History Main / AcademiaElitism

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Both Crane brothers hold this sentiment, both having gone to prestigious schools (Harvard and Oxford for Frasier, Yale and Cambridge for Niles) hold this sentiment towards just about every institution other than their own. On one occasion the two end up dismissing the advice of another psychiatrist who accurately points out how unhealthy their rivalry is, just because he graduated from a less prestigious university. Likewise, when Niles is going into heart surgery, Frasier is particularly dismissive of his doctor graduating from Stanford "Well, if you must attend school on the West Coast." In the [[Series/{{Frasier2023}} sequel series]], Niles' son David reveals his father considers [=UPenn=] a "Trade School."

SubTrope of SlobsVersusSnobs. Characters with this mentality often suffer from SmallNameBigEgo and tend to be {{Know Nothing Know It All}}s. Sometimes acts as a {{foil}} to a TragicDropout. Will often look down on people who NeverLearnedToRead. Compare EducationMama, AcademicAlphaBitch, and NerdyBully, who often hold this view. The PhonyDegree trope may be invoked if the snobbish character considers the degree from the supposedly "lesser" college as no better than that from a diploma mill. Overlaps with TooProudForLowlyWork if a person uses their education as an excuse to get out of work that is "beneath them." Compare/Contrast EliteSchoolMeansEliteBrain, which these characters believe but the narrative (usually) doesn't. Contrast SchoolIsForLosers, PersecutedIntellectuals, and AntiIntellectualism for people having negative attitudes towards education.

** [[https://youtu.be/-uoFkrhkbLA?feature=shared Hiiragi]] is a law student who attends a prestigious college, which he loves to brag about. He has a part-time job at a bar, which he [[LazyBum slacks off at]], under the excuse that an educated man like him isn't suited to doing physical labor and is more suited to intellectual tasks. When a group of {{Yakuza}} come into the bar, [[TooDumbToLive Hiiragi]] [[BullyingADragon insults them]]. When they are about to beat him, he says that they'll regret beating him because he goes to Etra City Law School, and only manages to avoid a beating because their superior calls them off. He ends up getting fired for his antics, and tries to get revenge by taking a bottle while ranting that his former coworkers and boss are "peasants" who should bow to him because he's an "elite at Etra Uni." Unfortunately for Hiiragi, he gets stopped by the Yakuza from before and gets beaten.

SubTrope of SlobsVersusSnobs. Characters with this mentality often suffer from SmallNameBigEgo and tend to be {{Know Nothing Know It All}}s. Sometimes acts as a {{foil}} to a TragicDropout. Will often look down on people who NeverLearnedToRead. Compare EducationMama, AcademicAlphaBitch, and NerdyBully, who often hold this view. The PhonyDegree trope may be invoked if the snobbish character considers the degree from the supposedly "lesser" college as no better than that from a diploma mill. Compare/Contrast EliteSchoolMeansEliteBrain, which these characters believe but the narrative (usually) doesn't. Contrast SchoolIsForLosers, PersecutedIntellectuals, and AntiIntellectualism for people having negative attitudes towards education.

* ''WebAnimation/{{Monirobo}}'': [[https://youtu.be/ghWwJKJq1u0?feature=shared The managing director's nephew]] is a disrespectful braggart who thinks that the fact that he graduated from a prestigious university makes him superior to his coworkers and clients. He ends up [[TheMillstone harming the company]] when he disrespects Mr. Yusef, an important client, simply because he graduated from a tier 2 university, which in the nephew's mind makes Mr. Yusef too incompetent to work with the company. When Tom explains that Mr. Yusef has been working with the company for a long time, the nephew insults Tom for only graduating from a vocational school. Even after Mr. Yusef proves his competence, the nephew insults Mr. Yusef, calling him "poorly educated," and a "''piece of shit''" which leads Mr. Yusef to stop doing business with the company.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'': "[[Recap/BlackadderS4E5GeneralHospital General Hospital]]" sees Blackadder hunting a spy in the field hospital. As part of his investigation, he asks Nurse Mary if her boyfriend went to any of the great British colleges, like Oxford, Cambridge, or Hull. When he later formally accuses her, he points out his SecretTestOfCharacter: that only two of those colleges are "great universities"--to which General Melchett chimes in that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Oxford's a complete dump."]][[note]]Blackadder's line was meant to be at Hull University's expense (being rather more obscure than Oxford or Cambridge, [[ArtisticLicenseHistory besides the fact it didn't exist yet]]), but Creator/RowanAtkinson (Blackadder) is an Oxford grad and Creator/StephenFry (Melchett) went to its traditional rival Cambridge, so Fry got in a jab at his co-star's alma mater as a BaitAndSwitch.[[/note]]

