<p>fireflyscout,</p>
<p>The Northfield colleges do have quite a reputation in Minnesota.</p>
<p>Yes, I should add on my conversations:
Where's your daughter attending?
Carleton College.
That's a great college!
Oh, so you're from Minnesota?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yeah, also, I love all the people who are going to Penn and think that everyone's gonna bow down to them because they're going to an Ivy League school when almost everyone will think they're talking about Penn State.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Now, now, that's an unfair generalization. I was sitting next to a young lady on the bus the other day. She asked me where I was going to college, and I responded. When she told me "Penn" in turn, I asked "Penn State" first, because I usually hear it referred to as "UPenn." I said "oh, that's cool," and later asked if she were attending CAS or Wharton. When she responded in the negative, I asked nursing, and she ended up saying engineering. I was more impressed by the fact that she was venturing into a field like that rather than the fact that she was going to attend UPenn. I hope she wasn't disappointed, because in some circles Ivy League admission is considered extremely praiseworthy.</p>
<p>I also resent those who haven't heard of my high school or merely acknowledge the college I will be attending as "good." That they are the best in their respective categories should mean something.</p>
<p>It's probably an ego and self-esteem thing. </p>
<p>Frankly, people who haven't heard of UC: San Diego or Cambridge aren't worth your regard, eh? ^_~</p>
<p>
[quote]
Middsmith,</p>
<p>Not much difference at all...although Penn State students don't have as poor of a reputation as SDSU kids do.
[/quote]
And UPenn students don't have as poor of a reputation as UCSD kids do.
Look, it is the same thing. UPenn::UCSD is the same as PennState::SDSU. I don't know why people got so worked up over little things like this.</p>
<p>Most of the Wharton people I met said they went to Wharton when I asked them about their college. I was always wondering why they didn't say Penn.</p>
<p>Because CAS is unremarkable relative to Wharton, which is widely considered the best business school (graduate, anyway) in the country.</p>
<p>Funny, because you don't hear MIT people telling you they go to Sloan. You'd think they were cancer patients or something.</p>
<p>
Actually, except for its web address, the school never refers to itself as "UPenn," but always calls itself "Penn." Similarly, the vast majority of the school's students and alumni call it "Penn," and not "UPenn," and "Penn" is what appears on sweatshirts, t-shirts, decals, etc.</p>
<p>It's a similar situation with Stern students. Most of them say they go to Stern rather than NYU.</p>
<p>Hm, well, fun fact of the day.</p>
<p>Same applies to Tisch.</p>
<p>
Wharton is uniformly considered to be the best undergrad business school in the country, if not the world. Further, Wharton is widely known in the buisness world by the name under which it was founded at Penn as the world's first collegiate business school in 1881. That's why Wharton students typically mention the name, because it has a history of usage in the business world that Sloan and other separately named business schools simply don't have.</p>
<p>CAS, SEAS, and Nursing don't have separate proper names, which is why undergrads in those schools commonly say that they go to "Penn." In many contexts, Wharton undergrads and alums also proudly say that they go/went to "Penn."</p>
<p>Penn undergrads have quite a lot to be proud about in addition to Wharton, such as the many top-10 and top-20 departments in CAS. Of course, Penn's top-5 and top-10 professional and grad schools in addition to Wharton (Medicine, Law, Nursing, Communications, Veterinary, Dental, Design, etc.) also add to its non-Wharton eminence and luster.</p>
<p>When my DD mentioned she was taking summer classes at Cambridge-people would ask which University-Harvard or ? She then had to explain it was located in England-not Boston, MA ! Pretty funny !!</p>
<p>What Im hearing from everyones humorous experiences is that, all in all, the general public likely cares little where someone attends college, and likely places little value in the finer points of college rankings (that many people on CC exhibit angst over).</p>
<p>Maybe were all acting a bit clueless by placing such emphasis on the name recognition and brand of the institution and whether or not its in the ivy league . . . Whats most important is the best fit for each student, not merely prestige or recognition. </p>
<p>Think beyond the name! Where will you be happiest? What's most important is that students think honestly about which colleges provide the right match for them. It's important to look beyond the 'brand name' and to research thoroughly the academics, commitment to education, availability of good mentoring and advising, quality of teaching (do the faculty value teaching? will you be taught mostly by TAs?), culture, opportunities, values, social life, etc offered at various colleges.</p>
<p>Remember:</p>
<ol>
<li>You dont need to get into the ivy league to be successful in life. </li>
<li>The ratings from the US News & World Report are misleading and lead to a marketing of colleges rather than illuminating true quality and educational value.</li>
<li>The college/university you graduate from does not determine who you are and how you contribute to the world.</li>
</ol>
<p>Consider these earlier posts: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/491954-don-t-let-prestige-lead-you-wrong-college-please-3.html?highlight=hawkette%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/491954-don-t-let-prestige-lead-you-wrong-college-please-3.html?highlight=hawkette</a></p>
<p>and the work of the Education Conservancy, a non profit committed to improving the college admissions process: Education</a> Conservancy</p>
<p>and the book, College Unranked: College</a> Unranked</p>
