<p>McGuinn got his law degree at UW.</p>
<p>When I was a freshman in college I went to visit a friend (who had applied when it was still Pembroke, but admitted when it was Brown-- who remembers that far back??) Anyway- I bought a tshirt that had “Brown” in block letters in the upper left corner. Someone looked at me and asked “what color is the other one??”</p>
<p>I kid you not.</p>
<p>They were joking (as they knew the school) but I would prefer not to test that theory again now…</p>
<p>“McGuinn got his law degree at UW.”</p>
<p>So? (Jay Inslee got his at Willamette. Gary Locke got his B.A. at Yale, and his law degree at Boston University. Maria Cantwell got her B.A. at Miami U.)</p>
<p>I think what’s worth noting is out here, folks don’t seem to care much about the degrees of our politicians. And the only really useful “prestige” networks I’ve seen of any kind in my 20 years here are those from BYU.</p>
<p>When a young man from my town decided to go to Wesleyan, his college choice was published by the district as “Ohio Wesleyan.” There is nothing wrong with OW … but they are not one & the same. Of course, in my area, if it’s not UMich, it’s not elite.</p>
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<p>I’d say this applies to the US nationwide to some extent. If anything, having an elite college degree is considered “too elitist” and “out of touch” among many…especially if it is applied to one political party/political leaning in the US. </p>
<p>In contrast, people in many other countries, especially East Asia expect their politicians to have elite U degrees. Whether it’s the prevalence of Todai/Kyoto/Waseda/Keio graduates in Japan, NTU in the ROC, Yonsei/SNU/Korea in South Korea, or Tsinghua in Mainland China…you won’t see anyone using one’s elite school degree against them. </p>
<p>If anything, that whole notion would be viewed by most as a sign its holder is a poorly brought up anti-intellectual who’s jealous of the elite degree holder’s accomplishments.</p>
<p>Now you got me curious so I had to look up Charlie Royer who went to U of O, but both Norm Rice & Paul Schell went to Uw. ( Seattle mayors)
Ron Sims ( former county exec, now HUD secretary ) attended CEntral Washington University & Joe Dear -former secretary of OHSA, attended Evergreen.
Dan Evans & Ivar Haglund attended UW & John Spellman & Duff Mckagan attended Seattle University.( Governors & musicians)</p>
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<p>Small correction: Ron Sims is the former Deputy Secretary of HUD, from 2009 to 2011.</p>
<p>Shaun Donovan has been Secretary of HUD since January, 2009, and continues in that position. He’s widely expected to continue in the job in President Obama’s second term.</p>
<p>'I think what’s worth noting is out here, folks don’t seem to care much about the degrees of our politicians."</p>
<p>That was kind of my point. That people aren’t looking for Ivies and “top schools” so much as they want local people who get the quirkiness of this area. People look at me like I have three heads when they learn that I moved here on purpose from the other side of the country NOT because of a job or following my H. And after 15 years here I’m still considered an outsider. The Seattle Freeze is REAL.</p>
<p>I tell my youngest to take college as the opportunity to get the “H” out of here if only for 4 years. So many people, even those with real opportunities, don’t. They live their whole lives in this area, all the way through grad school and jobs, political positions, and more.</p>
<p>^^^ that’s great news! Maybe when Ron comes back to Seattle he will run for mayor. :)</p>
<p>We don’t need to speculate. Gallup actually did a public opinion survey on this some years back (2003), asking people to name the “best college or university in the United States," without giving them a list of candidate schools, and asking them to identify two. Based on first- and second-place mentions, Harvard was the runaway winner (24%), followed by Yale and Stanford (11% each), with MIT fourth (6%) and UC Berkeley, Notre Dame, and Princeton tying for fifth (4%). Michigan, Duke, and UCLA rounded out the top 10, tied for eighth with 3%. Penn garnered 2%, tying with Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M, Ohio State, and UNC-Chapel Hill. Brown, Cornell, and Columbia came in at 1%, tying with a mixed bag of public (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, LSU, U Washington) and private (NYU, Brigham Young, Georgetown, USC, Boston University) universities. No Dartmouth, no Chicago, no Northwestern, no Caltech, and of course, no LACs Based on this, I’d say HYS have managed a blip on MOTS’ radar, M somewhat less so, P not so much, most elite colleges and universities hardly at all.</p>
