Vanderbilt
My first thought was University of Florida, but that’s probably not too high on the list.
I think this was a joke on a Simpsons episode (maybe the one where Homer flies on Mr. Burns’s private jet with Lionel Richie?) I think the pilot says he attended the Harvard of the South, but then never divulges the actual name.
I attended UF in the late 90s, and I once saw somebody wearing a T-shirt that said “Harvard: the Florida of the North.”
I’ve heard it said about the University of Virginia – and with a quick google of the rankings, I see their law school’s in the top ten alongside Harvard and Yale, just like their School of Architecture, sure as their Education program apparently beats out both to earn a slot in the top five; their business school slightly edges out Yale’s, their medical school ain’t too far behind Harvard’s, and all in all it looks to have a pretty strong case.
Duke was the first thing that came to mind.
Duke
Heh.
Actually, the two campuses are a lot alike. Except Harvard doesn’t have a resident gator.
Vanderbilt
Universidade de São Paulo
Vandy or Duke.
Oh, and clearly UVA.
*This is what the Interwebs have brought us to. When I was a kid that would have been a vanishing passing thought - something about alligators at Harvard I read once in the grocery store line-up. Now you are all polluted with it for life. Muaaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaa!!!
I am a Tulane alumni and the phrase was certainly used there sometimes. However, we knew it was also used for Vanderbilt, Duke and sometimes Emory. Rice is a great school but a little too Texas to be pure South so it doesn’t quite fit.
I would dare say that a lot of people affiliated with any large private university in the “south” have attempted to make that claim…it is not unique to one institution.
A few years back there was a football game between Vanderbilt and Duke. It was informally known as “The SAT Bowl”.
William & Mary. Go Tribe!
Doesn’t make it inferior. It’s just that the culture is more different (although southern schools in general are “different”). Maybe the Cal of the Southeast?
Tulane might be good, too. Of course there’s gotta be a Yale, etc. of the south. Which is the one people pick on? Brown? Who’s the Brown of the south?
Duke was my first thought, but that’s probably because I spent some time at summer camps there as a kid, so I’m more familiar with it than with other private universities in the South.
Vanderbilt came to mind first. University of Miama Florida second. Not because it’s the Harvard of the South, it was just the next college that came to mind.
Vanderbilt