<p>I’d say inferiority complexes tend to come from schools that are “almost but not quite as good” as a school or group of schools just ahead of them; or from schools that share many characteristics with a school that’s just ahead of it. So I’ll say what the school is and what it compares itself to (and feels inferior to).</p>
<p>Duke - HYPS
Cornell - the other Ivies
Columbia - HYPS
Princeton - Harvard
Berkeley - Stanford
WUStL - the Ivies/SM
Caltech - MIT
Harvey Mudd - Caltech
UCLA - Berkeley
USC - top-20 schools</p>
<p>At the same time, this is a compliment to the schools who feel “inferior”: the only reason they feel that way is because they are legitimately similar to the schools just ahead of htem, even if they aren’t quite as strong. IMO these schools should be happy to be compared to the ones they feel “inferior” to.</p>
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<p>So true - I once saw someone who had on their facebook “Harvard is the Stanford of the East” - and I was embarrassed for the person. (Stanford’s my alma mater, fwiw.)</p>