Why does everybody on here only care about getting into Ivy Leagues or UCs?

There are lots of perfectly decent colleges out there that aren't ivy league colleges, so why is everyone one here so set on getting into an ivy league like Harvard and Yale or getting into the UCs?



I got into a college that isn't an ivy league or even close, but it's still a great college. It even got recognized by the NY Times as one of the 20 Hidden Gems in American higher education (see article and read it): http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/educat...

So what makes my college so horrible just because it's not an Ivy League or a UC?

Why does everybody on here only care about getting into Ivy Leagues or UCs?
I wouldn't say that everyone on this board cares only about ivy leagues and UCs. I would bet money that most could not even name all eight ivies or properly spell Berkeley.



I do agree that there are lots of perfectly decent colleges outside of the ivy league.



What makes your college so horrible? I don't know what your college is so I am not qualified to answer that question. But, the colleges listed in that article are by no means hidden gems to those well informed on the topic of higher education in the United States. Grinnell, Carleton, Macalaster, and the entire Claremont Consortium as well as the other schools mentioned are great schools. Some people may not know them, but the important people (employers, graduate schools) know these schools and understand that some of the brightest kids in the nation go to these schools.



Who cares if your college is not well known or appreciated by the lay people of America? I attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and I can say that in the south where I am from, most people have never heard of Dartmouth. I get questions like:



Is that in the US?



Why would you go to an unknown school? It will be hard for you to get jobs. You should have gone to UGA, UNC, UVA, UF, UT, or some other southern, state university.



What is that?



I take pride in my school, despite the fact that many people are unaware of its existence.



I would say that people on this site ask a lot of questions about ivies and UCs simply because of the nature of the site. This is a website where a person can anonymously ask questions about a school and supply various false statistics different questions hoping to get an idea of what would help them get into the college. The website lends itself to use by insecure people. Ivy League schools tend to attract tons of applicants who care only about prestige, and these prestige freaks are the ones who tend to be insecure.



How about a syllogism? If you really attend one of the schools listed in the article, and are not a flame account, then you should be intelligent enough to follow.



Ivies attract prestige freaks.



Prestige Freaks are insecure.



Yahoo Answers attracts insecure people.



Therefore prestige freaks, or ivy prospectives are likely to ask questions on Yahoo Answers.



If you don't mind me asking, which of those schools do you go to?
Reply:There is a big range between an elite school and a horrible school. No one said that your school was horrible, but apparently, if it made this list, it isn't particularly recognized. Most people would prefer, if they are going to spend a lot of time and money on their educations, to have that respected.

What I find interesting is that hardly anyone on this site says, "I really want to get into the University of Chicago," or "My dream is to go to Cal Tech," or "Can I get into MIT?" Those are recognized schools often considered better than many of the Ivies and UCs, yet no one seems to be asking about them.
Reply:Some people just talk about UC's because they live in California like me. To me they are just my local public universities very good Universities of course.
Reply:UC's get more funding and are more well known. ppl dont wanna take a risk with an ugly college like yours

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