I knew what the Ivies were, but the only ones I could have named in high school were Harvard and Yale, and as far as I was concerned they were synonymous, and as far as where they were--I knew they were somewhere in the northeast. I pretty much discounted them out of hand as being stuck up places that rich kids went, and not somewhere that really intelligent people went. Which is why I didn't apply to them for undergrad, although in retrospect I wonder if I might have had a chance.

I think I had also heard of Princeton and Penn, because some of my friends got into them, but I don't think I realized they were in the Ivy League.