<p>Yeah, I really don't totally understand how you justify your definition of prestige as colleges that most people have heard of, because I would imagine that alot of those are top ivys and then bigtime football (or basketball to a lesser degree) schools haha. Which, clearly, makes much sense...</p>
<p>Yea, I'd think a lot of people would have heard of Duke just for its basketball.</p>
<p>The term you ought to use is "name recognition" rather than "prestige" Prestige is not merely how many people have heard of it or how often it shows up on Google, but what people think of it as well, i.e. "name recognition with a positive connotation."</p>
<p>klp: "Well, if you search for just "Washington University" (without the St. Louis, since you didn't add "Ann Arbor" for Michigan, etc.) makes it come up with 54 milion results, or in 11th place next to CMU."</p>
<p>Washington University doesn't work because George Washington University would be included in the results along with Western Washington U, Eastern Washington U, and Central Washington U.</p>
<p>"Even accepting your sketchy definition of prestige, are you expecting us to believe more people have heard of Michigan, Cornell, Columbia, and Chicago, than Yale?"</p>
<p>yea princeton and yale were the two odd ones. </p>
<p>to shellzie: yes, perhaps it is more name-recogntion than prestige..</p>
<p>
[quote]
yes, perhaps it is more name-recogntion than prestige..
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not perhaps. It is name recognition rather than prestige. Prestige implies respect. Number of hits on Google will tell you nothing about that.</p>
<p>Yea I dont' really have respect for Paris Hilton yet I bet she shows up quite a lot.</p>
<p>Here's mine:
Ivies
PENN Wharton
NYU Stern
Everyone Else</p>
<p>"Yea I dont' really have respect for Paris Hilton yet I bet she shows up quite a lot."</p>
<p>Haha I got the point.</p>
<p>Using this wacky method, I think the best college in the country is Pamela Anderson Community College. Closely followed by Angelina Jolie Polytechnic Institute and George Bush Sucks State Teachers College. Those 3 are the new HYP, just ask Google.</p>
<p>Michigan has nowhere near 50k students. And UToronto is bigger than anything we've got down here.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I based prestige based not on academic merit but by its familiarity with the general public. sure dartmouth may deemed to be more prestigious on the basis of academics and getting a job or in the eyes of the educated and informed, but in the general public, more people have heard of michigan than dartmouth.. lots of americans dont even know that dartmouth and brown, etc even exist let alone are top 20 universities in the nation.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The points about confusing "familiarity" with "prestige" is exactly what is missing from the statement above.</p>
<p>I always like bringing this back to my "hamburger" analogy to illuminate this point:</p>
<p>99.9% of the American public will readily recognize Micky D's Big Mac or Quarter Pounder (over a billion served!) vs., say, the "21" burger at the 21 Club (New York)... but does that Ronald McDonald more prestigious? Hardly. </p>
<p>Many people know (shop) at Wal-Mart vs. Bergdorf Goodman, but that hardly qualifies Wal-Mart to be categorized as "prestigious".</p>
<p>Simply put, not anyone can afford to shop at Bergdorf or eat at the 21 Club, and conversely, nearly everyone "can" shop at Wal-Mart or eat at McDonald's.</p>
<p>Similarly, not anyone can enroll into Harvard, but nearly anyone can enroll into a Community College - that's what makes Harvard prestigious - and, more importantly, why it remains so. In other words, if Harvard increased its class size to 500,000 per year admitting nearly anyone who applied - its "prestige" would drop like a stone overnight - people from Joe Blow Community College would be transferring to Harvard.</p>
<p>This is what happens to certain "luxury" or "prestige" goods all the time - dilution of a brand which gets oversold, over-licensed or discounted at department stores. </p>
<p>Now to be certain, some brands have both "familiarity" AND "prestige" (e.g. Harvard, Yale, Princeton) and some have "prestige" and less "familiarity (Dartmouth, Brown) - but don't confuse the two terms - less familiarity doesn't = less prestige. Just because your neighbor hasn't heard of Chateau Margaux doesn't mean it isn't prestigious - less familiar? Perhaps, but not less prestigious.</p>
<p>Yeah guys! What about Amherst College and Williams College?! Pssshaw!</p>
<p>Ivy_grad, I think you and I both know that prestige has nothing to do with what the "average" person thinks. But we also know it has nothing to do with what high school kids and the majority of parents think either...and it has little to do with exclusivity. Prestige, the type that matters anyway, is mainly derived from what society's intellectual and professional elite think.</p>
<p>"Univeristy of Wisconsin" gets 133 million.</p>
<p>"Yea I dont' really have respect for Paris Hilton yet I bet she shows up quite a lot."</p>
<p>I want like to go to Paris Hilton University, the most prestigious university with zillion hits in America. ^-^</p>
<p>Ok, so now the Google Ivy League is starting to come together:</p>
<p>Paris Hilton University
Pamela Anderson Community College
Angelina Jolie Polytechnic Institute
George Bush Sucks State Teachers College
March Madness A & M
University of Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Playboy Mellon University
Online Poker Western Reserve U.</p>
<p>Am I missing any?</p>
<p>Forgot to mention:</p>
<p>SUNY-J.Lo
University of California at Danish Cartoonist
University of Don Knotts is Dead at Urbana Champaign
University of Phoenix</p>