I went to the same university, Cornell, that Ann Coulter did (somewhat of an embarassment to me as I despise her.)
I've always been annoyed and irritated by Ivy League elitism myself (and it is a severe East Coast problem); I used to coach the speech & debate team there, and we've have new kids join the team, find out they were competing against Illinois State or Southwest Missouri State, contemptuously sneer, and then get their butts kicked (for a variety of weird reasons college speech and debate is dominated by Midwestern, often obscure, schools.)
I've run into a lot of brilliant people from no-name colleges, and I knew a lot of idiots at Cornell (some with PhDs.)
I believe the northern Midwest (IL, IA, WI, and MN) has the best educated populace in the country, in terms of having college degrees.
Even if I'm wrong, the midwest has a LOT of very good colleges in beautiful quaint Midwestern towns.