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'': "[[Recap/BlackadderS4E5GeneralHospital General Hospital]]" sees Blackadder hunting a spy in the field hospital. As part of his investigation, he asks Nurse Mary if her boyfriend went to any of the great British colleges, like Oxford, Cambridge, or Hull. When he later formally accuses her, he points out his SecretTestOfCharacter: that only two of those colleges are "great universities"--to which General Melchett chimes in that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Oxford's a complete dump."]][[note]]Blackadder's line was meant to be at Hull University's expense (being rather more obscure than Oxford or Cambridge), but Creator/RowanAtkinson (Blackadder) is an Oxford grad and Creator/StephenFry (Melchett) went to its traditional rival Cambridge, so Fry got in a jab at his co-star's alma mater as a BaitAndSwitch.[[/note]]

* One episode of ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'' sees Blackadder interrogating a nurse who's suspected of spying. As part of his investigation, he asks if her boyfriend went to any of the great British colleges, like Oxford, Cambridge, or Hull. When he later formally accuses her, he points out his SecretTestOfCharacter: that only two of those colleges are "great universities"--to which General Melchett chimes in that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Oxford's a complete dump."]][[note]]Blackadder's line was meant to be at Hull University's expense (being rather more obscure than Oxford or Cambridge), but Creator/RowanAtkinson (Blackadder) is an Oxford grad and Creator/StephenFry (Melchett) went to its traditional rival Cambridge.[[/note]]

SubTrope of SlobsVersusSnobs. Characters with this mentality often suffer from SmallNameBigEgo and tend to be {{Know Nothing Know It All}}s. Sometimes acts as a {{foil}} to a TragicDropout. Will often look down on people who NeverLearnedToRead. Compare EducationMama, AcademicAlphaBitch, and NerdyBully, who often hold this view. The Phony Degree trope may be invoked if the snobbish character considers the degree from the supposedly "lesser" college as no better than that from a diploma mill. Compare/Contrast EliteSchoolMeansEliteBrain, which these characters believe but the narrative (usually) doesn't. Contrast SchoolIsForLosers, PersecutedIntellectuals, and AntiIntellectualism for people having negative attitudes towards education.

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'': Cody is deadset on attending Yale once he graduates high school (it was Harvard before a bad experience with the dean of admissions), to the point he refuses to consider other colleges like Princeton ("the armpit of the Ivy League") or Brown ("a glorified junior college").

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': In "The Gang Gets Analyzed", [[UsefulNotes/IvyLeague University of Pennsylvania]] graduate Dennis sees that Dee's therapist got her degree at the non-Ivy League [=LaSalle=] University and is condescendingly smug about it, despite the therapist clearly [[KnowNothingKnowItAll knowing more about psychology than he does]].

* ''WebAnimation/AttackOnMika'': [[https://youtu.be/Lq7Gdo8zZpk?feature=shared Marin]] holds this attitude towards Hiroshi, ''her own father''; despite the fact that Hiroshi works hard to ensure that she attends a private middle-school, [[UngratefulBitch Marin]] looks down on her father for not going to high school. Kozue, Hiroshi's wife, also regrets getting with him, stating that she should have chosen a man with better education. Marin knows that Kozue is cheating on Hiroshi with another man, and actually expresses excitement at the idea of receiving a new, more educated father. [[spoiler:[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Marin gets her wish]] when Hiroshi discovers that Marin isn't his daughter and decides to divorce Kozue so that Benta, Marin's real father, can be raised by him instead. While Benta is a college graduate, he's overweight, bald, and in debt]].

