<p>well Mr. Thread Highjacker (;)) I can say that in the NW, people generally have no idea what the hell UT is unless they’re in engineering. People up where I am (Portland, OR) are very close-minded (sorry for the generalization, but there is huge ignorance here) and think that everybody from the South has an accent and is a redneck, when ironically, everywhere else people think the same about Oregon. Basically to be recognized in the NW, you need to go the the typical US News T15 school, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UCSD, and sometimes UWashington (in that order, except berk is right up there with the US News T15 schools, but seriously, they don’t even know much of the T25 here). Even UCSD will be looked more highly upon than UT, and UCLA, which I think is seriously one of the most overrated schools in the country will be more-appreciated than UT. So if you’re looking to work up here and aren’t in engineering (all the people in engineering that I talked to were extremely impressed when I said I’m going there while LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE thought I was a idiot that couldn’t get in anywhere decent), you better hope to get into the T15 or a top UC, otherwise you won’t get the wow you get in the south or anyplace without such tunnel-vision.</p>
<p>I know my post sounded haranguing, but man, some of these people are crazy. They don’t even know about UVA, UNC-CH, Vanderbilt, even Michigan and Chicago. Oregon is either filled with people who are obsessed with the Northwest and won’t think about any other place for college or are California dreamers that will only apply to schools there for the most part. It’s ridiculous especially since Oregon isn’t even that big/great of a state, which is probably why there are so many California dreamers here.</p>