Let’s go Lakers!!!
OK - but an alum - noted something about a school.
The school didn’t although I’m sure they’d be proud of this alum.
The alum has a linkedin and wants to be noticed, etc. It’s what it is.
What 50 year olds talk about their schools? The ones who put school flags on their homes, the ones who go to alumni weekends each year, the ones who put paint on their face on game day, the ones who the schools send mailers/magazines to in hopes of getting donations…relentlessly.
You can eliminate Davidson for having a quirky, fun alum - but then you’ll likely have to eliminate the rest of your list too.
Good luck.
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Oh yes we do! – nerves! 
You obviously don’t get the joke. I take it you are not in advertising or marketing? This is very much NOT weird. He’s putting himself in front of a former President of the United States, a Secretary of State, several Governors, many prominent business people, famous authors, actors, etc. It’s funny – not “weird”, not “I am a nobody” not “Davidson doesn’t have any prominent alums”. Apparently this completely hit you the wrong way, but you will note that not one single person on this thread had a similar reaction. That might tell you something.
Davidson is a great school. I’m not sure HOW this ad agency came up when you did a search anyway. I just did a search on “Davidson College alumni” and this ad agency did not come up in the first several hundred hits I got! However here are some results that might be more relevant to your quest for information on Davidson:
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Davidson is known to have fiercely loyal and successful alums and apparently at least a few with a good sense of humor.
The bio in question reminded me of this legendary website bio of a pretty successful attorney who graduated from Colby College:
"Kevin was raised by penguins following a childhood boating accident. He graduated magna cum laude from Colby College, where he learned that not all issues can be reduced to black or white. He received his law degree from Boston University, which he attended on a full football scholarship through an administrative error. Thereafter, he worked for four years as an associate at a large law firm in New York, where he once rode an elevator to the top of the Empire State Building. He lectures frequently to his children on a variety of subjects. An avid indoorsman, Kevin writes non-rhyming limericks. He enjoys swimming and fishing, despite the painful memories.
In the years since his original bio was published on Otten Johnson’s predecessor websites, Kevin has received many bemused queries, often pertaining to the state of his health. To limit future inquiry, here are answers to some of the more frequently asked questions: 1. Emperor, not King; 2. Yes, it was cold. Thankfully, I had a sweater; and, 3. Sushi."
OK, thanks, everyone. Clearly I’m in a small minority.
From my perspective:
I went to an Ivy for school (HYP). While I was there, the “rule” was that we didn’t mention where we went to school. When someone asked, you’d try to avoid the topic. And upon graduation, we were told that “graduating from HYP should be the least of your accomplishments in life.” I’m on my school’s local alumni board, so sure, I spend lots of time with other alumni. But none of us would dare mention to a non-alumni, unless someone asked and kept pushing for an answer.
So posting that you’re your college’s second-most famous alumnus is totally alien to me.
It still creates an impression to me that Davidson isn’t prestigious, since someone from Oxford or HYP certainly wouldn’t broadcast where the person went to school, at the risk of appearing to be a pompous jerk.
So, yes, I can see the humor, but it puts Davidson in a category below what I hope for for my high-schooler.
What you should hope for your high schooler is a place where they can grow and learn…and laugh a little.
When you say:
but it puts Davidson in a category below what I hope for for my high-schooler.
That tells me - and I’m just using the words you used but don’t mean the intent - that you’re choosing a school to put your student in this position “risking of appearing to be a pompous jerk.”
Because where she goes matters less - than what she’ll do.
A zillion kids as good as good as kids at the nation’s elite - are not at the nation’s elite - if we want to call them that - for various reasons.
All kids need to grow, learn, and mature - the name on the diploma doesn’t assure that.
Good luck
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Huh, I’ve run into plenty of people who don’t seem to have any qualms about saying they went to H or Y or P or any of the other Ivies. Must not have gotten the memo.
The joke would still be funny if the guy said “Bill is the second most famous product of Harvard, just barely behind Mark Zuckerberg. (And Bill graduated on time!)”
What exactly is it that you hope for your high schooler? I mean that sounds pretty pompous and jerky right there.
Davidson is an excellent school. I know many people who went there and are very successful in all aspects of life, not just professionally. FWIW, I know folks who went to Ivies and aren’t pompous jerks, too, but whatever you do, don’t send your kid to Duke!
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No offense, but this seems kind of insane to me. Because some guy made a joke (one that most here, me included, find pretty funny) about his status as a Davidson alum, the school has fallen in your estimation? As Sweetgum points out, his quip works just as well for Harvard, so your problem appears to be with the joke itself. Does it really make sense to judge potential schools for your kid based on the fact that some random guy online made a tongue-in-cheek comment about his alma mater?
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I feel like everyone I know that went to Harvard leads with that. “Hi I’m Bill, I went to Harvard.”
I’m joking but it’s generally within the first 5 minutes.
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You seem to have a really strange way of evaluating schools!
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I’m not following. Doesn’t being evasive make you look like a jerk? If somebody asks where you went to school, you tell him/her… Maybe I never got the memo? 
That said, I do agree that this ad is rather cringy and potentially embarrassing for the school…
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Note to HYP graduates: Please stop with the name evasion thing. It makes you look like jerks when a minute later people realize you’ve been talking about Princeton or Yale all along. One of my best friends did that for years and none of us had the heart to tell him it wasn’t working the way it was intended.
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Name evasion also can lead to disappointment on the part of the recipient. I once was told by someone that she’d attended college in Providence. I’d thought perhaps I was meeting an artist. As it turned out, she hadn’t gone to RISD.
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Thanks, everyone. I see that (1) the ad agency’s post is nearly unanimously loved and (2) I’m in a small minority. Oh, well- I still think that putting something like, “I won a hot dog-eating contest” or “I have run 5 marathons” or “I grew up down the street from Darth Vader” would be a better choice, but to each his or her own.
And to answer some posts above, yes, I am aiming for HYP for my high-schooler.
My high-schooler got a 1580 on the SAT and has a straight-A average.
When a stranger says, “where did you go to school”, answering, “the Northeast, how about you?” is not a jerk response.
Why ignore it ?
I’d be loud and proud.
“Where did you go to college?” "Harvard " is perfectly acceptable.
Saying “When I was at Harvard” 2 seconds after meeting someone is not.
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I think the OP is just looking for a reaction. They went to “HYP” (LOL, no one else here has trouble just saying their school even when its one of those) and aspire to that for their kid, but they created an account 3 days ago on CC for the sole purpose of posting that Davidson is not good enough for their kid because some rando on the internet posted a joke about being a famous alum. No posts about other Ivy+ schools, no serious questions. Just this.
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Best of luck. Be sure to let us know how it goes!
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