While many people take pride in their education, some people are so arrogant that they look down on people whose education is lesser than theirs. They might be college graduates who look down on anyone who didn't go to and/or dropped out of college, students/graduates of prestigious schools who look down on anyone from less prestigious schools, highschool graduates who look down on anyone without a highschool diploma, among others. They will often brag about their education at every opportunity, assume that anyone with a lower level of education is less intelligent or capable than them, and believe that their status entitles them to respect and success.

These types of characters most commonly appear in workplace settings. They typically look down on co-workers with less prestigious education, even ones who outrank them, and will often [[OffendedByAnInferiorsSuccess take offense at someone with a lower level of education being in an equal or better position]]. If they're in a position of authority, they will favor those with a similar education and abuse and/or underestimate employees with lesser education. Oftentimes, these types of employees are simply all talk, coasting by on their educational status but having little to show for it.

* [[ObnoxiousInLaws Snobby in-laws]] who look down ln their relative's spouse due to their lower educational status. Alternatively, they might look down on their spouse's relatives for the same reason.

* ''Film/GoodWillHunting'': when Will and friends go to a student bar and one of them starts chatting up a girl, a male student comes by and starts making fun of Will's friend and his attempts to appear educated by asking him questions about historical economics, until Will shows him up by demonstrating both that he understands the topic better than the student, and knows the exact book and page he was quoting.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': In addition to being an InsufferableGenius and still somehow a KnowNothingKnowItAll, Sheldon adds this to his list of vices. He frequently mocks Howard for going to M.I.T. and Leonard for going Princeton. Of course, Sheldon is not alone in this.

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': In "The Bimbo", Jake learns that Holt is regarded by his husband Kevin's academic colleagues, particularly Dean Allistair, as a "working-class bimbo", despite Holt being the most intelligent and cultured of the squad. Part of this is due to his work in the NYPD instead of in academia, and the condescension causes Holt to get flustered when he is around them, so that he struggles to show how intelligent he really is. Kevin gives a ReasonYouSuckSpeech to Allistair at the end of the episode defending how his husband is just as smart as any of them, but uses his intelligence to help people. [[spoiler:It also turns out this attitude caused Allistair to miss the fact that Janitor Randy had been stealing artifacts from the department for ''years'', because he never thought a working-class person could outsmart him.]]
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Both Crane brothers hold this sentiment, both having gone to prestigious schools (Harvard and Oxford for Frasier, Yale and Cambridge for Niles) hold this sentiment towards just about every institution other than their own. On one occasion the two end up dismissing the advice of another psychiatrist who accurately points out how unhealthy their rivalry is, just cause he graduated from a less prestigious university. Likewise when Niles is going into heart surgery, Frasier is particularly dismissive of his doctor graduating from Stanford "Well, if you must attend school on the West Coast." In the [[Series/{{Frasier2023}} sequel series]], Niles's son David reveals his father considers [=UPenn=] a "Trade School."

** Paris, Chilton's AcademicAlphaBitch, mentions a meeting with her academic advisor demanding to switch calculus classes--the teacher she has was educated at Berkley (which she thinks is hippy-ish, accusing him of majoring in math but minoring in bean sprouts), while the one she prefers was educated at MIT. She also has a HeroicBSOD when she is rejected from Harvard, seemingly seeing the other Ivies as inferior; she eventually gets into Harvard medical school, and has a triumphant moment of "suck it" satisfaction.

