<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale/Princeton</li>
<li>Stanford/MIT</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>UPenn/Duke/Dartmouth</li>
</ol>
<p>Uh-uh, unalove...Harvard would definitely be Christian La Croix!!! Although I am not quite sure how fashion forward they are!</p>
<p>Also, I think that U Chicago is extremely well known here, in the East....and extremely respected, too. In fact, all of the top schools, aside from HYP, which are on their own plane, are very respected and highly recruited. I have not seen such a regional bias here when it comes to the undergraduate school. Where I have seen a more elitist attitude in terms of what school one attends, is on the graduate level. Yale and Harvard law schools, for example, blow the other Ivies and top law schools out of the water when it comes to getting interviews. Nevertheless, kids from the other top law schools are very highly recruited, and equally wined and dined. But, Yalies and Harvard (ites???) definitely have a leg up.
This is not to say that there is not some sort of hierarchy in terms of getting a job directly out of undergraduate school. But, if one is in the top group, with a solid gpa, interviews will abound. You can count U Chicago among those.</p>
<p>1-Harvard
2-Yale/Pton/Stanford/MIT
6-Columbia/UPenn
8-Duke/Dartmouth</p>
<p>Caltech is too specialized for these rankings (no offense meant I think its a great university in fact).</p>
<p>Just from where I live (Chicago), its kinda different.</p>
<p>Harvard/Stanford
Yale/Princeton/MIT
Northwestern/U of Chicago
Duke/Penn/Caltech/Columbia/Cornell/ND</p>
<p>Seriously,Brown and Dartmouth are barely mentioned at all.</p>
<p>Its different in every region.</p>
<p>GoNavy:</p>
<p>I wasn't even thinking employers, which might be a different list, based on profession and region, of course. I was going on pure prestige --- instant recognition by the person/parent-next-door in a nonelite CA neighborhood. No further explanation needed. No never-heard-of-it blank looks. No help-me-out-here questions like "where is that?" or "why would you go there?"</p>
<p>Prestige among whom? Plebs?</p>
<p>Then it's:</p>
<p>Harvard</p>
<p>Yale</p>
<p>MIT</p>
<p>Princeton
Stanford</p>
<p>Columbia</p>
<p>THE REST</p>
<p>If we're talking with respect to academic-minded people:</p>
<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton/MIT/Stanford
Caltech/Berkeley/Chicago
Columbia/Brown/Dartmouth/Penn
Cornell/Northwestern
THE REST</p>
<p>Well, obviously, in my list, plebs count. Universal prestige. Not prep-school prestige.</p>
<p>Of course, the plebs you speak of make up 98% of the population (based on people who have gone to a top 150 college) (In Orwell's 1984 only 80% of the population was plebs!), so its clear their prestige factor has a pretty big weight.</p>
<p>I hate it when people are like:
What's UChicago? Is that public? or... What's WUSTL? Are they public too?? or... What's Northwestern? Are they on the west coast?... Where's CMU? Are they an art school?
My goodness.
