We had family members think Caltech was CalPoly. Also encountered many blank faces when my son said he went to Caltech. |
Most people (including those very successful in their fields) don’t know or care about your tiny school in Maine. If your goal was to impress people with the name of your college, you picked the wrong college. |
In the case of Caltech, it's the nation's most difficult school at which to gain admission, according to some sources. People unfamiliar with Caltech would seem to be particularly unfamiliar with colleges not to have heard of this school. |
So you know nothing about good schools. Got it. |
Went to Wesleyan. There are more with similar name than the one in CT apparently. And sometimes people confuse it with Wellesly. |
There are less students at those collective schools together than there are in the undergraduate population of Harvard. |
My kid goes to a selective LAC in the Northeast. We live in the South. She says I go to ___ college in ___ state.
Who the heck cares if no one has heard of it? She loves it and she knows it's a great school. |
Well your friends must live under a rock if they have never heard of those |
Except snobs, no one knows about these outside of the families whose children are attending these schools. For snobs, the SLAC marketing is a way to feel like they have some exclusive club. |
And for SLAC parents, we're just happy our students are attending good schools with strong outcomes for what our children are interested in, |
My son graduated from Grinnell. As my dear friend who is a professor at Georgetown told me "While people who learn about different colleges by watching football on TV have never heard of Grinnell, those of us who sit on adcom's most definitely know about Grinnell."
His partner also graduated from Grinnell. She had 3 different PI's vying for her to join their neuroscience lab because they all saw Grinnell and knew she was smart, motivated, and a fast learner. Funny thing is, none of the PI's themselves went to Grinnell - in academia, its reputation speaks for itself. Her PI is now her advisor as she's in the PhD program at the R1 university where she landed. OP, if your kid is going to Colby, Bates, or Bowdoin - congrats. |
My favorite posted College Confidential story of all time was that Grandpa in China never heard of this school that grandson was going to. Very deep concern- was this school any good? Would they get a decent education?
Grandson was attending Princeton. There is no school so fantastic and so prestigious that EVERYONE has heard of it and would be impressed. |
I would not have been familiar with these schools, but I don’t think that’s bad. Unless you go to a very elite schools, you will find that schools tend to trade on very regional reputations. I went to the University of Virginia, and I cannot even tell you how many times I’ve gotten a blank stare or “what does that stand for” when I’ve said UVA. |
lol I can totally believe that. There’s one exception and it’s Harvard, for random historical reasons. It’s the only one. |
95% of the population outside of New England couldn't name the state that those colleges are in. |