<p>Thanks... this kind of makes it interesting for raising the point that are the Southern schools (and to a lesser extent the Midwest schools), really inferior to the NE and West, or is it purely a perception, as you say, for being in flyover country? The "average" peer reputation of the Southern schools is less than the NE and West, but is that due more to an inherent bias in the peer reviewers?</p>
<p>As an aside, it is also interesting that there are no top publics in the NE based on peer assessment. That almost does tend to support the idea of the elitism favoring the traditional privates.</p>