Oh, yes, that was partially humor, haha. I agree that you can get things like self-validation and additional benefits from going to a Famous University.

You touch upon some deeper things here too, which I also think are accurate (social perception, certain expectations regarding what it means to go to a prestigious university). I mean, I think that we can agree that there’s a general sort of social acceptance that Famous Universities are good.

Whenever a new article tries to cite anything scientific, they’re almost always referencing a professor from Stanford, Harvard, etc. It’s as if the implication is “and I’m citing from these schools because they’re obviously good so you don’t need to question me”, or something like that.

But, yeah. I think I largely agree w/ your response.