I don’t think the “average” person has even heard of a bunch of the schools on OPs list. Around here people know the SUNYs, the regional privates, and schools with big sports teams across the country. They have heard of HPY and know they are “good” schools, but in general have no clue that they are really that much different than the schools in our back yard, and have no idea how difficult they are to get in to.
I took the OP’s list and modify it to reflect what the ranking would be for the “average” Joe in the street:
- Harvard
- Yale
- Princeton
- Columbia
- Cornell
- UCLA
- Notre Dame
- Duke
- Michigan
- UNC Chapel Hill
- Georgia Tech
- USC
- Penn State
- NYU
- BC
- Stanford
- Indiana University
- Johns Hopkins
- University of Florida
- University of Alabama
- Ohio State University
- UIUC
- Georgetown
- Purdue
- University of Miami
A few top schools I think would be forgotten/wouldn’t make the cut:
UVA
BU
UPenn
UC Berkeley
MIT
Caltech
Chicago
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Brown
Wash U.
Vandy
Rice
@Psata82 I doubt that the average person would forget MIT. I believe that many people probably have no idea about how “good” most colleges are, though. I’d guess most people would only hear of the top schools that are local or at least in their area. For instance, when I was wearing a Tufts sweatshirt at the gym, someone asked me what “T-U-F-T-S” stands for. A lot of people just don’t know about schools that aren’t in their area or really well-known for sports.
I think outside of CC/wealthier areas, it would be hard for people to name 25 colleges outside their region that aren’t known for either football or basketball. Most people just don’t consider it that important.
@marvin100 noted:
Absolutely agree. Any random person would have a different list (and some probably couldn’t even name 25 colleges), but over time, the list would converge on something. That is the list I had in mind.
@Pizzagirl said:
Certainly the reputations are regional (and I’ve lived in a few different regions, BTW), but these would also average out eventually. I stand by my initial thought that a few excellent schools wouldn’t make the list because they don’t have enough mindshare among the general public.
Agreed, and probably not one LAC would make the list, add to that Cal Tech and likely MIT; but all or most of the Big Ten, Pac 12 (except Utah and Colorado), SEC, most of the ivy league (sans Penn, Brown and Dartmouth), and a few others, Miami (Florida) ND, Duke, and UNC would make the list. For at least a quarter of the year virtually all of the “football” schools get a brand boost on a weekly basis as well.
@marvin100 - I think posts #9 and #16 are somewhat contradictory. 
I think an average person would have:
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, MIT, Chicago, northwestern, duke, brown, Georgetown, penn, Cornell, UCLA, Berkeley, UMICH, UVA, and cal tech in their list.
As if the average person has even heard of Caltech outside the Big Bang Theory.
That very well may be the average person’s context and intersection with what constitutes a well-known university.
Don’t forget Stitchers =D> , in which
[quote]
…Caltech graduate student Kirsten (Emma Ishta) can be stitched into the memories of victims. Through cutting-edge technology (is there any other kind?), she’s able to visit the deceased’s last moments and figure out how and why they were murdered. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/stitchers-tv-review-799030]
[/quote]
@CHD2013 -
Not really. #16 has nothing to do with “average.”
As far as my hometown is concerned (in terms of undergrad):
- Harvard
- Princeton
- Yale
- Stanford
- MIT
- Caltech
- Berkeley
- Columbia
- Cornell
- Brown
- UCLA
- Duke
- Georgetown
- Johns Hopkins
- Dartmouth
- Virginia
- Michigan
- UChicago
- UIUC
- Wisconsin (although that one is dropping like a rock)
- Tufts
- Minnesota (this one is a little odd, but that's perhaps a function of hockey)
- Middlebury (I wonder why that particular LAC is placed where it is, but LACs don't seem to be well-liked where I live)
- NYU (mostly known as a criminally overpriced school)
- GA Tech
- BU
For some reason, UPenn, and definitely WUSTL, CMU, NWU, Vanderbilt, all get overlooked at home (unless you’re in a specific field: UPenn and NWU for international business, CMU in computer science, WUSTL and Vanderbilt in biomedical sciences, UNC-CH for pharmacy or history, Notre Dame for divinity).
However it is highly variable within my own city because, other than a few elite schools (~8-10) all other spots below are wide open because most shy away from US schools, with perhaps the exception of a PhD.
“Here in Korea, HYPSM are almost universally known. Columbia, NYU, Williams, Amherst, UPenn, Cornell, Duke would be next on the list, along with UMich, Berkeley, Dartmouth, Caltech, Emory, Vanderbilt, UIUC, Purdue, UCLA, USC”
All these other countries have such completely arbitrary sets of elite schools. Not impressed by people who don’t know here talking about and just traffic in hearsay.
“Absolutely agree. Any random person would have a different list (and some probably couldn’t even name 25 colleges), but over time, the list would converge on something. That is the list I had in mind.”
The average person couldn’t NAME 25 colleges without a list, unless they were reciting the members of the SEC, Big 10, etc or unless they just started naming states and adding “University of …” to each one.
Average Joe would likely know Harvard, Princeton, Yale (and would likely say them like that as if it were one single school). Then, depending on the state they might name that state’s biggest school - regardless of how good it is. After that there would be Notre Dame, possibly Stanford. I honestly doubt whether the average Joe could even name 25 schools. Not one of the LACs would be named. Next on the list would possibly be Cornell and maybe MIT, probably NYU.
People know Duke, but have no idea that it’s any better than Syracuse. People may no Berkeley, but probably don’t know it’s even in California.
All LACs, CalTech, Columbia, Chicago, Dartmouth, Brown, UPenn (unless it is confused with Penn St.), JHU, Rice, Vandy, and UVA would be ignored.
Eventually, UCLA and Georgetown would likely be mentioned, but they still wouldn’t get to 25 schools before mentioning Ohio State, or Florida, or other schools that are known mostly for their athletic programs. Average Joe doesn’t know about and doesn’t care about most elite academic institutions, and certainly doesn’t know the difference between a research university and an LAC.
I see marvin. I stand corrected. I guess I should have known better.
Everyone, walk into a Radio Shack or Hallmark store or drycleaners and ask the worker there. See what you find. Urban slaughter is on the right track.
Ask them to name just one member of the Supreme Court while you’re at it.
The average person doesn’t know any of this nor do they care - it’s irrelevant to them
Now ask them to name the Kardashian sisters.
And, their knowledge base for “what’s a good school” is simply “I heard it’s a good school.” Which means someone they know/like went there, or maybe a sports announcer on TV said something to that effect.
It’s based on complete nothingness.
Even I’m so out of touch, that I didn’t no how to spell “know.” 
I’m not so sure the average person can name “Top” 25 but if you ask them to name “Good” 25 then the list is filled with local schools. Top 25 would include HYP, maybe Stanford, and big sports universities. I can see NYU being named only because it’s “New York” with the word "University"at the end. Penn would likely not be named independently of Penn State - the average person thinks they are one and the same school.
If there is a good LAC local to the person, then it has a chance of being on the list. Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, I was well aware of Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore although I didn’t know where they landed on the USNWR rankings until two years ago.
I think most people just don’t care. They have way more important things on their minds than college rankings. I’m not even sure the idea of finding out which are the “top 25” colleges enters their minds. Unfortunately what does filter through is the idea that it is now almost impossible to get into college because of the focus on these few schools with single digit and term acceptance rates. The average person now thinks all colleges are like that and that’s not true.