<p>
Just queried my parents, neither of whom went to college. They knew Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Caltech (they watch TBBT). Upon prompting with names, they’d vaguely heard of Cornell. None of the other top schools in USNWR were on their radar aside from the in-state colleges Duke, UNC, Davidson, and Wake.</p>
<p>Needless to say, they don’t post on CC. ;)</p>
<p>I tried pizzagirl’s experiment and found that the University of Kentucky is by far and away considered the best college in the country. The University of Louisville and Notre Dame (very Catholic area) were a distant second.</p>
<p>The funny thing about where I live in Northern Kentucky is that which side of the Ohio River in which you reside determines your allegiances. If I drove ten miles north and asked if people thought UK was the best college, I would receive incredulous laughter (Ohioans steroetypically look down on Kentuckians).</p>
<p>Adding to the confusion around here:
-Georgetown College is a small, private LAC in Kentucky that is not selective at all but most people think of this school instead of the one in DC
-Princeton is the name of a large school district in Cincinnati and most people associate “Princeton” with this high school, not the university in NJ
-Brown-Mackie College is a chain of for-profit trade school in the area. When most peope hear “Brown” they assume you are referring to Brown-Mackie.
-Throughout Kentucky, all people know about Duke is that Christian Laettner played basketball there and it is an unspeakably evil place</p>
<p>Top 5 ranking by most of the folks in my area:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>University of Florida</li>
<li>FSU</li>
</ol>
<p>When my wife told our housekeeper our daughter was going to University of Pennsylvania, she replied “I guess she couldn’t get into UF?”</p>
<p>Unless you’ve got a child in high school or you’re involved in the hiring of college graduates, I’m not sure that it’s critical information to know. I’d bet that many schools are better known for their athletics than for their academics. I’m willing to admit that I wasn’t familiar with quite a few of the schools poplar here until having spent some time reading threads. Some of them I had heard of but had no idea they were regarded so highly, and others I didn’t know at all. This forum can be intimidating, but I’m sure there are others here who post despite their ignorance, or maybe even because of it.</p>
<p>The only college summer I spent at home, I worked on grounds crew in a large, old-fashioned cemetery. One of the year-round employees asked me if I went to college (“Yes”), and then which one. He had never heard of it, and asked me where it was, and I told him New Haven, Connecticut. “Wouldn’t they let you into Niagara Community College?” he asked, “My brother in law isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, knawuddeyemean?, but HE got in there. How @#$%ed do you have to be not to get into Niagara Community College and have to go all the way to Connecticut for college?”</p>
<p>cute, JHS. 
Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I could never try your experiment with any “scientific” sampling of success, because in these parts, there’s too darn much education in the general public, including in blue-collar arenas, often. Not to mention “brand” awareness (:rolleyes:)</p>
<p>I do my best to educate my own circles about the limits to branding, not to mention the odds of acquiring a brand, not to mention the alternate routes to success, but the sad fact is, too many families discover the alternate routes after failures to achieve the brand route.</p>
<p>So much unfortunate wasted time.</p>
<p>I have found NO PLACE in the real world (not here in cyberspace), and that includes the HR offices of the 2 Fortune 200 Companies where I’ve worked and work, that pays as much attention to where you go to college, than that you go to college, like here on CC. :)</p>
<p>
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<p>I think most people in Ohio don’t know it, either. Of course, a lot of people up north will argue that MSU is just as good or better with no actual basis of admissions statistics. I have been indoctrinated on this since birth, as I was a third generation Wolverine. Last of the line, though. The two grandkids who wanted to possibly go there didn’t get in… and the two who could have gotten in didn’t want to apply.</p>
<p>Giterdone, it depends. I will say that people who went to top schools recognize that it is at least worth noting, and that it may say something about the applicant. Agree that it is actual performance that they want to see, though! People who went to the local regional college (or did not go to college) have no idea.</p>
<p>My man-on-the-street results, per Pizzagirl’s initial instructions!</p>
<p>60-something fellow customer at a tire shop: “Best college? One of the Ivy League schools out east. But it’s really six of one, half a dozen with most colleges.” </p>
<p>Service writer at the tire shop: “I don’t know, ma’am. I never went to college.”</p>
<p>Clerk at coffee shop in my office building: He hesitated, then said he thought probably the health sciences university where we work is “the best.” He volunteered that he was a graduate of a regionally accredited private university that is less than three miles away from my office that I’ve never heard of. It offers affordable, accessible education (two-year and four-year programs) in an urban setting. This goes into the “learn something new every day” file.</p>
<p>Now I’m back in my white-collar cocoon.</p>
<p>I’m just not sure many employers are that huge leap up from the MOTS. On CC we tend to focus on which lines of study are known to a select pool of hiring folks. IB folks certainly know Wharton. I’m sure the Silicon Valley sorts know which schools prepare potential employees best. Seasoned engineers may know which programs are solid and cutting edge. What about the rest of the graduates? The people looking for the rest of the jobs? I think many bosses know the sports schools and the names of the states.</p>