** [[https://youtu.be/TOjS0haydbo?feature=shared Tsurakawa]] is Yuui's ex-coworker who looked down on him under the assumption that he's a highschool dropout, said assumption being based on Yuui's age. At work, Tsurakawa constantly disrespected him while bragging about her college education, to the point where she forged documents in order to take over a project that Yuui was supposed to be in charge of under the assumption that Yuui is too incompetent to do it. At an important client's wedding, Tsurakawa tries to kick him out saying that the wedding is too good for a high-school dropout. When she learns that the CEO's daughter is engaged to Yuui, she laughs and accuses the CEO of hating his daughter for letting her marry a dropout. [[spoiler:When the CEO explains that [[TeenGenius Yuui]] graduated MIT at eighteen years old and therefore isn't a dropout, [[FairWeatherFoe Tsurakawa's]] attitude completely flips and she starts aggressively flirting with Yuui, much to his disgust]].
* ''WebAnimation/{{Monirobo}}'': [[https://youtu.be/ghWwJKJq1u0?feature=shared The managing director's nephew]] is a disrespectful braggart who thinks that the fact that he graduated from a prestigious university makes him superior to his coworkers and clients. He ends up [[TheMillstone harming the company]] when he disrespects Mr. Yusef, an important client, simply because he graduated from a tier 2 university, which in the nephew's mind makes Mr. Yusef too incompetent to work with the company. When Tom explains that Mr. Yusef has been working with the company for a long time, the nephew insults Tom for only graduating from a vocational school. Even after Mr. Yusef proves his competence, the nephew insults Mr. Yusef, calling him "poorly educated," and a "''piece of shit''" which leads to Mr. Yusef to stop doing business with the company.
* ''WebAnimation/SekaiNoFushigi'': [[https://youtu.be/oI2QMO0HnK0?feature=shared Kouki]] [[TragicDropout dropped out of highschool]] to [[PromotedToParent take care of his sister Karin after their parents died]]. While Karin managed to graduate highschool, Kouki never went; because of this, Karin's fiance Takeru refuses to allow Kouki to attend the wedding because he doesn't want people knowing that he has a highschool dropout in his family. While Karin reluctantly agrees at first, she eventually decides not to marry Takeru when she overhears him refusing to change his mind even after Kouki begs him.

* ''WebVideo/AppleTexts'': These type of antagonists are often used as a foil to a less educated protagonist. Common variants of the trope include:

* ''WebVideo/Dimension20'' has at least three major high schools in its Fantasy High setting: students of the prestigious Hudol College, a WizardingSchool, look down on those who attend the Aguefort Adventuring Academy (where the main cast all attend). Students at both Aguefort and Hudol look down on Mumple High, due to the latter training people in NPC professions (such as innkeepers and merchants) rather than adventurers, to the point where the player characters threatening to make people go to Mumple is a RunningGag in the first season.

While many people take pride in their education, some people are so arrogant that they look down on people whose education is lesser than theirs. They might be college graduates who look down on anyone who didn't go to and/or dropped out of college, students/graduates of prestigious schools who look down anyone from less prestigious schools, highschool graduates who look down on anyone without a highschool diploma, among others. They will often brag about their education at every opportunity, assume that anyone with a lower level of education is less intelligent or capable than them, and believe that their status entitles them to respect and success.

These types of characters most commonly appear in workplace settings. They typically look down on co-workers with less prestigious education, even ones who outrank them, and will often [[OffendedByAnInferiorsSuccess take offense at someone with lower level of education being in an equal or better position]]. If they're in a position of authority, they will favor those with a similar education and abuse and/or underestimate employees with lesser education. Oftentimes, these types of employees are simply all talk, coasting by on their educational status but having little to show for it.

* ''Film/LegallyBlonde'' has this as the core of Warner very cruelly dumping Elle at the beginning of the movie, thus causing Elle to apply to Harvard Law school herself in order to subvert the DumbBlonde steroetype.

** In ''The Magician King'', [[WizardingSchool Brakebills]] graduates look down on [[BlueCollarWarlock hedge-witches]] for learning their magic through unofficial tutors in safehouses instead of the highly-excluive magical colleges, even though magic requires so much intelligence and obsession to master that the end results are virtually the same. As such, [[{{Manchild}} Quentin]] ends up [[InnocentlyInsensitive accidentally insulting]] his friend Julia when he refuses to believe that she learned magic from "a bunch of unlicensed losers in a frat house".
** In ''New Class'', Dean Fogg invites a group of young hedge-witches to study at Brakebills in order to improve the school's curriculum (and also to help counter the negative effects of Brakebill's AbsurdlyExclusiveRecruitingStandards). The response from the established students ranges from awkward diplomacy to outright hostility, with Andy openly disparaging the hedge-witches for learning "psuedo-magical bullshit" in a "hippie commune."

