Fordham vs Cornell? Forum

[09042014]

I have to be a jerk and hijack this thread into the realm of a rant.

Do you know what sucks about Cornell?

Answer: Dumbasses are confused because there are doppleganger schools out there with the same name.

My wife (A Cornellian) came to Chicago and her arrogant boss with his crapwater undergrad degree treated her like an uneducated moron from day 1. It wasn't until months later that he was "informed" by others in the office that Cornell is an Ivy league school in NY, not a liberal arts school in Iowa! (he was fired, she was promoted)

Same scenario plays out here in Chicago all the time with both "Chicago" and "Columbia". I kid you not, 50% of the people do not know the difference between "University of Chicago" and "University of Illinois - Circle Campus - Chicago". In Illinois if you claim you went to Columbia there is an inference that your mommy and daddy paid your way to dance/photography/art school at "Columbia".

I suggest a multi stage solution to this problem:

1. We make UIC rename itself to "The State School In Chicago" as its official name.
2. We slash and burn the state of Iowa to eliminate the other Cornell.
3. We abolish Columbia Chicago and rename it the more accurately "the college that has the extension program for people with an associates and no idea what they'll do with their lives"
4. We round up all the people dumb enough not to know these nuances and ship them to London, Ontario. It will take them years to figure out they aren't living in England's largest city.

I conclude my rant. Thank you.

My cousin told me she was going to go to Cornell, and I was impressed until she started talking about Iowa. I ask isn't it in Ithica, NY. She said no its Cornell College. I know she picked it because of its name!

Though I'm not sure why someone would treat someone from Cornell College like an uneducated moron, since its a fairly respectable school.

I agree about Columbia, but people confusing UIC with U of Chicago just shows how little lay prestige U of Chicago has, even its own city.

[rookhawk]

-1

[flcath]

To expound on your statement about University of Chicago's lack of lay-prestige:

Chicago is a funny school indeed. In Illinois laypeople don't fully understand what it is unless they have a relative that is involved in big business, medicine or the law. One of the most interesting traits about Chicago is that it seems to have a great deal of layprestige in Europe, often times being ranked higher than HYS. Why is that? I'd argue that people in Europe have been fighting to come ot Chicago for generations so there is a bit of awareness from across the pond. The other factor is that Europeans are definitely more socialistic and thus they are inclined to reject Harvard and Yale as bastions of "old money" whereas Chicago is this benign school with high standards.

In all seriousness, UChicago needs to spend some money on marketing. The university really is a peer of HYS-that's not an exaggeration--and yet even many educated people (who know it has a good reputation) don't realize how good it is.

Even for those who do know how great UChi is academically, I gotta tell you: for an individual with a shallow streak (like myself), Chicago's horrible lay prestige, combined with its world-famous social scene, makes it a very unattractive option.

[nycparalegal]

To expound on your statement about University of Chicago's lack of lay-prestige:

Chicago is a funny school indeed. In Illinois laypeople don't fully understand what it is unless they have a relative that is involved in big business, medicine or the law. One of the most interesting traits about Chicago is that it seems to have a great deal of layprestige in Europe, often times being ranked higher than HYS. Why is that? I'd argue that people in Europe have been fighting to come ot Chicago for generations so there is a bit of awareness from across the pond. The other factor is that Europeans are definitely more socialistic and thus they are inclined to reject Harvard and Yale as bastions of "old money" whereas Chicago is this benign school with high standards.

In all seriousness, UChicago needs to spend some money on marketing. The university really is a peer of HYS-that's not an exaggeration--and yet even many educated people (who know it has a good reputation) don't realize how good it is.

Even for those who do know how great UChi is academically, I gotta tell you: for an individual with a shallow streak (like myself), Chicago's horrible lay prestige, combined with its world-famous social scene, makes it a very unattractive option.

Maybe that's the point: UChicago doesn't spend alot on marketing because the right type of people know about it and go their not for the name but for the academic excellence. Or they just don't care.

[rookhawk]

All good points.

[flcath]

To expound on your statement about University of Chicago's lack of lay-prestige:

Chicago is a funny school indeed. In Illinois laypeople don't fully understand what it is unless they have a relative that is involved in big business, medicine or the law. One of the most interesting traits about Chicago is that it seems to have a great deal of layprestige in Europe, often times being ranked higher than HYS. Why is that? I'd argue that people in Europe have been fighting to come ot Chicago for generations so there is a bit of awareness from across the pond. The other factor is that Europeans are definitely more socialistic and thus they are inclined to reject Harvard and Yale as bastions of "old money" whereas Chicago is this benign school with high standards.

In all seriousness, UChicago needs to spend some money on marketing. The university really is a peer of HYS-that's not an exaggeration--and yet even many educated people (who know it has a good reputation) don't realize how good it is.

Even for those who do know how great UChi is academically, I gotta tell you: for an individual with a shallow streak (like myself), Chicago's horrible lay prestige, combined with its world-famous social scene, makes it a very unattractive option.

Maybe that's the point: UChicago doesn't spend alot on marketing because the right type of people know about it and go their not for the name but for the academic excellence. Or they just don't care.

Yeah, I mean, I guess it's worked for this long for 'em...

I bet it's really irritating to UChi alumni, though.

[rookhawk]

-

[sibley]

You're damned right it has offended Chicago alumni that now have to say "I went to Booth for $150,000" and nobody has any idea what that means.

Another classic "play on another's name" for people to chuckle at.

Obviously, Kellogg is one of the best b-schools in the world so our local crapwater technical college, (DeVry) has a business school called "Keller". (I'm not even sure a person named Keller exists) Imagine the Kellogg grads' frustration when laypeople confuse those two programs.

I vaguely remember a school called Stamford inviting me to apply for undergrad. I didn't. Mostly because it would have been too difficult to explain to people.