<p>Hunt said: “the Ivies have a long-standing reputation for excellence, mostly well-earned . . . other schools mentioned also have a strong reputation for excellence, although not as long-standing, and as time goes on, more and more people mention them along with the Ivies in terms of prestige as well . . .”</p>
<p>Seems to me that two contradictory arcs are occurring. First, a small number of other fine schools are becoming better known nationally, so the people drawn to schools with national reputations are considering schools that formerly had sterling regional reputations (e.g., Duke, Stanford, U Chicago, Wash U.)</p>
<p>Second, there is a national flight to the Big Brand schools, with the Ivies having the Biggest Brand of All. Aside from the small handful of formerly regional schools that people tout as being Ivy equivalents, the national prestige gap between the Ivies and the rest of the pack seems to have widened, not diminished. That would explain in large part why applications have risen so much at the Ivies: people flock to that Brand like kids to Hollister shirts. The fact that people outside California recognize Stanford as Ivy-like is an incremental change in how that formerly regional school is viewed: but the increased “Ivy or Bust” mentality of parents and students, that college is a commodity to be consumed and valued as a Brand, is a significant and accelerating change in how we view education in this country.</p>
<p>The cynical view is that there are so many consumers who want the nationally-reputable Best colleges that the Ivies cannot accommodate that demand, so the market for Brand Name Best Schools had to expand incrementally to elevate the Dukes and Stanford of the world to (almost) Best College status. </p>
<p>But that is the exception. It seems much less likely now than 20 years ago that truly excellent schools can rise to Ivy-equivalent status in the eyes of consumers. After all, luxury Brands like DG, Cartier and Harvard must maintain their exclusivity to retain cachet, and the sense that almost every school that is not HYP is “lesser than” seems to be growing, not diminishing.</p>
<p>Kei</p>