There are so many great and many elite schools that seem to require further explanation to the vast majority of the population. Even at work and among educated individuals. And yes I know we are not talking about the cc crowd, elite employers and other academics. They account for a small fraction of the citizenry. Just made me laugh when explaining to dozens of family members that bowdoin is not beau doin and it’s in Maine and really hard to get into. Oh never mind.
Wash U. No not in Washington. Not in DC. St. Louis.
Pomona. Where ? It like getting into Harvard. Sure it is.
My kid goes to Bryn Mawr. We live 3 hours away from there, but most people go “Huh?” (in a more polite manner) when they ask where she goes to school. We have to spell it for them because they don’t even understand what we’re saying.
My whole life is a torment. No, I didn’t say Swarthmore, I went to the other one. No, it’s not really called Skidmark, and I guess that’s still funny the one millionth time I’ve heard it.
Funny you mentioned that. Just yesterday my wife asked my brother where he went to school, and he said Northeastern. But Northeastern ILLINOIS University (which is in Chicago and only a few miles from Northwestern). Big mixup there in the conversation for the next few minutes since her D (I guess to be politically correct I should say our D) goes to Northeastern proper.
Thank goodness for state Us—attended U of OR and UC Davis. People generally have heard of them. They sometimes think our kids’ alma mater, USoCal was another public state school (nope).
One relative attended Trinity in Connecticut (there’s another Trinity in Tx—very different).
Many people have no clue about service academies. Really. I posted a discussion there that I had with a young lady in her late twenties who works in one of our offices
Where does your son go to school?
West Point.
Where is that?
New York.
West Point College?
No, It’s the United States Military Academy.
There’s a military academy?
Yes for training officers for the Army.
Is it like a college?
It is a college. He will earn an engineering degree and then he will serve as an officer in the Army.