Tartan Day in Balboa Park, San Diego

[FossilHunter]

In polite circles in the UK, one notes the tie and the viewer might just say, "I see that you went to Oxbridge or the RAC or wherever" and the answer would be "indeed I did" that would then be the end of that particular conversation. We don't ask what qualification they might have achieved and rarely are we told, the conversation might move on to "my cousin went there you might have known him/her? After that the conversation usually takes a non academic route.

That’s reasonable, especially considering that the ties give an indication of where they went.

I wouldn’t generally ask too much about a stranger’s educational background. Unless of course I find out that they are in a field related to my own, then I ask out of genuine interest which I believe is a slightly different situation.