<p>goldenboy,
To piggyback what bclintonk said, there’s one more reason why Harvard/Brown vs Michigan analogy doesn’t work. Harvard/Ivies…etc are elite schools with much better brand-name than schools like Boston College, Wake Forest, Miami, Clemson…etc. Even in USN college rankings, it’s really the selectivty and perhaps faculty/student ratio that push ACC schools higher, not reputation (peer assessment). That selectivity is a byproduct of smaller enrollment combined with the more populous region, rather than prestige/desirability. Even Dartmouth has weak graduate programs, it still has a PA score of 4.3/4.4 out of 5.0 because of its Ivy status. You don’t get that kind of effect with ACC schools.</p>