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<p>It’s neither fair nor unfair. It’s just stupid.</p>
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<p>Depends on where your audience is. I respectfully submit - you’re from California and so what’s “prestigious” to you is different from what’s prestigious in Chicago, in New York, and so forth. For example, there are plenty of California-based CC’ers who engage in discussions about the relative prestige of the various UC’s who aren’t really aware that none of those schools, with the possible exceptions of Berkeley and UCLA (and UCLA mostly because it’s known for sports), make the radar screen in other parts of the country. Which doesn’t make them not fine schools. It just speaks to the fact that what one considers prestigious is based on where one grew up / lives / works, that’s all. In certain areas, Northwestern has more than enough prestige to get anyone anywhere (as does U of Chicago). I don’t make the mistake of thinking that my prestige-meter (shaped by growing up in the East, and now living in the Chicago area) reflects everyone, everywhere; don’t make the same mistake with your prestige-meter either.</p>
<p>I’m a Kellogg MBA-er myself – marketing and org behavior. I submit that most “laymen” don’t know either Wharton or Kellogg, and don’t <em>really</em> know anything about Harvard other than “top school in the country,” the same way that the Mona Lisa owns “best painting.”</p>