<p>I’m sure it’s not meant this way, but some of these posts are on the edge of mocking blue-collar workers who aren’t savvy enough to recognize a “good school” (or, maybe that IS the intent).</p>
<p>My H is the son of a housekeeper (and no, she didn’t do it because she liked it, as one prolific CC’er thinks housekeepers do). His father was a groundskeeper. They managed to send one son to a school often mentioned as “good” here on CC- my H had to pay his own way as they’d both died by the time he was college age so he went to the state flagship. He has three degrees. From the stories he’s told, his parents were aware of good schools and where they were-that’s exactly why they worked themselves to death to get one or more kids into them. </p>
<p>But not all such parents are in the know, and even if people ARE aware of the Big Name Colleges That Are Better Than All Others, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other schools that will give their kids what they need to have a good life. This thread has an ick factor I can’t quite define, but it’s kind of a haves vs. have-nots and we’re better than you feeling.</p>
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</p>
<p>I kind of do, too, when it comes to my D’s top LAC. After all, it doesn’t reflect poorly on HER that other people haven’t heard of it. I rather like being part of the cognoscenti, as bclintonk aptly put it!</p>
<p>
I think it’s just the opposite. Mocking a forum that is obsessed by colleges and their rankings, then realizing that it doesn’t matter to 99% of the population.</p>
<p>There are name brand components in high end audio that elicit oohs and ahhs to those of us obsessed with it, while most listeners can’t tell the difference. Same for wine, etc.</p>
<p>Any results in my area would be skewed - ask parents at my 10YO’s elementary school, and invariably you will hear Yale, because it is a few blocks away, and Harvard, because that is Yale’s rival. As far as publics, UCONN is perceived as tops because everybody and his brother applies there (except my D), and quite a few don’t get in, so they must be tops (the last several Valedictorians at both of our local high schools went to UCONN). </p>
<p>Your region is going to play a large role in people’s perception, as well as the school’s involvement in the community. Yale is involved with the local community, so the MOTS is well aware of both its existence and its prestige.</p>
<p>If I was one of the people who came across as mocking blue collar workers, I certainly didn’t intend that AT ALL. Though I work in a white collar world, I come from working class stock. If I had to guess, I’d say that if Pizzagirl was intending to mock anyone with her original post, it’s the habitu</p>
<p>" He had never heard of it, and asked me where it was, and I told him New Haven, Connecticut. “Wouldn’t they let you into Niagara Community College?” he asked, “My brother in law isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, knawuddeyemean?, but HE got in there. How @#$%ed do you have to be not to get into Niagara Community College and have to go all the way to Connecticut for college?” </p>
<p>Well, remember - it IS more difficult to get into the South Puget Sound Community College nursing program than it is into that place in New Haven. Really! And if you took the nine prerequisites at that place in New Haven, and got seven As, and two A-minuses, you wouldn’t even get into the mix for consideration at the SPSCC program. (That actually happened to a friend of ours - a magna cum laude biology graduate of Mount Holyoke, who was rejected, and had to take pre-reqs again.)</p>
<p>I don’t think this is meant to mock blue-collar workers who aren’t savvy enough to recognize a “good school.” I actually think lookingforward is much more on the mark in post 90 with her supposition that most employers really aren’t much level up from the MOTS, despite the legions of high school seniors and college freshmen on CC who are “sure” that “everyone” knows and bows down to (insert elite school of choice). </p>
<p>My working class, blue collar, northeast urban grandparents would have said Penn, Princeton, Swarthmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr – since they were from Philly and that’s what they knew. They would have added Georgetown to the mix as well. </p>
<p>It’s SO much more regional – EVERY school. Including HYP.</p>
<p>I agree with @audiophile and @absweetmarie; this thread brings an awareness to the over emphasized “prestige factor” and highlights its uselessness in most areas outside relative geographic familiarity.</p>
<p>Audiophile, do you live in my neighborhood? The college flags flying are FL state and UF. UFC and Miami are also designations.</p>
<p>Since most people in FL came from somewhere else, usually the northern states, they tend to be aware of the many colleges around. Those who can afford to send their kids to UChicago, Wesleyan, Clark, BU (all the colleges around Boston), CMU, the ivies, Brandeis, etc. the private schools do a good job is helping kids select a list, and many of the private school kids use a college service. </p>
<p>I find local people far less interested in where one went to school then my northern friends, and the college talk is far less intent.</p>
<p>Since my CV is public knowledge to patients looking through insurance lists, my pedigree matters to many. One lovely 70+ woman chose me cuz she attended a woman’s college where I worked, and we reminisced about the campus, the ducks, local ice cream stores. Others went to the same flagship I did, or had been in the hospital where I worked a dozen years. It’s a nice way to connect.</p>
<p>I think a college’s “Q score” is a function of their region and their football and/or basketball prowess.</p>
<p>Bookworm, not in same neighborhood–here the flags are UF, FSU and USF.</p>