<p>Even more interesting was the regional skew. Top 5 in each region (as defined by Gallup) were:</p>
<p>East: Harvard (36%), Yale (16), Princeton (7), with Stanford, MIT, Penn, and Penn State tied for fourth (5%).</p>
<p>Midwest: Harvard (21%), Yale (11), Stanford (10), Michigan (9), Notre Dame (8).</p>
<p>South: Harvard (18%), Yale (10), Stanford (9), with Duke and Texas A&M tied for fourth (7).</p>
<p>West: Harvard (24%), Stanford (19), UC Berkeley (11), Yale (9), with MIT and UCLA tied for fifth (7).</p>
<p>Again, it seems pretty clear that apart from Harvard and to a lesser extent Yale, Ivies aren’t on MOTS’s radar outside the Northeast, and even in that region Penn State outshines most of them. Even mighty Harvard loses some of its luster outside the Northeast, and Princeton makes the top 5 only in the Northeast, outshone by home-region schools in all other regions.</p>
<p>The survey is now a bit dated; I wish they’d update it. But then, I’d expect pretty similar results.</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> Number One University in Eyes of Public](<a href=“Harvard Number One University in Eyes of Public”>Harvard Number One University in Eyes of Public)</p>
<p>I don’t want to do this experiment. Walk up to a stranger, strike up a conversation, ask them what in their mind are the best colleges just so we can laugh about it here? Sure, lots of people haven’t heard of our kids’ highly rated schools. So what?</p>
<p>Oh good grief! I was buying cards at a Hallmark store and it was part of chit chat with the cashiers as they rang me up! I KNOW lots of people haven’t heard of our kids’ schools! I was hoping to inject some measure of reality into the overwrought “but everyone bows when they hear you went to HYP” mentality of CC.</p>
<p>giterdone–I’m sure a lot of why kids are going to schools in WI and the Dakota’s from MN is that they cost less, a lot less in many cases.</p>
<p>I think the general consensus everywhere, including CC would be if you haven’t heard of the school it can’t possibly be good. There are many, many schools listed here that until coming to CC I had NEVER heard of. People in those areas think they are well known everywhere because THEY are familiar with them, but the rest of the country probably has never heard of that school. I’m not talking about Ivy’s but schools like Tufts.</p>
<p>I’m sure if I asked around, depending on who I asked, I would get answers such as Harvard, Yale, etc. If I asked a certain demographic, however, I would get local state schools. What you don’t see here is people actually being impressed by a Harvard diploma. Actually, most people would quietly think, why in the heck would you pay so much to go to college–but not really knowing that Harvard, etc. probably cost them less than “the U”. :D.</p>
<p>The senators from Ohio are both Ivy Leaguers–Brown went to Yale, and Portman went to Dartmouth. My congressman graduated from William & Mary, and the Governor, John Kasich, from Ohio State. I’d bet that not one in a thousand Ohio residents would know or care.</p>
<p>^I had to look up where our elected officials attended school, one went to Yale, most went to state directional colleges, one went to Harvard which REALLY surprised me.</p>
<p>Here in our Midwest major city, UIUC is the cat’s pajamas, even though it’s underfunded, overcrowded, and often a 5-year ride filled with large anonymous lecture-hall classes. (It’s said that a student can possibly graduate w/o ever speaking to a professor.) Even here UoChicago is sometimes confused w/UoICC, Northwestern with Northeastern (an Illinois public teacher’s college), etc. LACs are often unrecognizable to “man in the street” and “lady in the store”, even amongst many college-educated folks. Most folks easily recognize Notre Dame and Marquette, and Loyola and DePaul.</p>
<p>Who cares what the man in street thinks?</p>
<p>I had to look our elected officials up to get their respective Us. We have Catholic, Holy Cross, Harvard, and Lebanon Valley C.</p>
<p>It doesn’t affect how I vote at all (obviously, since I had to look them up).</p>
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<p>Oh I know…as long as I’ve lived here I am a NYC kid and not a football fan so I do not have a dog in this particular race, I just find it funny that so many people do.</p>
<p>Until I hung out on CC a lot I didn’t know that the one up north is considered to be "better, or that it is more selective than the one down here, academically.</p>
<p>I rather like that my son attends a school top employers would appreciate yet the average person on the street only vaguely recognizes. Who really wants to play that old “he goes to school in Boston” game?</p>