<p>When i first came on CC, i saw people being major fans of colleges i have never heard of. Maybe it was my own ignorance, but i was unaware of any elite universities by the name of Northwestern. Me being from Canada, i am assuming we have a slightly different view of prestigious colleges than other countries around the world.</p>
<p>So my question is: Do you guys know of any colleges, US or International, that have a strong reputation in a certain area/country, but is virtually unknown in another.</p>
<p>I could be wrong but i say NorthWestern because no one around here seems to know about it. One more thing, although Johns Hopkins is recognized as one of the most elite schools by people in the States, where i live it goes even further. People view JHU very, very highly and put it up there with most Ivies...especially people from my school.</p>
<p>Just for the record, i am not a fan of going to a college solely because of its prestige. However, curiosity is getting the better of me. I am sure some feedback will help Internationals look into new colleges in the States they had not been considering and also other way around.Feel free to comment!:)</p>
<p>Since i am an international, i am also looking at US and other colleges and it would be nice to find good colleges that i am not familiar with. But from my research i would say that i did not know most of the UCs were as good as they are. UCSD mainly</p>
<p>This isn't just an international vs. domestic students thing...you see it among domestic students in different regions too.</p>
<p>For example, look at the way people from different parts of the US respond to the various California state schools. The West Coast kids devote tons of attention to lots of these schools. Where I came from (Kentucky), the perception among those interested in going out of state was that there was UC Berkeley (for academics) and UCLA (for sports, and solid academics), and that was it. <em>Maybe</em> USC would enter the radar screen. People knew, of course, that there were a bunch of others in that system, but nobody cared or considered them to have any name brand recognition.</p>
<p>Northwestern was very big in my region. Counselors highly encouraged bright kids to apply there. The great Southern research universities (like Duke and Vandy) were also big. Most people had never heard of JHU, but <em>all</em> the bio geeks (student, teacher, random adult, whatever) had. Purdue was pretty big if you were a techie.</p>
<p>nice post jessiehl... i agree that a lot of it happens among the US too. Like you said, US being a big country, there are differences in opinion from state to state. </p>
<p>Another one i can add is how people in the US view McGill. It is generally agreed upon in Canada that U of T, UBC, McGill are top three is that order. However, internationally McGill seems to have the edge over the other two. I guess the only secure spots for international prestige is HYP and a select few.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think the idea of prestige varies not only by country, but even just by region. I live in Ohio, and most of the people around here have never heard of JHU or Northwestern or even half the Ivies for that matter. People in my school view it as if Ohio State is the only school in the world. "Geniuses" go to OSU and everyone else goes to community college.</p>
<p>I live in Pennsylvania, and when I told people I got into Northwestern they all commented about how nice Boston is (clearly mistaking it for Northeastern). Prestige varies throughout the country.</p>
<p>to highhopes: it goes to show , everyone is going to think differently depending on where they grow up. CCers however, get the bigger picture since there are members from all over the world. Also, my friends do not know any of the Ivies except like HYP. Then again, it should not matter peoples opinions. As long as you know you are going to be attending a good college, that should be reason enough to apply.</p>
<p>Like i said before, the likes of Georgetown, Northwestern etc. will go unnoticed to many international applicants. However, its never to late to educate. that is what this thread is about!</p>
<p>So far we have:
NorthWestern
Georgetown
UCSD
Ohio State</p>
<p>UChicago varies by Education level in my experience. When I told most people they had never heard of it. But when I told my really well educated teachers they were really excited.</p>
<p>Perception varies by profession/concentration/graduate school as well.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>U of Chicago's MBA program is top 5, and therefore MBA grads will likely have a higher regard for U of Chicago undergrad than most.</p></li>
<li><p>Wharton at UPenn MBA is either #1, #2 or #3 in USNWR, Financial Times, and Businessweek rankings. Therefore, UPenn wil be in higher regard among MBA grads than the general college population.</p></li>
<li><p>UC Berkeley is world renowned in almost every Ph.D. discipline. This prestige filters down to the undergrad program by association.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I'll share with you guys a brief conversation i had with my cousin. The conversation went something like this.Btw, he is from Bangladesh who recently came to Canada and i asked him about some American colleges.</p>
<p>Me:Heard bout Johns Hopkins?
Cousins:Johns Hopkins... that is for medicine..one of the best
Me: have you ever heard of duke?
Cousin: ummm.. sorry no
Me: ok.. how bout Vanderbilt?
Cousin:no i have not.
Me:U of Chicago?
Cousin:Yea i have, it has a good reputation.</p>
<p>As you can see , he only knew U of C and JHU but failed to identify the rest. I just found that interesting. Maybe it gives a bit of an insight to how some US colleges are viewed in South Asia.</p>
<p>Anyway, so far we have the following as under appreciated or 'more prestige in certain areas than others' list:
NorthWestern
Georgetown
UCSD
Ohio State
UPenn
University of Chicago
Purdue</p>
<p>I have deep respect for UofC and its students, but seriously, that school is really not that well-known. most of my friends thought it was another one of those nameless state schools.</p>
<p>and they used to ask me, "my friend got accepted into UofC. is that a good school?"</p>
<p>....actually, i had to look it up before i could answer that question. that's actually how i got to learn about of UofC.</p>
<p>Inside the U.S., its barely known outside of academia and aspiring high school students. Outside, from what I've heard, it's much more well known.</p>
<p>In Europe and the Middle East, Chicago, Georgetown, Northwestern and Penn have excellent international reputations. Chicago has the #1 Economics program on Earth. Georgetown's school of Foreign Service is very highly regarded. Northwestern's Kellogg school of Management is World famous and its Engineering programs are respected globaly. Chicago and Washington DC are also global cities and they attract many international students.</p>
<p>Penn's Wharton school is the World's premier name in Business education...full stop!</p>
<p>Those four universities have strong international reputations. </p>
<p>I am not going to list the top universities that do not have strong international reputations, but the four schools listed above have strong reputations internationally.</p>
<p>The 'prestigious some places but not well-known other places' list"</p>
<p>NorthWestern
Georgetown
UCSD
Ohio State
UPenn
University of Chicago
Purdue
Duke
Dartmouth
Brown</p>
<p>I agree with evil asian(are u from bangladesh) and beefs with the fact that sometimes our own colleges in our own cities are given more credit by people halfway across the world. Like i mentioned before, States people prefer McGill more than Canadians do. We are more into U of T. Also to add to something, people in Bangladesh are into York U. here in Toronto while probably few Americans have ever heard of it.</p>