Filmed Schools

by Tricia Johnson and Scott Brown

HBO's Meadow Soprano (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) may be a BWOC at Columbia University (especially after a creepy dean hit up her mom for a $50,000 donation), but how does the Ivy League institution feel about her? A Columbia spokesman says he hasn't seen ''The Sopranos'' and adds the show doesn't have the school's blessing. But Mob families aren't the only ones with Ivy dreams.

A BEAUTIFUL MIND
SCHOOL Princeton
STAR Russell Crowe
PLOT True tale of mathematician John Nash, paranoid - schizophrenic Nobel Prize winner
ADMISSIONS? Princeton cooperated on the shoot. Though Crowe flipped a student the bird last month, a school official notes: ''There were some instances where he was downright gentlemanly.''

HARVARD MAN
SCHOOL Harvard
STAR Sarah Michelle Gellar
PLOT Daughter of a Mob boss lures the basketball captain into a gambling scheme
ADMISSIONS? ''We didn't bother them and they didn't bother us,'' says director and '66 alum James Toback, who shot only a few campus exteriors. A Harvard official had no comment.

STEALING STANFORD
SCHOOL Stanford (not Ivy, but close)
STAR Tom Green
PLOT A middle class man turns to crime to finance his niece's education.
ADMISSIONS? No need. The film's producers ''assured us it's just a working title,'' says a Stanford rep. Indeed. A source involved in the Revolution Studios film says it might be called ''Say Uncle.''

HOW HIGH
SCHOOL Harvard
STAR Method Man
PLOT Two guys smoke a strain of IQ boosting pot. But after enrolling, their stash runs dry.
ADMISSIONS? Up in smoke! While the school's ''called Harvard, [there's] no Harvard logo,'' says producer Stacey Sher. ''It's our metaphoric Harvard.'' So metaphoric, they didn't even shoot the campus.