<p>I really don’t “get” the whole claim of Stanford being extremely prestigious, and in its own league with Harvard. Among very well-educated people, it’s known as an extremely prestigious university, but so is Chicago. The lay population knows Stanford as a good sports school in California, whereas the lay population hasn’t heard of Chicago at all. The only segments of the population that seems to see Stanford as a hands-down-better school are the less-educated section of the upper-middle class, the far west coast of the U.S., and people who spend way too much time posting on college message boards.</p>
<p>Even globally, In Japan where I work, Stanford is pretty unknown, even among the well-educated. The only American universities people know are Harvard and MIT. The very well-educated know both Chicago and Stanford as extremely prestigious, and to a similar degree. I imagine that the situation is similar elsewhere around the world. Now, I’m perfectly sure that Stanford is more well-known on average than Chicago both in the U.S. and elsewhere, but I think the degree is greatly exaggerated by college trolls like RML.</p>
<p>Now, Chicago’s student body has higher SATs than Stanford, and a number of metrics in recent years hint that Chicago alumni make more money than Stanford alumni. So RML’s assertions are a bit suspicious.</p>