<p>Every once in awhile I'll mention something I've read here to others I happen to run into. What one forgets is that for all the talk of prestige and top tier and elite colleges, most folks I run into have never heard of most of them (and I am talking about college educated folks). While most have heard of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, most have never heard of Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Penn, or Columbia (Columbia a little more than the rest), and forget about the LAC's. Duke & Stanford are known (basketball & football respectively), but not so much Chicago. So the question I have is, has there been a nationwide poll on college name recognition? If so I'd be interested in seeing it. And if no one has ever heard of these schools, are they really that prestigious? Or, is prestige only really considered by the people attending prestigious universities (other than HYP)?</p>
<p>There are two types of prestige: Man-on-the-street-prestige and Those-in-the-know-prestige, or for short: Popular prestige and Academic prestige. </p>
<p>Schools like Chicago, Pomona, Williams, etc. have plenty of the latter but not so much of the former. Schools famous mostly for their athletics often have more of the former than the latter. HYPSM have plenty of both. Harvard stands heads and shoulders above all others in the former but is back in a crowd of top tier schools in the latter.</p>
<p>For man-in-the-street prestige, I wonder if you can yet beat Notre Dame. The "subway alumni" generation may be fading away, but I was certainly the child of one - Irish Catholic non-college educated who believed Notre Dame was "his" school.</p>
<p>You still seem to be able to see every one of their football games wherever you are, however their team is doing.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>For man-in-the-street prestige, I wonder if you can yet beat Notre Dame.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Among, as you say Irish Catholics, that's probably true. There certainly are regional, cultural, and ethnic differences in how some schools are regarded by the Man on the Street. I'm sure that many Mormons hold BYU in much higher regard than most others do.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone knew of a scientific survey that addressed this issue. I haven't been able to find one. But I did run into an interesting study conducted in the 1980's that recast what was meant by selective by using an analysis of SAT scores of applicants rather than admits. It found that some schools draw applicants that really have no or little shot at admission so that when the pool of those who were in the range of those admitted was considered, admit rates of the qualified pool jumped considerably. I could not find a more recent example, using similar methods.</p>
<p>When I think of prestige, I think of graduates and what they have accomplished post graduation. I know personally of two grads who accomplished so much in the business world that they earned salaries of seven figures. Their alma maters: Temple University and Cal State LA! "Prestige" talk is a lot of hot air!</p>
<p>"If so I'd be interested in seeing it. And if no one has ever heard of these schools, are they really that prestigious? Or, is prestige only really considered by the people attending prestigious universities (other than HYP)?"</p>
<p>The prestige of these - even HYP - doesn't carry over particularly far unless there are alumni in the community. In my town (a state capital, with high average levels of education), only athletes get accepted to HYPS, and since they never seem to return for work, they have no track record in employment (other than the fact that they can be expected to leave).The "in-the-know" prestige is present - and, in our commnity, is not a plus. Alumni connections don't help, and once you passed the first 30 seconds of conversation, the employer wants to know what you can do for him, not where you went to school. A BYU connection, however, or, in a few cases the state u. or Whitman, is likely to take you further.</p>
<p>idad, I can understand why some people don't know Brown, Chicago, etc. But Stanford? The four schools everyone should know are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford - college degree or not.</p>
<p>Stanford is known for PAC 10 football and John Elway, might as well be Oregon State to most folks outside of CA, and a lot of them.</p>
<p>I think this all depends on where you have lived and among what cultural groups worldwide. The big three in my neck of the woods in a former British colony are Cambridge, Oxford, LSE. The big ones when I was growing up in Northern Cal: Cal Berkeley, Stanford. When I lived in Texas it was UT Austin, hands down. I always knew about Harvard, Princeton and Yale but they were always over there... for someone else.</p>