<p>Also, I think it depends on your background and area. If you live in Philly, you probably know UPenn and its status. In some areas people don’t even know it is an ivy. In my immediate neighborhood, people are a bit more aware of the smaller schools like Amherst and Mount Holyoke. That is just because this area is filled with many doctors and businessmen and lawyers who want to send their kids to top schools. They know because they care a lot about academics. Some parents may value the idea of an education, but may not have the past experiences to involve them in that world. Also, they may not care to go out and do research because they “know” that the best schools are within the ivy league and decide that that is that before giving LACs a chance.</p>
<p>I live in Arizona too, and everyone recognizes names from the Seven Sisters (exception I find is Barnard rather than Bryn Mawr, but that might be my particular demographic). Most people definitely do think that Vassar is still women’s, though.</p>
<p>At least in the Southwest, the Claremont colleges are all well-known too–arguably better known than Amherst-Williams-Swarthmore. Almost half the top 10% of my school’s class goes to Claremont every year (which typically means about three people…my school usually has 50-60 per class).</p>
<p>Wesleyan is still the most popular LAC (if you don’t count Dartmouth) among CC junkies:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/415178-class-08-how-many-people-cc-applying-each-school-37.html#post1059806144[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/415178-class-08-how-many-people-cc-applying-each-school-37.html#post1059806144</a></p>
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<p>[The</a> Electric Tao: Seven Sisters](<a href=“http://www.electrictao.net/archives/000007.shtml]The”>http://www.electrictao.net/archives/000007.shtml)
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<p>Too bad I couldn’t find the clip…Youtube has gotten very aggressive with copyright enforcement.</p>