[TwelveNights]

Good question, I feel like there's a lot of prestige attached to that, too. Anecdotally, I've seen groups of "school tourists" from Japan come to my decently large local university, and people were surprised when they learned that I went to that school.

The big difference is that the status of your school matters A LOT more in Japan than it does in North America. Overseas schools that are large enough for people to recognize in Japan will provide status.