<p>In Texas we refer to Harvard as the Rice of the North.</p>
<p>“I don’t think any of the Southern schools WANTS to be a “Harvard”.” Well stated.</p>
<p>It seems to me that what’s changed in the last couple of decades is that it’s no longer really accurate to refer to Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Emery as “of the South.” They are in the South, of course, but they now have national reputations, along with other formerly regional schools like Wash U, Chicago, and others. So the phrase “Harvard of the South” just doesn’t make much sense any more.</p>
<p>Incidentally, what’s the Duke of the North? Nothing fits.</p>
<p>“WashU, on the other hand, will enroll a lot of the kids who scored between 2300-2400” That’s not credible. Who’d go to WUSTL?</p>
<p>If there were a Duke of the North, it would be Princeton. But I would say the question no longer makes much sense. It just doesn’t matter all that much any more that Duke is in the South.</p>
<p>Great post by Swish. Ivy league schools are very different and have different strengths and weaknesses. Just like the Southern schools are very different as well. BTW some define the South by the Mason-Dixon line which is the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>I’m from Southern Virginia originally, and I now live in Maryland, and Maryland is not the South, even if it is below the line.</p>
<p>^^No? Ever sing the state song “Maryland, My Maryland?” The lyrics make reference to Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant, vandal and despot. It also refers to “northern scum.” </p>
<p>Maryland is basically a typical Border State. Barely managed to stick with the Union in the Civil War but with strong cultural ties and political sympathies to the South.</p>
<p>^perhaps i am missing something but i don’t see strong political sympathies to the South. when i see maryland, i see baltimore, dc suburbs, PG, and montgomery counties which are all solidly blue, if not liberal. the rest are just small potatoes. MD also just approved gay marriage law if i am not mistaken.</p>
<p>for the purposes of this thread, the South is a geographic area, not based on cultural or political leanings. If that were the case, then Indiana, Kansas, and other “red states” would be included.</p>
<p>This is about the top schools that are not in the middle of a blizzard every February.</p>
<p>^Either way, most people don’t think of MD or DC as “the South” even geographically. They belong to “Mid-Atlantic”. You were the first and only one that brought up Georgetown.</p>
<p>Georgetown is south of the Ivy League schools. And I needed one more school similar to Penn to complete my true Ivy League South comparison. I dont see why this is causing debate.</p>
<p>^^^ Because you are a little geographically challenged? Neither DC nor MD are south… regardless of which colleges may be in them. If the “title” says “south,” then you need a place in the south.</p>
<p>Northern Virginia isn’t even the South these days. I think the South starts at about Culpeper.</p>
<p>True about Northern Virginia, which is really technically DC, but if you go by states, I’d say the south starts with Virginia.</p>
<p>Maryland and DC are not “the South”, even though they are technically south of New York/Boston/Philly, the traditional northern cities.</p>
<p>Note: historically, it is correct that Maryland was a southern state and the Mason-Dixon line was largely used to distinguish southern and northern states in the 19th and early 20th century, but it isn’t useful anymore due to Maryland’s northern culture and as member of the Northeast Megalopolis.</p>
<p>You guys seem to equating Maryland with the metro DC area. There is a lot more to Maryland than Baltimore and Montgomery counties. Get out into the smaller cities, towns, and countryside, where a little over half of the state’s population lives, and most of that is very much The South. Speaking with a drawl is common out there. Even in the DC/Baltimore area hotels and restaurants routinely serve grits for breakfast, something that is very rare in true northern cities.</p>
<p>I think the rural areas of Maryland are more like the rural areas of Pennsylvania than they are like the South.</p>
<p>^^^ I live in one of those rural PA areas very near MD. I agree with Hunt. I’ve also lived in VA (rural). MD is far more like PA IMO.</p>
<p>There is the James Carville quote that Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.</p>
<p>In the midwest the south begins south of US 30, also known as the greasy/greazy line.</p>