Attend a good school but nobody understands? Post Here...

<p>A friend or family member constantly forgetting what school you go to is different then getting mad at a stranger for not validating your choice of college. That is all I was saying Katho.</p>

<p>Oh, ok. My fault.</p>

<p>CityGal55</p>

<p>I agree 100%</p>

<p>jkh411, getting into a top ranked school, is not really something that should be recognized, like the majority of you expect. You are going to a college, while somebody states that school A is better than school B, I am very sure of the fact that there ate probably a lot more people who will become successful from school B, compared to school A. Going to a school Like school A, doesn't mean you are smart, believe me It doesn't. There are other ways around things of this nature, Money being one very large factor.</p>

<p>Lets take NYU for example, the majority of students who attend NYU are from Long Island, NY. Now we may ask why, is it because the Nassau and Suffolk County school systems are much greater than those in NJ or NYC. No Not at all, Its due to the fact that those who live in Long island tend to have a much greater Income compared to the others I mentioned. NYC business and medical functions are pretty much ran on people who commute from Westchester and LI, or live in Manhattan themselves, thus a private school in NYC would be of much greater reach to those connected to it.</p>

<p>I know alot more idiots that go to NYU, than those who can actually represent the school on its true academics.</p>

<p>The world is Huge and Diverse, I'm an engineering student, do you think I know whats the best Business school, or the best Medical school. I have no clue. I don't want to know. As a matter of fact, I tend to treat everybody the same. I would not think a person from lets say MIT is any better than RIT, Id **** on every body the same, Because I'm better than you.</p>

<p>You guys are asking for the respect of a Doctor being Called a Dr., and a person not knowing what a Dr. is. Your arguments are really irrelevant.</p>

<p>hey u sound very stereotypical of my townies..i live on long island and trust me i know plenty of people that are poor weve got a gigantic section 8 housing in my old town...dang it there must be a few hundred familys living in that housing some of whom ive known for a few years...and i know a lot more un-wealthy long islanders...this is the south shore..ur accusing of my South shore friends and stereotyping me i may be wealthy but i know half of my friends..couldnt afford nyu w/o some finaid</p>

<p>You are missing the point UB-Vinny. This thread is not about kids who think they are smart and want other people to worship the schools they are going to. This thread is about students who live in areas where, regardless of how high ranking their school may be, people are clueless about the college. This can be annoying. This thread is about people who have had annoying experiences, it is not, however, a thread about shi_tting on people.</p>

<p>I think some of you guys out there fail to realize that this is College Confidential..... what do you expect... no one is really that "****ed" about someone not knowing the name of their school...but here is a place to vent our mild frustrations and really enjoy some of the stories that we ourselves have heard... its a group mentality.. since many of us have been in similar situiations... its easy for us to relate to each other.... haha and yes many of us ARE elitists... but who cares.. thats the audience we play to.... </p>

<p>anyhow...</p>

<p>:So Keith, where are you going to school?
:umm Boston University
: ohh Doug Flutie? yeah that was an amazing throw
: yeah it def was.. but Doug went to BOSTON COLLEGE..
: Ohhh.. akward silence..</p>

<p>Oh where are you going to school?
Boston University.
Oh wheres that at?
ummm Boston?.. (blank stare) Massachusetts?</p>

<p>There are many top drawer schools that do not have great name recognition. The LACs come to mind. I think expecting people to recognize a school within a university is a bit much and presumptuous. I went to a selective college, was with a college oriented crowd, and I did not know the schools within many of the colleges, including Stern as part of NYU. Only knew Wharton because of the many MBAs I know.</p>

<p>Annoying <em>or</em>, it's important to note, entertaining! And no, before anyone jumps on that, not in a pretentious "I'm better because I've heard of it" way. But "nobody's heard of us" can be a source of bonding for students of tucked away schools. </p>

<p>I go to a school of 800 students in a consortium of 5,000 in the midst of one of the biggest urban areas of the country. The vast majority of CCs, trade schools, CSUs, UCs, private schools, and for that matter HIGH schools in the area are bigger and the fact that people are more likely to have heard of them is totally logical! And it's not just an issue of pride, but of individual association. People constantly think I go to the Scripps Institute, which is one of the strongest programs of its kind in the country. My exasperation (for lack of better word) isn't at people not getting how good my school is, how smart I am, whatever else. It's just an "oh boy, this again!" It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the individual I'm speaking with or the quality of the other institutions in question. Nobody likes to explain herself over and over, no matter what the topic is, and this can be especially flustering when it comes to one's alma mater, which is--for better or worse--a source of personal pride. And I'm failing at finding the right words here b/c "frustrating" isn't at all right. I don't MIND explaining myself at all. I usually do so with a "been here done this" smile and a "no, no, it's totally okay...nobody's heard of us!" rather than with exasperation.</p>

