Unrelated question: Why do people always say "Ivies, Stanford, MIT"? There really only two Ivy League schools on par with Stanford and MIT. Why bring Cornell, Brown, UPenn, Yale, Columbia, or Dartmouth in this? Also, note that "Harvard, Princeton" is the same number of words as "Ivy League."
I assume this question is directed at me wondering why I and maybe others find the rest of the Ivies on par with stanford/MIT/harvard/princeton, considering that the answer is otherwise fairly obvious.
To why the answer is obvious - the Ivy League consists of schools that have very low acceptance rates and have usually been ranked very highly, with all 8 in the top 16 in the last ranking by the US World and News or whatever. No other group of schools has that sort of reputation. This is a fact. Thus, when you have enough similar objects, people like to group them together for ease and simplicity sake. We can also do this because most people agree to this standard definition. You disagreeing doesn't make the term any less valid, since people recognize that I am referring to elite schools in general, even if Columbia isn't an elite school according to you. This is how grouping objects works. No group is ever perfect. Obviously, people will disagree with the inclusion and exclusion of certain schools. That's fine. You can have your own opinion. Maybe if you provide a compelling argument as to why the lower Ivies should be excluded other than claims with no evidence then it could catch on and change people's minds on what they consider to be the most prestigious schools.
Do you have any evidence that suggests the 5 other Ivies have "no" prestige? Do you have any evidence that shows that people don't use "Ivy League" literally? It's clear that you look at those group of schools very closely and hold them to a high standard. Great, you're completely entitled to your opinion. Unfortunately, not everyone is as brilliant as you or even I, and so, what occurs as a result is that Brown/Yale/Columbia become to them what MIT/Stanford/Harvard is to you. It isn't wrong, it's being realistic. The notion that if you aren't going to one of "The Kitty Kat's Big 4" then your wasting your time is preposterous because not everyone is exactly the same as you (which is why I think your previous advice was terrible as well considering it's geared specifically only towards a person like yourself).
So when I refer to the "Ivies, Stanford, MIT," I am not making the case that Dartmouth is on par with MIT. I am referring to the most prestigious schools in the US, and saying "Ivies" is a way of communicating that. What schools are the most prestigious is certainly up for debate. But in that moment all I wanted to do was make a comparison between top US universities. Whether or not they actually were is irrelevant given that my list wasn't completely off.