<p>Many a people have tried to convince me that I'm attending Georgetown as opposed to George Washington. If it wern't humorous I would be insulted.</p>
<p>bigredmed,</p>
<p>I'd like to point out that first, it's hard to gauge how much 'mileage' an average student actually gets out of a degree. Till a hard and fast statistic actually goes some way of indicating just how well the 'name' of the school ALONE helps in hiring or employment prospects, your statement is speculation. Hard time accepting that? Show me something more than a standard Div 1 school snub of the LAC (and people call us snobbish, sheesh)</p>
<p>Good school versus bad school. If you're talking about an LAC ranked in the 300s or even in the 100s versus a big U ranked in the 50s, I would agree that you'd tend to get more mileage out of the big U's degree. But If you're talking top 10 LAC versus top 10 Big U, that's where I draw the line. Students entering both category of institutions can only achieve success and ironically get more mileage out of their degree if and only if they are able to utilize the various resources of their college so that they get the high GPA, sound education that trains people how to be critical thinkers, a mileu of good internships, curricular involvement, and establishing contacts with classmates etc.</p>
<p>I'm not claiming that fit is the "determining factor" for getting the most out of the degree, but putting out a generalization that a big Div 1 sports school, simply by virtue of being known by a larger body of people (who are these people? what demographic are they? what kind of occupations do they engage in? - these are the people THAT WILL HIRE YOU), will give bigger bang for the buck for a college degree is speculation. It's not so simple.</p>
<p>And another tired and oft repeated tribe - anecdotal evidence is a tool for indicating the existence of exceptions. Not very useful when trying to argue for an argument which applies to the entire population. i.e. oh I know this successful person who hires people and he doesn't know XYZ college, HMMM.</p>
<p>"When my DD mentioned she was taking summer classes at Cambridge-people would ask which University-Harvard or ? She then had to explain it was located in England-not Boston, MA ! Pretty funny !!"</p>
<p>Yeah, I get that a lot too, but I'm understanding. Even though Cambridge, MA was named after the English city and university, it makes sense that Americans would think of a more local/familiar school first.</p>
<p>The quote about "Nobody ever went going broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American" is from Henry Mencken</p>
<p>No</a> one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. by Henry Mencken</p>
<p>Here's some info on Mencken:</p>
<p>The</a> H. L. Mencken Page - A Mencken Cornucopia - guide to H. L. Mencken resources on the Web</p>
<p>"What I’m hearing from everyone’s humorous experiences is that, all in all, the general public likely cares little where someone attends college, and likely places little value in the finer points of college rankings (that many people on CC exhibit angst over).</p>
<p>Maybe we’re all acting a bit clueless by placing such emphasis on the ‘name recognition’ and ‘brand’ of the institution and whether or not it’s in the ivy league . . . What’s most important is the best ‘fit’ for each student, not merely prestige or recognition. </p>
<p>Think beyond the name! Where will you be happiest? What's most important is that students think honestly about which colleges provide the right match for them. It's important to look beyond the 'brand name' and to research thoroughly the academics, commitment to education, availability of good mentoring and advising, quality of teaching (do the faculty value teaching? will you be taught mostly by TAs?), culture, opportunities, values, social life, etc offered at various colleges.</p>
<p>Remember:</p>
<ol>
<li>You don’t need to get into the ivy league to be successful in life. </li>
<li>The ratings from the US News & World Report are misleading and lead to a ‘marketing’ of colleges rather than illuminating true quality and educational value.</li>
<li>The college/university you graduate from does not determine who you are and how you contribute to the world.</li>
</ol>
<p>Consider these earlier posts: Don't let prestige lead you to the wrong college…please</p>
<p>and the work of the Education Conservancy, a non profit committed to improving the college admissions process: Education Conservancy</p>
<p>and the book, College Unranked: College Unranked"</p>
<hr>
<p>Amen. Thank you for giving my pointless venting thread some legitimacy.</p>
<p>(btw..does anyone know why I'm not able to properly quote previous messages? Is it my browser or am I probably just doing something wrong?)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I also resent those who...merely acknowledge the college I will be attending as "good."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>How sad.....some unnamed people think that you will only be attending a "good" college.</p>
<p>It's absolutely hilarious how people constantly mix up Michigan State with U of Michigan (Spartans vs. Wolverines, green/white vs. blue/gold). That's cool for me because they all sound extremely excited when they think I'm going to UofM (oh! top 10 public school, great!) And then I tell them, nope! I can see people's faces go from happy to confused and frowning. Oh. That's good I guess..they mutter. Lol</p>
<p>The jokes on them, because they have no idea what programs/opportunities MSU offers that makes it such a great school in my eyes. So as long as I have that satisfaction, I could care less about what other people think of my school! </p>
<p>Yes, the average American is really this clueless when it comes to college. But I'm not the "average American," and most of us on this board aren't either. So I'm happy knowing that fact and content to see people get all mixed up, and it is rather understandable that most don't really care as they aren't really involved in the college process in any way</p>