Awareness of Cornell being "Ivey"

tokyorevelation9
Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:36:19 +0000

From what I’ve seen, many on CC would be surprised how “regional” knowledge of colleges and universities can be in the US. For example, when my class from Princeton went to Yellowstone N.P. for a 10-day scientific expedition which counted as our lab component, the park rangers at the visitor’s center asked us what university we were from. When we told them, the rangers had no knowledge of the school whatsoever, and we’re talking about an internationally recognized school here.

Its not just UPenn and Cornell that suffer in this regard. You have to recognize that a person with average college awareness (hint: not College Confidential members), know colleges and reputations through their friends, colleagues at work, etc. and not as much through national renown, with the exception of Harvard.

For example, people in my area (Chicagoland) will ooh and aah at Notre Dame or Northwestern, but say you got into Dartmouth, Columbia, or Virginia, and you might check in a mirror make sure you didn’t turn into a Martian overnight.
Its just a fact of life that can easily ignored.