<p>Very well put. I don’t know how many posts I’ve seen on here of people feeling down on themselves because they’re not going to a “top school.” In this case, when I mean “not a top school,” I’m referring to random colleges that most of us have never really heard of. </p>
<p>NIU is a good example of this type of mentality. I live in northwestern Illinois, and I’m in a community college…many people here are almost embarrassed to say that they’re transferring to NIU. Why? NIU is a good school, and they’ll get a solid education there. In most fields, having gone to NIU isn’t going to make a bit of difference if they’re trying to get into grad school. And for that matter, NIU is really quite good in many departments…particularly in psychology, and criminal justice. Why should they be embarrassed? They’re going to a university! There are a ton of people that will never even take their education that far. </p>
<p>Still though, there have been many times that I’ve been talking to people out there, and I’ll ask them where they’re transferring to…then they get a downtrodden look on their face and kind of mumble “niu…” Not everyone is going to be at the top of their class and hold a 4.0 GPA with honors courses. In the end, they’re getting the same degree.</p>
<p>“DD,” “DS,” and “holistic.” The first two I despise because the fact that they’re ubiquitous and abbreviated cheapens any sentiment intended through the word “dear,” and the third because it implies an emphasis on giving less numerically qualified applicants a fair chance whereas it’s only used by the most competitive schools, which reject far more (over)qualified applicants than they accept underqualified ones.</p>
<p>fauve and comfortablycurt, regarding your posts #210 and #221, I believe “Ivies” is correct (as noted by prefect). The word “Ivies” is shorthand for Ivy League Schools, so when it is shortened to indicate all the schools, Ivy becomes Ivies. Ivy’s is singular possessive. </p>
<p>I will borrow some ideas from other posts on this thread for examples, though in doing so I have not created the most lyrical examples ;): </p>
<p>“I really want to attend the school UChicago or one of the Ivies.” (plural)</p>
<p>“I love Dartmouth. This Ivy’s reputation is tippy-top, elite, and full of prestige.” (singular possessive)</p>
<p>“The Ivies’ URMs, diversity, persons of color, non-hispanic white students, GLBTS, and students of interest are always being discussed on College Confidential.” (plural possessive)</p>
<p>As for a few posts ago, that definition of “bump” is a backronym only. It’s just supposed to refer to bumping a thread up to the top of the list.</p>
<p>I believe you’re actually correct here. I hadn’t considered the singular/plural possessive aspect of it. I tend to be a grammar nazi at times…but the differing singular/plural possessive forms always throw me off. I work in my schools tutoring center, and I end up doing a lot of proofreading for students in lower level english classes. Earlier this semester, I was helping someone with their paper…and I forget the exact context of this part…but they were referring to a chain of McDonald’s stores, and their employees (both plural) and using it in a possessive form. So…multiple stores, multiple employees “possessed” by the store…and a word that already has an apostrophe in it. It kinda threw me for a loop. I didn’t know what to do, so I just helped them restructure the sentence to avoid the entire conundrum. </p>
<p>Anywho…back on topic…</p>
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<p>I agree with that. I really don’t even get the usage of even “D” or “S” instead of daughter or son. Is it really that hard to type the actual word out? Acronyms like HYPSM I can at least understand…because that’s a hell of a lot quicker than typing out Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT…but…typing D or S instead of daughter or son is a difference of a few key strokes. Until now, I didn’t even realize that DD or DS meant “dear son/daughter.”</p>
<p>That reminds me of another one. Using initials for schools. Sure, I know many of them, but USF can be University of San Francisco or University of South Florida, etc, etc. Half the time I don’t know what school is being discussed.</p>
<p>That’s another good one…they can get kind of confusing at times. I live in northern Illinois, and there are quite a few "U of I’s within close range. University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign is the main one. But there is also U of I- Springfield. University of Iowa-Iowa City, University of Iowa-Ames…and several Universities of Indiana. It can get confusing.</p>
<p>There’s no Univ of Iowa-Ames. That’s Iowa State University. And no Univ of Indiana-- they’re all Indiana University. And most die-hard Hoosiers (like my husband) will tell you that you never need to specify the “real” IU, lol.</p>
<p>USC: University of Southern California or University of South Carolina. ASU: Appalachian State University or Arizona State University (and probably others).</p>
<p>I can understand why some students of certain majors are so concerned with prestige. When your major (business, pre-med and some arts/sciences) has so many candidates, some hiring managers may use school prestige to make decisions on selecting candidates.</p>
<p>I lucked out since I was a Math/Computer Science major. Many times we are given job offers with only satisfying HALF of skills of what the employer asked for.</p>
<p>…and school name/prestige?..good luck trying to staff CS majors off of that</p>
<p>…but yes, all of those words get tired on CC</p>
<p>I prefer prestigious when describing a school rather than top or best. Because they don’t mean the same thing, and I think prestigious is the more honest description of why people are applying to certain schools much of the time. I don’t mind the word top, though, when it is used to describe a program that is not widely known. For instance, if someone were going to XYZ State school, because in their opinion it had the top program in the field they were interested in, it would make me curious. So, depending on the context where the word <em>top</em> or <em>best</em> is used, I have different reactions. I admit that ranking things like that rankles me most of the time, though.</p>