<p>Ya know, its a funny thing… out of the 200 or so people I work with at my job (southeastern US), there is one person that stands out by far as being the most cocky and arrogant person of them all. Its hard to describe, but he has this certain demeanor - as if he invented the whole world and everyone else should suck his ****. Sad, but true.</p>
<p>Later I learned that this person went to U of Michigan. And yes, the pride was there. Which kind of puzzled me because its a public college, not an Ivy-League. Nor is its name particularly lauded (outside of college sports). So unless you’re an alum, for most people outside the Midwest area there is a lack of strong name recognition, and most will draw blank or pretty ho-hum expressions (as if you said “Pahokee Falls” or “Florenceville College”). But say: Cornell, Princeton, Berkley, Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, etc, and everyone across the country nods with recognition. (Note: if you are from the Midwest or you go or went to U-M, then you will probably have no idea what I mean).</p>
<p>So why do I mention this? Because there seems to be some kind of “reality distortion” field effect going on with more than a few of these graduates. The “pride” (some would describe as “cocky arrogance”) that some of them apparently share (as touched upon by this thread) appears to outweigh the reality of the fact that its just another public college.</p>
<p>So perhaps some of its alums could help us “less than worth non-alumni peasants” to understand what brings about this effect in their graduates? Is it something in the water? Some sinister University brainwashing propaganda? What?</p>