Degrees of esteem

In the United States no one pretends that a degree from Kennedy (Nebraska) State University (if such a place exists) is exactly comparable to one from Harvard. A qualification from one of the lesser‐known Community Colleges may be of quite uncertain value, unless it has been topped‐up by study at another more widely known institution. Yet students graduating from a wide variety of colleges and universities, private and public, may be entitled to use the same initials after their names — perhaps BA or AB; although many of them will not normally do so, unlike their British counterparts.