of areas not NE or West Coast in the media? I’d say that the NE stereotypes about the rest of the country are firmly in place. For example, Charlotte is the second largest banking city in the United States. There are a great many of these coveted IB jobs in that city. Try to tell that to kids from the NE. </p>
<p>This is good news for those from other regions, though. </p>
<p>@texaspg They are actually using tobacco plants to create the ebola vaccine. How bizarre.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/health/ebola-tobacco-plant/”>Tobacco plant may be key to Ebola drugs - CNN;
<p>*Do you think all the non-NE folks who stay close to home and go to their local state U’s do so because of fit? Wasn’t it because those ARE the prestigious places for them (not HYP) and the schools which will afford the best connections (see PG’s 304)? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Again, it’s those NE people who are over-concerned with prestige… *</p>
<p>If fit equals appropriate educational opportunities, appropriate access to post grad job opportunities or grad/professional school, comfortable social scene, comfortable geographic setting - I think some people are evaluating colleges in this way. I think fit can be highly individual. Your kid and my kid can end up at the same college for completely different reasons, none of which have anything to do with USNew rankings. Towson will be the best fit for one kid, and Penn for another. It really isn’t necessary to rank them here imho Of course, I don’t see the point in ranking art works either.</p>
<p>I enjoy the fact that even to discuss stereotypes we have to resort to, you know, stereotypes. ; )</p>
<p>Since Towson appears to be the crap example du jour, I will simply note here that if I had a kid interested in pursuing a teaching career, Towson would be high on our list. It’s a good regional school with solid programs in education, business, and other fields and permits motivated future educators to graduate with little or no debt – which I think is a key to going into education and staying in it long term. </p>
<p>I would like to enter “Jersey Shore” and “The Sopranos” as evidence that it’s not just the poor 'ol South that is stereotyped on TV.</p>
<p>Poetgrl, there are ignorant people everywhere. Please stop painting with such a broad brush. The elite school kids who go into i-banking are among the brightest and most ambitious students at those universities. I assure you they are smart enough to know that Charlotte is a banking city. Here’s my beef: if some of these students don’t want to work in Charlotte, preferring NYC or SF, people like you will say they are being small-minded and prejudiced. Yet when the majority of Southerners don’t want to move North even for school, that’s just them being family-oriented and sensible?</p>
<p>@theGFG find one place where I made any value judgements about what the northerners or NE or Westerners or anybody would be interested in doing on this thread.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t categorize myself as a southerner by any gauge. I just happen to be here right now. </p>
<p>As for IB, I’m familiar with the life. But, yeah, um, thanks. </p>
<p>The point is this: We all end up provincial to some extent. Southerners just know that they are. NE people and West coast, to a large extent, believe they are not. I would argue, having lived among the upper SES in every region, that everyone is. It’s a big country, too big to fully understand.</p>
<p>Poetgirl–how do you define redneck? Can you give it a definition that is measurable? For example, is a redneck someone whose income is less than X amount? Someone who has less than X level of education? Is it a political mindset–liberal vs. conservative or Democrat vs. Republican? Or is it something else all together? </p>
<p>Yes, there are groups of folks in every geographic region, who are more alike than not, and if their kids travel across country to attend college with kids from the same background, except for geography, there isn’t going to be much broadening of the mind going on. Sometimes it is an SES/ class issue. It’s hard to escape class in this country. imho </p>
<p>I guess that is why the most competitive colleges try to create environments where the upper classes get to meet the other classes, on an equal social footing. ; )</p>
<p>Some of us have the luxury to say college name recognition and prestige doesn’t really matter. For other families it may open opportunities that wouldn’t be available otherwise. My reality isn’t your reality. Both are still very real.</p>
<p>A white, racist, sexist, religious fundamentalist.</p>
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<p>@poetgrl: Well, that’s one definition. I tend to gravitate toward the stereotype of the guy who wears a flannel shirt with the sleeves torn off, takes his daily shower <em>after</em> work, watches NASCAR every Sunday, and hasn’t darkened the door of a church since the last time somebody died. But that may just be my family reunion wearin’ off on me. </p>
<p>After years of reading posts on CC, I have to say that there certainly are plenty of people who think that the elite colleges in the northeast have more national prestige than elite colleges elsewhere (except maybe for Stanford), and are “better” in significant ways. I remember a conversation in which a kid was deciding between Princeton and a free ride scholarship at Duke. It was surprising how many people thought this was a no-brainer: Princeton, of course!</p>
<p>But I’m not sure that people with this attitude are “people from the Northeast.” At the risk of further stereotyping, I think many of them are people who are not originally from the United States, and who have the conception that there has to be a single “best” college, because that’s the way it is in other countries’ systems. And they’ve heard that here, it is Harvard (or MIT). One of the values of CC, in my opinion, is helping people understand that it really doesn’t work that way here.</p>
<p>As far as actual “people from the Northeast,” I suspect that they are no different from people in other regions in thinking that their local colleges are great and that colleges elsewhere are not all they’re cracked up to be. That attitude I think is gradually fading as people are generally becoming more cosmopolitan because of communications improvements.</p>
<p>*A white, racist, sexist, religious fundamentalist. * Maybe we could call those folks bigots?</p>
<p>I’ve only watched the intro to the video (thanks momofthreeboys) and I’m crying. These are my neighbors. I love them.</p>
<p>I’d be happy to call them bigots, and in fact, I have. </p>
<p>^me, too, but with my best southern manners. ; )</p>
<p>^sorry - not so very mannerly after all : (</p>
<p>This thread has had some great insights and value. Now it has degenerated into anti-Christian name calling loaded up with a big helping of righteous indignation (see the oxymoron here?).</p>
<p>I find the original and subsequent stats to be interesting. I have no way of making claim that I can understand the perceptions of human beings based on those or any other stats. I propose a thought exercise. Ask people that you know if they can list all of the Ivy League schools from memory. I have done this exact exercise in the past and very few can get past “Harvard, Yale, Princeton,…ah, hmmm, how many are there again?” My samples have been solely plumbed from the Midwest and west coast. But, as it is with all examples in this thread, my examples are anecdotal, regional, and of a small sample set.</p>