As many of us have probably realized, attending a well-respected college carries a great degree of social value.

Mentioning the fact that you attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Stanford University in a conversation can often add a degree of gravitas to everything you say from that point on.

Several elite schools have a clubhouse that only grants membership to alumni of the university, such as the Harvard Club, the Yale Club and Brandeis House.

In academia, professors are very proud of where they went to school, sometimes even name-dropping their alma maters in classes as if to validate the content of their lectures.

As a Brandeis student, I have seen some of this social value firsthand and believe that much of it is frequently misplaced.

The social value of attending Brandeis becomes evident as soon as someone inquires where you go to college.

Upon your response, assuming he or she is familiar with the school, he or she often comments on how impressive Brandeis is, or occasionally, explicitly praises your intelligence.

Furthermore, he or she might now think more highly of you as a person, taking values associated with Brandeis, such as intelligence and diligence, and associating them with you.

Suppose, however, that you instead attend a university that is less competitive than Brandeis.

That person might not have the same opinion of your intelligence, as he or she might generalize that Brandeis is more academically rigorous than other schools.

However, it's quite possible that a student at a less-competitive school is polishing a 3.9 GPA and has a merit-based scholarship, while his or her alter ego at Brandeis is holding a 2.4 and waking up hungover on Wednesday mornings.

As I see it, the only judgment that can be definitively made about an individual from knowing that he or she attends Brandeis or any other well-respected school is that a couple of admissions officers decided they liked his or her application.

Being a Brandeis student also provides you with social capital to spend, as the Brandeis name alone supposedly validates your intelligence.

Pamela Haag explains this very well in her Oct. 30 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, describing how society will assume you to be sane regardless of whatever crazy idea you pursue as long as you have an elite college degree in hand.

In her words, the elite degree is "something to fall back on psychologically" as a certification of your success to others.

However, using a school as a psychological fallback is dangerously close to defining oneself by one's school rather than more appropriate personal qualities.

There is also an expectation of wealth associated with attending Brandeis, which is usually untrue.

When I tell people that I'm a Brandeis student, I am frequently reminded that Brandeis is very expensive, sometimes being told an actual dollar figure ("Doesn't it cost like $60,000 to go there?").

This idea is well-illustrated by an experience of mine on the commuter rail, during which a conductor rudely reminded a car full of Brandeis students that we all go to a "fancy private school." Her implication was that, by extension, we must have enough money to pay for all of it.

Her tone dripped with condescension, as if we were children who were too stuck up to recognize our privilege when, in fact, there were a couple of students in that car who were receiving full-tuition scholarships. This idea can be extrapolated to students at any private university.

Many students receive need-based aid to attend private schools and graduate with thousands of dollars of debt.

It is very risky to draw conclusions about a student's personal finances based on the university they attend.

Brandeis may have a good academic reputation, but we should be wary of the impact that the name "Brandeis" can have on both others and ourselves.

There are many stereotypes that are associated with that name, some of which can be flattering, but most of which are very premature. It is important for us to recognize that people can make incorrect judgments about those around them based on their alma maters.

Whenever we meet people outside Brandeis, we always seem to ask where they go to school. There are definitely better questions that can be posed to get to know someone.