<p>LOL korean people dont really know USC that much so I have to tell them “its in cali.. next to UCLA.. and we sorta dont get along” or something along that line> _<;; but then again people didnt know cornell either so my bro was.. ***. (and some people he worked with was like.. Whats an ivy league? blink blink)</p>
<p>^If I went to your school, I wouldn’t want to let people know either. ;)</p>
<p>When I was in Boston it was common for students at Harvard to pull this crap. You’d be at a party and meet someone. You’d ask, where do you go to school? They would answer either (a) across the river or (b) in Cambridge. It was very pretentious.</p>
<p>Parents’ friend (from another country): “So, I heard you’re going to attend _____.”
Me: “Yep.”
Parents’ friend: “Oh, so you decided not to go to Princeton then?”
Me: <em>thinks</em> “Nope.” ;)</p>
<p>I didn’t get in, but she had confused it with a completely different school I got into.</p>
<p>The next conversation occurred a few times during the summer before freshman year:
Person: “So, which college do you go to?”
Me: “___<em>.”
Person: “…Oh.”
Me: “Umm… well, I actually also got into [insert name of Other School], and I had to choose between the two. But I ended up deciding to come here.”
Person: “Ooooh… wow. That’s a great school.” or “Wow, I can’t believe you got in. Congrats.”
Me: =</em>="</p>
<p>Yes, I was obviously have some doubts/regrets then. =P I can’t mention the name of the school, because–well… I still haven’t really gotten over it. Hah.</p>
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<p>This is actually pretty true. My grandfather fully expects that I’ll never speak to him again once I get a PhD. He’s from a time and town where most people barely finished high school, let alone went off to college. And those few that did go to college either never came back or became one of those people that everyone in the town resented.</p>
<p>Anyway, after having an undergrad school that most people have never heard of (Carnegie Mellon) I’ve gotten in the habit of not directly saying which college I go to unless I’m asked. If people ask what I do, I say I’m a grad student in Materials Science and leave off the school. Sometimes people will ask and I’ll say Caltech, to which I’d say I get around a 50% recognition rate. I prefer a lot more when they ask me what kind of project I’m working on, but then they tend to regret that once they realized they just gave me a ticket to talk until I see the eyes roll into the back of their head from boredom.</p>
<p>Recently I’ve found myself saying I go to school “in Philadelphia” if I feel the person has an outdated notion of what being a Penn student implies about me (aka that I’m rich and snobby). I’ve also used it because people from certain areas think I mean Penn State, and it’s hard (and kind of obnoxious) to clarify without sounding stuck-up.</p>
<p>Then again, it’s really annoying when people do that to me. Like I met a prefrosh last year who said he was “going to school in Princeton.” I’m from that area, so I knew that was either Westminster Choir College or Princeton University, and it was pretty annoying that I had to ask him to clarify even though I knew what he was going to say. But he ended up being really chill and humble. Then someone recently said they go to school “in Connecticut” and it made me think she didn’t want me to know so I felt weird asking. It ended up just being a less-recognized school though.</p>
<p>Hm. I should stop saying “in Philadelphia” then.</p>
<p>^ Maybe the guy meant princeton university and he just happened to have terrible grammar. lol</p>
<p>In any case, I just realized I say "in phillY’ a lot mor than “at penn”…I should change that.</p>
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hey hey don’t start it buddy. LOL.</p>
<p>It’s just alot of asian people are in cali so they know berkeley, UCLA alot. I was surprised they didn’t even know names of some ivies (like below Yale… they are like.. what? what’s that?)</p>
<p>See, the beauty of living in the Northeast, but going to Northwestern, is that when you tell people here that, most have their eyes glaze over and just go “oh, that’s nice- do you like it there?” or some variation on “Boston must be fun”. :P</p>
<p>Of course, 1/10 go “Wow! That’s a great school!” Which is very satisfying. Best of both worlds, and no need to conceal the name.</p>