* One episode of ''Series/GilligansIsland'' has the Howells encounter a drama student posing as a feral man-child. To gauge the fellow's education, the Howells present him with a plate of food and some silverware. According to the Howells, starting with the outermost fork means he'd be a Princeton alum, while starting with the innermost fork means he'd be a Harvard alum. When the fellow throws his face onto the plate and starts noshing like an animal, Thurston exclaims, "Good Heavens, he's a Yale man!"

** Emily and Richard are overjoyed to learn that Rory was accepted at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton and make plans to rub it in the face of their friends, whose grandson only got into Brown. Lorelai is also hesitant to invite them to her own college graduation ceremony, because she is graduating from a community college; her parents had planned for her to attend Vassar before her TeenPregnancy got in the way. They attend, but it's awkward.
** Paris, Chilton's AcademicAlphaBitch, mentions a meeting with her academic advisor demanding to switch calculus classes--the teacher she has was educated at Berkley (which she thinks is hippy-ish, accusing him of majoring in math, but minoring in bean sprouts), while the one she prefers was educated at MIT. She also has a HeroicBSOD when she is rejected from Harvard, seemingly seeing the other Ivies as inferior; she eventually gets into Harvard medical school, and has a triumphant moment of "suck it" satisfaction.

-->'''Serena:''' Brown is an Ivy league school.\\

'''Serena:''' Well, I know you may find this hard to believe, but not everyone wants to go to Yale, because not everyone wants to be Blair Waldorf.\\

* ''WebAnimation/AttackOnMika'': [[https://youtu.be/Lq7Gdo8zZpk?feature=shared Marin]] holds this attitude towards Hiroshi, ''her own father''; despite the fact that Hiroshi works hard to insure that she attends a private middle-school, [[UngratefulBitch Marin]] looks down on her father for not going to high school. Kozue, Hiroshi's wife, also regrets getting with him, stating that she should have chosen a man with better education. Marin knows that Kozue is cheating on Hiroshi with another man, and actually expresses excitement at the idea of receiving a new, more educated father. [[spoiler:[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Marin gets her wish]] when Hiroshi discovers that that Marin isn't his daughter and decides to divorce Kozue so that Benta, Marin's real father, can be raised by him instead. While Benta is a college graduate, he's overweight, bald, and in debt]].

** [[https://youtu.be/-uoFkrhkbLA?feature=shared Hiiragi]] is a law student who attends a prestigious college, which he loves to brag about. He has a part-time job at a bar, which he [[LazyBum slacks off at]], under the excuse that an educated man like him isn't suited to doing physical labor and is more suited to intellectual tasks. When a group of {{Yakuza}} come into the bar, [[TooDumbToLive Hiiragi]] [[BullyingADragon insults them]]. When they are about to beat him, he says that they'll regret beating him because he goes to Etra City Law School, and only manages to avoid a beating because the their superior calls them off. He ends up getting fired for his antics, and tries to get revenge by taking a bottle while ranting that his former coworkers and boss are "peasants" who should bow to him because he's an "elite at Etra Uni." Unfortunately for Hiiragi, he gets stopped by the Yakuza from before and gets beaten.

