@Senior2016M I get what you are saying but I don’t think people choose purely on some intangible notion of prestige. Yes a big part of it is pure prestige, which i agree is not helpful, but prestige is derived to a degree from actual superiority/strength of the school in certain fields. For example, saying Williams has a better undergraduate education than all of the ivies is very open to interpretation depending on the needs, wants and personality of the student. For example at Williams one would not have access to the research opportunities, variety of classes, and ECs available at many ivies, and one could find the relative lack of variety in terms of classes, research, activities rather anemic and stifling. Of course another person might just love the individual attention afforded at a place like Williams. Another example, a tippy top economics or pre-med student at Harvard would have the ability to work/do research with the very very top people in the field, access which she would not be afforded even at a place like Yale.