When does an up & coming university finally become “elite”?

PickOne1
Wed, 26 Aug 2015 17:13:16 +0000

Sarcastic remark was directed at pizzagirl … not Brown. I don’t think too many MWers have not heard of Brown, Cornell or Dartmouth, but maybe they are not at the top of their “elite” school list, where as maybe UIUC is.

I agree that people are not rubes, certainly with the internet and fine resources such as CC, most people who would care about Eliteness can figure out what that means from their own viewpoints. From a northeast, mid-atlantic perspective, Rice, NW, etc are probably a bit more obscure than the Ivy League. Anyone that gets on College Board’s mailing list will quickly learn the merits of UChicago through all the expensive and frequent mailings (can too much mail make you less elite ?).

And, of course, schools can be either up-and-coming or down-and-less-elite, over years or decades of differing endowment values, trendiness, university management and advertising effectiveness, and maybe just old luck (if you can get a POTUS alum, that can’t hurt, but it’s 30-40 years since they left your school). I think Elite could be defined by some as “did a Kennedy go there” ? John Jr could have brought Brown into the top 10 for sure, if he had lived longer and passed the bar exam sooner.