At ephblog, there is an exciting discussion going on about whether student admitted at both Yale and Williams should choose Williams. One person complained about Yale and Harvard students throwing around their school’s names :
I have a lot of acquaintances, friends and loved ones, who are grads of Harvard and Yale. Is there higher recognizability? Most definitely. And what does this particular ’status’ breed? They all have a tendency to let you know, within a few minutes of meeting them, where they went to school. I find it amusing the regularity with which this happens, regardless of the ‘type’ of individual.
Here is my response with regard to Yalies. I cannot vouch for Harvard students.
“I avoid telling people where I go to college at all costs: people tend to treat me in a weird way after I mention Yale. I also found it to be a very effective way to deter unwanted male attention. I travel a lot and it happens sometimes that a man next to me on a train/bus/airplane is bored and/or flirtatious. After the mandatory “so, wheredya go to school?” I just answer the truth and they tend to sort of stop right away (nobody likes a smart blond, I guess).
In Hong Kong, where I graduated from high school, people tend to deify prestigious academic institutions; upon hearing ‘Yale’, they start asking me tons and tons of questions about ‘the secrets of getting in,’ so I try avoiding ever mentioning it.
In Russia, where I grew up, people either don’t know what Yale is or start making fun of me because of a certain American president who is an alumnus; so I keep quiet, too.
One may claim my experience is unique; I don’t believe it is. In fact, many of my fellow students tend to avoid mentioning Yale when they talk to strangers (unless those strangers are their job interviewers).
An interesting phenomenon to consider is that people pay more attention to the brand-name colleges. Since there is an existing discourse on Yalies bragging around about their alma mater, one automatically registers it every time Yale is mentioned. A student of a random college in the middle of nowhere can talk about their school 24/7 and nobody seems to mind; a Yalie mentions Yale once and everyone considers him/her annoying and arrogant.
Also, if you someone wearing, say, a UMass sweatshirt, most people won’t even notice; if it’s a Yale one, most people will pay attention to it and consider its owner an arrogant brat. Would you disagree with that?
See also incredible anxiety Harvard kids have about dropping the H-bomb…”