<p>“Who cares what other people think anyway?”</p>
<p>Pretty much everybody cares what other people think, especially in parts of the country where there’s nothing worse than people thinking you’re “too big for your britches.” I recall reading how Jerry Seinfeld convinced co-“Seinfeld” creator (and zillionaire) Larry David to buy a Porsche. But Larry David felt so ridiculous and pretentious driving it, even in Los Angeles, that he sold it and bought a sensible Prius.</p>
<p>I, for one, would feel ok telling people I was going to Princeton of Bowdoin or Northwestern but I would feel absolutely ridiculous telling anybody that I was going to Harvard. It’s like such a cliche and a punchline.</p>
<p>After a semester or so at your school you won’t even care if your school is prestigious or not. You don’t expect any other response than “oh” when you respond to questions about where you go to school.</p>
<p>I think another way of responding to this thread is asking how many people wear their school hoodies outside of college. I have one for football/sports but I don’t wear it outside of campus because I feel like I’m advertising for a company or something. I know a lot of my friends who don’t go to HYPS still sport a hoodie from these schools, and I always find it strange.</p>
<p>Alix: I live very close to the city. And most of the people I have told as of late are people I work with. They’re all my age or a year or two younger. What bugs me is that they seem QUITE interested in what my grades and SAT scores were like as well… I just say that I don’t remember them.</p>
<p>But even some of the parents I talk to are very impressed, probably too much so. It sure isn’t Harvard we’re talking about.</p>
<p>Babydragon: People aren’t allowed to support their school unless they go to HYPS? lol</p>
<p>That’s not what I said. I’m fine with people wearing CAL UCLA USC and Stanford around norcal, but it bugs the hell out of me to see people wearing HYPS when I know for certain that neither they nor their relatives go there.</p>
<p>i’ve encountered this situation so much with going to vandy–roughly half will have heard of it, and say “oh wow good for you!” and sometimes insert “i didn’t know you were THAT smart” (thanks?), and the other half will politely ask why i’d want to move to nashville when UT-Austin is ~3.5 hours away.</p>
<p>i’ve just started describing it as a duke not in north carolina to those who enquire further.</p>