** [[https://youtu.be/4yAMIcCNh7g?feature=shared Toma]] was a prep-school attendee who was made fun of for only managing to get into a bottom ranked university. His worst tormentor was [[AlphaBitch Azusa]], who, [[SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp even as an adult]], looks down on Toma, to the point where she tries to kick him out of a wedding he was invited to simply because the groom Yusuke is a Harvard graduate, which in Azusa's mind makes Yusuke too good to be friends with Toma. Yusuke gets angry and informs Azusa that Toma is both his friend and [[spoiler:a famous and successful painter. When [[GoldDigger Azusa]] learns this information, she [[FairWeatherFoe pulls a one-eighty]] and shamelessly starts trying to get with Toma]].
** [[https://youtu.be/TOjS0haydbo?feature=shared Tsurakawa]] is Yuui's ex-coworker who looked down on him under the assumption that he's a highschool dropout, said assumption being based on Yuui's age. At work, Tsurakawa constantly disrespected him while bragging about her college education, to the point where she forged documents in order to take over a project that Yuui was supposed to be in charge of under the assumption Yuui is too incompetent to do it. At an important client's wedding, Tsurakawa tries to kick him out saying that the wedding is too good for a high-school dropout. When she learns that the CEO's daughter is engaged to Yuui, she laughs and accuses the CEO of hating his daughter for letting her marry a dropout. [[spoiler:When the CEO explains that [[TeenGenius Yuui]] graduated MIT at eighteen years old and therefore isn't a dropout, [[FairWeatherFoe Tsurakawa's]] attitude completely flips and she starts aggressively flirting with Yuui, much to his disgust]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Brian goes back to College", Brian is hired as a journalist by Wellesley Shepherdson, editor of the prestigious New Yorker magazine. Seeing a Harvard graduation photo on his new boss' desk, Brian tries to build rapport by saying he's an Ivy League man himself and went to Brown, only for Wellesley to passive-aggressively respond "My incarcerated business partner's retarded gay niece went to Brown". When he then learns that Brian is a college dropout and didn't graduate, he gets outraged, declares "The New Yorker does not employ your kind!" and fires Brian on the spot.

** [[EvilGenius Sideshow Bob]] is Yale graduate who is revealed to hold these views in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E16BrotherFromAnotherSeries Brother From Another Series]], with him referring to Princeton (where his brother [[EvilerThanThou Cecil]] attended) as a "clown college."

!!Examples

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': In "The Bimbo", Jake learns that Holt is regarded by his husband Kevin's academic colleagues, particularly Dean Allistair, as a "working-class bimbo", despite Holt being the most intelligent and cultured of the squad. Part of this is due to his work in the NYPD instead of in academia, and the condescension causes Holt to get flustered when he is around them, so that he struggles to show how intelligent he really is. Kevin gives a ReasonYouSuckSpeech to Allistair at the end of the episode defending how his husband is just as smart as any of them, but uses his intelligence to help people. [[spoiler: It also turns out this attitude caused Allistair to miss the fact that Janitor Randy had been stealing artifacts from the department for ''years'', because he never thought a working-class person could outsmart him.]]

-->'''Serena''': Brown is an Ivy league school.\\
'''Blair''': Everyone knows that the only real Ivies are the holy trinity: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.\\
'''Serena''': Well, I know you may find this hard to believe, but not everyone wants to go to Yale, because not everyone wants to be Blair Waldorf.\\
'''Blair''' : Not everyone can be.

* In ''Series/YesMinister'' and ''Series/YesPrimeMinister'', Civil Service mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby is somewhat patronising of his Prime Minister Jim Hacker, because Hacker's degree is from a lesser university than his own Oxbridge.[[note]]Hacker's alma mater is not exactly a clown college or a degree mill - the London School of Economics is acknowledged to be among the best in the world - but to Appleby, it's still not on a par with Oxbridge. UsefulNotes/BritishUnis will explain these points, in some detail, to the bewildered[[/note]]. And ''both'' look down on places like the University of Essex, which they consider to be the bottom rung of British academia.

* Exaggerated in ''Videogame/GenshinImpact'''s Sumeru Akademiya, where most of the scholars within - especially the Grand Sage, Azar - would look down on anything that isn't educational or wisdom-provoking (in their eyes, anyways) such as arts.

* ''WebAnimation/AttackOnMika'': [[https://youtu.be/Lq7Gdo8zZpk?feature=shared Marin]] holds this attitude towards Hiroshi, ''her own father''; despite the fact that Hiroshi works hard to insure that she attends a private middle-school, [[UngratefulBitch Marin]] looks down on her father for not going to high school. Kozue, Hiroshi's wife, also regrets getting with him, stating that she should have chosen a man with better education. Marin knows that Kozue is cheating on Hiroshi with another man, and actually expresses excitement at the idea of receiving a new, more educated father. [[spoiler: [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Marin gets her wish]] when Hiroshi discovers that that Marin isn't his daughter and decides to divorce Kozue so that Benta, Marin's real father, can be raised by him instead. While Benta is a college graduate, he's overweight, bald, and in debt]].

