<p>about the popularity in asia thing... i always thought the UCLA name carried a lot of weight in asia (and that UCLA has the most college sports apparel sold in asia), but i have also heard opposite, that the only schools that carry weight are berkeley and HYPSM. </p>
<p>"While the reason can be attributed to a large Asian American community, I believe that the more compelling is the tradition."
It is also traditional that Asians attend colleges near big cities, I don't know the reasoning behind this phenomenon, but if you look, Asians (both american born and immigrant) gravitate to harvard, stanford and penn much more than to dartmouth or duke. As for berkeley and UCLA, they are also located near areas of high asian population concentration (san francisco for berkeley, san gabriel valley and now lots of "fringe" areas in LA/OC for UCLA), and most asian parents prefer their kids to stay close to home (in contrast to white americans, where moving across the country for college is ordinary). </p>
<p>"there are many people, including media, who often say "the prestigious US colleges such as Harvard,...and UCLA....""
its also because UCLA has a lot more visibility than brown, wash U, dartmouth, uchicago, etc. in fact, among the general public in the US, it has more visibility than the smaller top privates (especially those without big athletic programs).</p>