<p>Personally, I applied for mostly Ivies, but it was NOT for the name, prestige, elitism, etc. Those things irritate me a bit, and I think that academically there are a lot of schools that meet or surpass the Ivies. However, my reasons stand thus:</p>
<p>Not all of the value is in the name; a lot of Ivies ARE excellent in their fields, for a variety of reasons. Funding, for one. Secondly, not all the kids who go there are trust fund babies just interested in being “the best” (note my quotation marks), but rather there are many who want the sort of smaller, more selective, sometimes even quirky atmospheres some of these schools have. MIT, in particular. 
Now THAT is an “Ivy” which caters much less to the snobbish category (except maybe intellectual snobbery in some instances, but mostly not), but I digress…I wanted to go to a school where I was more likely to be in close, constant proximity to a large number of students who shared at least some of my philosophies regarding intellectualism, who did not consider being called “nerd” an insult, and who would not make me feel like a big fish in a little pond (which I have been so sick and tired of that I would really welcome the feeling of being average without having to stop excelling at things). I felt that my personality was relaxed enough to overcome any elements of snobbery present in the schools’ atmosphere, and figured–why not go for it?</p>
<p>Jewel63, it sounds like you were in fact obsessed with the status schools given where you applied.</p>
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<p>Oh, my. In that case, a regional school would do just fine.</p>
<p>To a certain extent, the diversity argument is overblown, especially since there’s far more racial diversity than socioeconomic to be found. Still, it can’t be ignored that top schools, HYP especially, have money to spend on low-income students that schools just below that caliber don’t have. T2 LACs (Hamilton, Bard) and universities (<em>coughcough NYU</em>), while great in their right as educational institutions, can’t attract high-achieving low-income kids.</p>
<p>Getting a thorough education and learning good study habits in high school helps a student thrive in college, wherever the student is admitted. Not everyone who applies to an Ivy League college will be admitted, but anyone who prepares well to make such an application will probably end up doing better at whatever college the student attends.</p>
<p>This thread has been dead for four years. And the OP apparently got over his doubts and questions, since he is currently a student at Harvard.</p>
<p>^Interesting to note. Haha.</p>
<p>Besides the obvious of prestige/pride and education, I think it also depends on one’s situation. For example, being from the West Coast, I REALLY want to go to the East and get away from California. However, the only schools there comparable to the public schools that I would probably get into in California are Ivy schools. Also, it would be much cheaper in my financial situation to go to an Ivy school than any public school in California.</p>