* ''Film/{{Matilda}}'': {{Inverted}} with the Wormwoods (minus [[WhiteSheep Matilda]]), a family of {{Anti Intellectual|ism}}s who don't value education. Zinnia is a FemaleMisogynist who believes that women should look pretty rather than he educated, even insulting [[CoolTeacher Ms. Honey]] for focusing on education. Harry Wormwood looks down on college graduates as "hippies and cesspool salesmen." Ms. Honey shuts them up by pointing out that without colleges, there wouldn't be doctors to treat sick people or lawyers to protect people from lawsuits.

These types of characters most commonly appear in workplace settings. They typically look down on co-workers with less prestigious education, even ones who outrank them, and will often [[OffendedByAnInferiorsSuccess take offense if someone with lower level of education being in an equal or better position]]. If they're in a position of authority, they will favor those with a similar education and abuse and/or underestimate employees with lesser education. Oftentimes, these types of employees are simply all talk, coasting by on their educational status but having little to show for it.

* ''Film/LegallyBlonde'' has this as the core of Warner very cruelly dumping Elle at the beginning of the movie, thus causing Elle to apply to Harvard Law school herself in order to subver the DumbBlonde steroetype.

These types of characters often act as a {{foil}} to a less educated, but more skilled/experienced person, with the lesson being that one's education doesn't determine one's future or competence.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Both Crane brothers hold this sentiment, both having gone to prestigious schools (Harvard and Oxford for Frasier, Yale and Cambridge for Niles) hold this sentiment towards just about every institution other than their own. On one occasion the two end up dismissing the advice of another psychiatrist who accurately points out how unhealthy their rivalry is, just cause he graduated from a less prestigious university. Likewise when Niles is going into heart surgery, Frasier is particularly dismissive of his doctor graduating from Stanford "Well, if you must attend school on the West Coast." In the [[Series/{{Frasier2023}} sequel series]], Niles's son David reveals his father considers [=UPenn=] a "Trade School."

SubTrope of SlobsVersusSnobs. Characters with this mentality often suffer from SmallNameBigEgo and tend to be {{Know Nothing Know It All}}s. Sometimes acts as a {{foil}} to a TragicDropout. Will often look down on people who NeverLearnedToRead. Compare EducationMama and NerdyBully, who often hold this view. The Phony Degree trope may be invoked if the snobbish character considers the degree from the supposedly "lesser" college as no better than that from a diploma mill. Compare/Contrast EliteSchoolMeansEliteBrain, which these characters believe but the narrative (usually) doesn't. Contrast SchoolIsForLosers, PersecutedIntellectuals, and AntiIntellectualism for people having negative attitudes towards education.

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

** In ''The Magician King'', [[WizardSchool Brakebills]] graduates look down on [[BlueCollarWarlock hedge-witches]] for learning their magic through unofficial tutors in safehouses instead of the highly-excluive magical colleges, even though magic requires so much intelligence and obsession to master that the end results are virtually the same. As such, [[{{Manchild}} Quentin]] ends up [[InnocentlyInsensitive accidentally insulting]] his friend Julia when he refuses to believe that she learned magic from "a bunch of unlicensed losers in a frat house".

--> '''Howard:''' Like Princeton's a real school?
--> '''Sheldon:''' ''(laughing)'' I was going to say the same thing about M.I.T., but it works for Princeton, too!

-->'''Serena''': Brown is an Ivy league school.
-->'''Blair''': Everyone knows that the only real Ivies are the holy trinity: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
-->'''Serena''': Well, I know you may find this hard to believe, but not everyone wants to go to Yale, because not everyone wants to be Blair Waldorf.
-->'''Blair''' : Not everyone can be.

'''Indices'''
* PridefulTropes
* TheseTropesLoveToBrag
* BrainChain
* EgoTropes
* PrejudiceTropes
* TheJerkIndex
* SchoolTropes