<p>This is hardly a topic that's unique to college. I live in a small town that nobody's heard of and I introduce it in much the same way I introduce my school, starting with "northern California" and getting more specific as requested. I participate in a sport that nobody's ever heard of and I've spent my life describing it to people who have no clue what I'm talking about. They're not ignorant, I'm not "better"...if anything, I like to think such things have left me with an especially open mind toward things that I'VE never heard of. </p>

<p>Nothing about this topic is inherently ridiculous or pretentious, and if individual posters seem to be taking it in such a direction, then sweeping, off-base generalizations aren't really the best way to address that.</p>

<p>Thank you, Student615.</p>

<p>I don't think any of us are trying to say that we need people to ooh and ah over our colleges in order to validate us. I don't think any of us are trying to say that people from Georgia who haven't heard of Pomona or doctors who don't know about top engineering programs are stupid or below us or not worth talking to or whatever. I don't think any of us are trying to say that rank and name recognition mean everything in our choice of colleges.</p>

<p>What we are trying to say is that:
a. It can be frustrating to have friends and relatives keep forgetting where we are going to school.
b. It can be amusing when strangers do not recognize the names of our supposedly well-known schools.
c. It can be annoying to attend an institution with a confusing name (Harvard / Hartford / Haverford, WUiSTL / George Washington / Washington and Lee / U Washington / Georgetown etc).</p>

<p>Are any of those things so snobby?</p>

<p>I think people are trying to say those things, whether they'd like to admit it or not thats exactly how this hold thread appears to be.</p>

<p>All right, I get that it can be annoying. But my position is, there are so many things to be annoyed about...is someone not recognizing your school really something you want to spend time worrying about? As long as you like your school, explaining it or informing people about it should make you happy!!</p>

<p>most of you guys probably never heard of my school because alot of you end up at research universities or big name lacs, and not to many of you know about art schools</p>

<p>well i attend otis college of art & Design which has basically blown out every design/art school in the country for fashion design including Parsons(the better known fashion school) and FIT.</p>

<p>With Otis, it's like some people ask if it's a trade school, and they say oh what are you going to get there? not knowing that like any other shcool they offer a bachelor's degree and masters degree. they think it's like one of those american career college type schools, because they don't know anything about art schools/design schools or that they exist.</p>

<p>CityGal55.... which is worse?
1. Getting annoyed when people know nothing about your college.
2. Getting annoyed at people who post stories about getting annoyed when people know nothing about their colleges.</p>

<p>... The answer is #2...#2. The beauty of a forum... you choose where you participate.</p>

<p>Otis actually rings a bell for me. A kid I know that ended up at Savannah College of Art and Design talked about it a lot back his senior year of high school. Otherwise, yeah, I would have never heard of it at all.</p>

<p>A lot of people around me don't know what Furman is, or where, or don't realize how good a school it is. One time I was in a job interview, and the guy didn't know anything about Furman. When I told him it was a liberal arts college, he asked me if that was the type of school where they taught you how to dance and paint pictures, <em>sigh</em>.</p>

<p>Well thankfully my friends from across oceans know what UCI is.. I think mainly cause of it's campus, and well it's pretty good i guess.</p>

<p>I've had a lot of people give me blank stares when I tell them where I'm going. Down here, if it's north of the Mason-Dixon line, it doesn't exist. I get the "How DARE you go to school with those damn yankees" look. Southerners are truly some of the best ppl you'll ever meet...but still have some issues...and I'm saying this as a girl born and raised in the South.</p>

<p>I'm sure your attitude of "stuck in the South" couldn't help much.</p>

<p>Just saying.</p>

<p>everyone whining is just missing all the attention they got from being the big smart fish in their little high school ponds. they get to the big fancy university pond, and are disappointed that nobody gives a crap what SAT score they got back in high school and EVERYONE is smart</p>

<p>If you don't like the thread, the answer is very simple: don't follow it. Realize that most of the people who read your critiques are only reading the 7th page of the topic because they're entertained by or empathetic to the discussion at hand. We all get that we're whiny and unjustified and such insights have been, I'm sure, appreciated, but y'know...repetition of the fact is not slowing things down.</p>