“Mmm, heck of a school. Weren’t you at Brown Otto?”

I think you’re confusing a statement about ranking in a small set (Ivy League schools) for a statement about a bigger set. This isn’t uncommon – iirc there was some big furore a few months ago about admissions to US schools where much of the disagreement seemed to be downstream of different people thinking about different numbers of top or acceptable universities (and then sometimes having a big difference between the intuitive percentages of possible university options and the actual percentages they made up)

I think it’s still the case that people who describe themselves as having gone to an Ivy League school mean a school like Brown. If you went to Harvard then either say it directly or mumble something about a school in Boston – why say something that sounds similarly fancy to the truth but that could also be interpreted as something less elite? Saying you went to school in Boston is much lower in fanciness than Harvard or Ivy League except that most people know what it is code for.

> Saying you went to school in Boston is much lower in fanciness than Harvard or Ivy League except that most people know what it is code for.

At one point, I identified at least 4 categories of how Harvard alumni may mention or not mention where they went to school.

The funniest category is the one you mention: saying something like "back East", as a way of avoiding saying that you went to Harvard, as if you don't want to brag, while still making sure they know you went to Harvard, because you actually do want to brag.

That category might still be a thing, but I bet only for a very small minority. Most Harvard people are decent people. And even most of the minority who graduate and eventually do things you don't like, from positions of power, will have some poise. Living in the neighborhood for a long time, I have a suspicion that there's a respectable decorum that new students pick up on almost immediately from the student body culture, if they don't arrive with it. Each academic year, I almost never see any kind of public douchiness after the first week of September, until guests arrive for graduation/commencement. Then, I will probably notice at least one bit of overt jerkiness by a visitor, who, my theory goes, didn't attend Harvard themselves.

I think Harvard and MIT students mostly say, "Cambridge," rather than Boston. Then, when the inquirer frowns in confusion, they mumble, "Boston".

it’s like saying you earn six figures, everyone knows that means $110,000.