And people at my school are like that. It seriously bothers me.</p>
<p>"What's UChicago? Is that public?"</p>
<p>I've got "Is that a community college?" before. Yeah, I'm going to a community college out of state, retard. You'd also think the "university" part would give it away. Jesus Christ, some people...</p>
<p>(What's worse, I live in the Midwest, where it should be well-known.)</p>
<p>Prestige among plebs</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Closest random sports school</li>
<li>Princeton/Stanford/Yale (only elite plebs know these)</li>
<li>Anything else</li>
</ol>
<p>gabriellaah-- I've spent a lot of time in different places with people of different academic backgrounds. Among those that lurk here (i.e. those who care about prestige of schools and that sort of thing) Chicago and Penn are KNOWN. Sometimes too known-- "Oh, man, they say that's where fun comes to die, right?"</p>
<p>(No, sir, that's what WE say).</p>
<p>But the vast majority of the people I imagine running into in my life will probably not think much of "University of" (or, come to think of it, any school with "Washington" in it).</p>
<p>Amusing side-note: when my parents went to Penn back in the stone ages (Penn was very different then, it had the reputation of being the armpit of the ivies and everybody's last choice, the school had no real morale to it and University City was much less built up, plus, according to my parents, Wharton was the bottom school at Penn), they considered changing the name to Benjamin Franklin University because people kept confusing it with Penn State. They used to sell shirts that said, "Not Penn State." I wonder if they still do...</p>
<p>Not that I'm down on large universities, but--what about LACs? I know they're pretty much two very incomparable things, but just for fun: </p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Dartmouth/Princeton/Brown</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Duke</li>
</ol>
<p>You have to be kidding me.</p>
<p>Williams and Swarthmore ahead of Princeton?</p>
<p>And Princeton tied with Dartmouth and Brown?</p>
<p>You must hate Princeton.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For kyledavid80 (post #18)--with all due respect, your comment that "residents of Chicago think that 'University of Chicago' means 'University of Illinois at Chicago'" is completely preposterous. I've lived in Chicago all of my life, save for my four years at the University of Michigan (I'll be 53 in two weeks), and I've never met anyone--repeat anyone--from Chicago who would confuse the two. Nor would anyone on a national level confuse the two. The University of Chicago is an incredibly pestigious school, particularly in the area of economics. I am not a U of C grad, nor has anyone in my family or circle of friends attended U of C's undergraduate school, so I have no bias here, but you're way, way off base.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That may not be representative of ALL Chicago residents but there are DEFINITELY some there who've never heard of U of C. On my way to an interview at Chicago GSB, a cabbie asked what I was in town for -- I replied, and you guessed it, his response was, "You mean the University of Illinois at Chicago?"
No bias here either -- while I ended up choosing the other b-school up north, I still very much respect U of C.
Same thing happens with some people in Philly and UPENN.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
"What's UChicago? Is that public?"</p>
<p>I've got "Is that a community college?" before. Yeah, I'm going to a community college out of state, retard. You'd also think the "university" part would give it away. Jesus Christ, some people...</p>
<p>(What's worse, I live in the Midwest, where it should be well-known.)
[/Quote]
</p>
<p>Haha. The general public is ignorant. Only approximately one third of the U.S. population has college degrees. Sad.</p>
<p>Amazing about relative obscurity of U of Chicago even among Chicago citizens.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For kyledavid80 (post #18)--with all due respect, your comment that "residents of Chicago think that 'University of Chicago' means 'University of Illinois at Chicago'" is completely preposterous. I've lived in Chicago all of my life, save for my four years at the University of Michigan (I'll be 53 in two weeks), and I've never met anyone--repeat anyone--from Chicago who would confuse the two. Nor would anyone on a national level confuse the two. The University of Chicago is an incredibly pestigious school, particularly in the area of economics. I am not a U of C grad, nor has anyone in my family or circle of friends attended U of C's undergraduate school, so I have no bias here, but you're way, way off base.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Funny, I've heard people confuse UC as UIC many, many times -- and I'm quite a few years short of 53. =)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Same thing happens with some people in Philly and UPENN.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Hahaha. People confuse UPenn with Penn State way too often. I think that "PENN" should always refer to the University of Pennsylvania. Penn State can just remain Penn State =]</p>
<p>If you're talking about the person next door, these lists have to include the service academies. Out in the real world, you will hear somebody say, "Did you know he went to West Point?" You will never hear anybody say, "Did you know he went to Brown?" (Sorry, GoNavy, but I think for the ordinary Joe, West Point will have a bit more name recognition than Annapolis.)</p>
<p>To people in the Northeast, schools like Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell are very prestigious, but I think that ultra cali has it right that most outside of that region don't have great recognition of those schools. However, that changes significantly when you say "Ivy League college Brown" or "Ivy League college Dartmouth." The Ivy League name has near universal brand awareness and prestige and I have often argued that the great bulk of this is due to HYP and the non-HYP Ivies are much less known and especially without a stated connection to the Ivy League. Brand-wise, Brown or Dartmouth or any of the non-HYP Ivies have very limited power beyond the Northeast and local, more regional top privates in various parts of the country are their equals or more. Thus, my comments earlier about brand power differing by region and how only a small handful of schools truly have national brand power (HYPSM and perhaps Duke thanks to its basketball teams). Lest anyone misunderstand my comments, however, let me hasten to add that I consider Brown, Dartmouth, et al as terrific colleges and certainly among the nation's finest.</p>