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This is what I don’t agree with. Or maybe I don’t know what you intend by “greater.” As I’ve indicated, the greater universal prestige of Harvard will not help you if you are competing for an engineering job with a Caltech grad. Or for a vocal performance job with a Juilliard grad. So I would say that relevant prestige is “greater” than irrelevant prestige. If what’s relevant to you is what your barber thinks, then OK, Harvard’s universal prestige is “greater.” If what’s relevant to you is what the people in your field, or the people who might hire you, think, then it’s a different story.</p>
<p>And I have to say that the idea that Asians are concerned about this general prestige doesn’t come out of thin air, at least for somebody who’s been reading CC for a while. I’ve read numerous threads in which an Asian student was having trouble convincing parents that it would make sense to look at LACs, or other schools that are not generally well known. I wonder if this ties in with the focus in Asian countries on stats for college admission–the idea that numerical rankings are very important. (And haven’t we been talking about what’s prestigious in Asia? Certainly Berkeley isn’t more prestigious than Brown on the East Coast of the U.S.)</p>