<p>“Also whenever any Ivy college paper has graphs or articles comparing something (acceptance rate, endowment, etc) to “peer schools” they are almost invariably the other 7 Ivy schools. Northwestern may have more in common with Penn in terms of the kind of institution it is, but that’s just not part of the “imagined community”.”</p>
<p>Oh, I see your point and I agree that NU is not part of Penn’s “imagined community” or vice versa. My question is, though, does that or should that matter if I’m a hs senior evaluating colleges for which ones might best fit my needs? IOW, are the merits and “feel” of the original college enough or should our hs senior also take into account the “imagined community”? Aside from IvyGateBlog and athletic competitions, I have no reason to believe that the average Ivy student spends any more time interacting with students at any other given Ivy, than any similar college student interacts with students at schools other than their own (things like consortia excluded).</p>