I think the quality and magnitude of research coming out of Berkeley and UCLA helped to give them national reps. And then of course sports for UCLA and political activism at Berkeley.
My children both went to the University of Chicago. They grew up mainly in a little bubble of people who knew what that was, and what it stood for. My daughter’s fourth grade classroom had 24 students in it; it was a 4-5 class. Five of those kids wound up as undergraduates at Chicago, a sixth came as a PhD student. There was one other classmate from a different homeroom who was one of my daughter’s closest friends, and a girl from her ballet class, who also came as undergraduates. The (different) high school my children went to did not send so many people to Chicago, but kids there were obsessed with colleges and their reputations, so there was a fair amount of interest in Chicago. Two cousins had preceded them there as well. So they didn’t have much of the “What’s that?” most Chicago students encounter. Plus, here in the East, no one has heard of UIC (University of Illinois - Chicago), so that source of confusion simply doesn’t exist.
Post-graduation, one of them barely ever left, and works on campus. The other has mainly worked in jobs where almost everyone has some sort of academic background considered prestigious in Establishment circles, so the main reaction she gets is “Yeah? Show me how intellectual you are.”
"People in NJ know colleges well. The state exports more than 60% of students. If the typical NJ family does not visit 6 - 12 schools for each child I would be very surprised. "
Typical NJ family? Or typical upper middle class suburban NJ family? I bet there are a lot of families in Camden, Trenton, Newark, Atlantic City who aren’t “visiting 6-12 schools apiece.”
Yes, PG. You a re correct. Almost no one in my inner suburb town visited 6-12 schools. They go instate, if they go to college at all. And, as I have said several times, I live in a town 30 minutes from NYC, where the typical person does not know that Columbia is an Ivy. It’s just a name they might have heard–teacher’s college? Sportswear company? Dunno, but sounds somewhat familiar.
But the Affluent suburbs of NJ sort of forget that the rest of the state, not just the cities, but the rural areas, the inner ring suburbs, and the rest of us really do exist.
Also, Turner, the states schools are not 30% Asian. I teach at one, and I have maybe a couple of Asian students per class.
Never underestimate the ability of CC people to believe the entire country is upper middle class suburbia! And I say that as an upper middle class suburbanite.
@TurnerT “almost every NJ student gets a 10k merit award from Clemson” is a bit of an overstatement. While Clemson does offer merit aid to OOS students, I doubt that every student in NJ meets the academic requirements to get one, and it’s not usually 10k.
I don’t think NJ students are fleeing in droves to Old Miss, either, except from the very small cluster of ultra conservatives in NJ.
Princeton. The most common response is “now, where is that?” A college is a college around here.
The average person “evaluates” colleges by sports and I-knew-someone-who-went-there.
If that is the analytic to the name value of colleges, then its an open and shut case: with UCLA having leading the nation with 113 NCAA team championships and 134 total national championships–with a record 11 national basketball championships.
@garland Rutgers is 30% Asian. One of the reasons is the export of other students.
@carolinamom2boys Clemson is aggressive. Merit starts at 28 ACT and in many NJ districts that is below average. So you are wrong, the kids that apply do so for specifically that reason. I’ve seen that stats from two high schools.
@intparent Where did I say “fleeing in droves”. I believe my words were that kids and parents were talking about Ole Miss.
And my use of the word " typical " is accurate as well given that median famly income in NJ is about $90,000. People can certainly afford to gas up the car and take trips.
@TurnerT 28 ACT will get you 7500 at Clemson . “In many districts " is quite different than"almost every student in NJ”
it’s all regional. Even HYP.
@carolinamom2boys You are just being argumentative. What would you think is the prime motivation for a NJ student to apply to Clemson? Clearly in post #98 I was referring to students that apply.
My daughter attends a small LAC is western Minnesota. When I tell people where she attends they’ll usually say that it’s a nice school and mention someone they know that went there. If I mention that she plans to go into nursing they’ll often ask why she doesn’t attend the LAC that has a nursing program closer to our home that everyone else attends. Before she enrolled some people offered to talk to her about that school thinking that we’d prefer her to go closer to home. We told him that while she liked that school, she was really excited about this other school and ready to learn a city new to her. We love her school and are so glad that she wanted to go there.
Our DD goes to a teeny, tiny women’s-Catholic college in the midwest, if they’re Catholic, even in Socal, they know of it. If they aren’t they ask, “why?!” Haha. People are really annoying. I do get excited when a resume crosses my desk from an alumni.
And here in Chicago, Notre Dame has way more prestige than many of the colleges CC salivates over.
Notre Dame has prestige everywhere.
No one around here (including me) had heard of Santa Clara University when it was suggested for my DD by a fellow CC member back in 2004. The HS guidance counselor had never heard of the school at all, but did tell DD that she would not get accepted.
Not too many people here in California knows about SCU eather. When I suggested it to my DD based on some posts here on cc it was the first time she heard of it.