<p>I feel awkward when people ask because I usually get one of three reactions to Johns Hopkins:</p>
<p>1) “Oh wow! good for you! That’s such an amazing school! So…you’re going to be a doctor?!”</p>
<p>2) "Wow! John Hopkin! Isn’t that in…like…California(or insert random state here because no one knows where the heck it is!)</p>
<p>3) “Is that a good school? They spelled “John” wrong…”</p>
<p>I usually get the first one, but sometimes, the first comes with the second and then a dull pause while I try to find a nice way to explain that Baltimore is not the hell-hole that people imagine it to be, lol.</p>
<p>And the third one is occasional, though sometimes I’ll also just get a blank look meaning they want to appear smart, but don’t know what the heck I’m talking about haha. But this doesn’t happen very often. Most people I’ve come across know and respect my school.</p>
<p>Either way, I don’t really like reactions at either extreme. That’s why I enjoy talking to people who from other great schools like Cornell, Princeton, etc so I don’t get an exaggerated compliment and I can compliment their school as well lol. And also, I wouldn’t feel like a snob.</p>
<p>^ There was a girl in my school year who though New York University was in Ohio…
She’s currently attending Yale @.@
Don’t know how THAT happened.</p>
<p>^ lol. I was so shocked she got into Yale. That comment struck me as someone who would be going to Miami University in Ohio because she originally believed it was in Florida…lol</p>
<p>Lol, I agree. You worked hard, why not boast a little? Although I live in Israel and maybe four people total have heard of Vassar, so each time I have to explain that yes, it’s in New York but no, it’s not in the New Yotrk CITY, and yes, it’s a good school, and so forth. Besides, unless you’re saying: “I’m going to Harvard because I’m SO SMART! Endlessly SMARTER that YOU!” why would it be bragging? They asked, didn’t they?</p>
<p>Well since Vassar is an LAC, most people in the US haven’t heard of it lol. But the people who matter - people who hire and people who are on the adcoms of graduate schools - will know</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve been told that about the people who hire and the adcoms (which is more relevant, since I’m definitely planning to go to grad school), and I hope it’s true. However, if people in the US don’t know it, you can imagine the blank stares it gets from across the ocean. Even after I’m done explaining, people are like: “Well… good for you? I guess? Wherever the hell it is. Should have gone to the Hebrew University, silly girl.”</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I go to Penn.
Which usually brings about: “Nice, Penn State!”</p></li>
<li><p>I go to the Wharton School.
Which usually brings about: “What’s that?”</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Now I just say:
I go to college in Philadelphia.
Which usually brings about: “Ahh, cool!”</p>
<p>Wow, the sense of entitlement to praise some people in this thread feel…</p>
<p>First of all, if someone hasn’t heard of your college, no big deal. There’s tons of colleges out there, just explain what it is and where it is to them. I’m sure they didn’t mean to insult your intelligence by suggesting that not everyone has heard of your famous college. There are state-related schools people haven’t heard of, either. </p>
<p>Second, it really shows how much your hard work was worth if you take offense at someone mistaking you for a state college student or asking why you didn’t become one. Going to XYZ school doesn’t decide your intelligence or worth for you. Would all your achievements and aspirations not be the same if you had chosen to go to Penn State instead of Penn? If you rely on the name of your school to feel important or make impressions for you, then you’re not really the exemplary student you think you are, are you?</p>
<p>When people ask me where I go to school I say I go to the local state school. That’s because I don’t like the way conversations develop after I reveal the name of the school I go to, which isn’t elite, but has a decent reputation around here.</p>
<p>One of the most awkward situations I’ve been in included two of my best friends and me (we go to Harvard, Stanford, and Duke) after freshman year at our respective colleges. We had had a lot of fun at college, but given how much effort we were putting into our classes, our grades were nowhere near where they should have been. We were sitting at the local Starbucks and somehow it became a venting session that basically ended with my Harvard friend saying something to the effect of (she wasn’t being serious), “College is such a waste of time. I should just go flip burgers.”</p>
<p>A man sitting at the table next to ours heard and proceeded to give us all a 10-minute lecture on the virtues of a college education, that he, like us, had decided not to go to college after hs graduation and then later enrolled in the local community college and that it was the best thing he’d ever done. He told us that we really should give college a shot, that even community college was better than nothing. </p>
<p>Then he asked us what we were currently doing. There was a moment of silence, and then my other friend quietly said that we were all in college. He seemed taken aback (after all, he’d just finished trying to convince us to go to college) and asked where. At that point, we had no idea what to say, and my other friend finally told him went to “out of state schools” but he wouldn’t give up until we told him which schools exactly…Sooo awkward! But it really was nice of him to take that much interest in three strangers’ lives.</p>
<p>Nice story Senator Noodles. My brother disliked his AP US History teacher with a passion, and during his senior year when a group of his friends were all telling the apush teacher what colleges and universities they were going to, he responded “Oh I am going to Stern next year.” And the teacher said something along the lines of “Oh, it is too bad you didn’t get into NYU, I guess they really do value grades in History.” And then he replied " No actually they didn’t care about the C I got in your history class, because Stern is the business school inside of NYU."</p>
<p>My brother said that moment felt better than sex lol</p>
<p>panther: Whoa there kid, you’re way off base with your assumptions. It has nothing to do with expectation of praise. It’s more the fact that telling people what school you go to is usually better done by just giving location, in many instances. If people botch up what college I go to, it’s usually a nuisance to correct them, and, as you have just exemplified, sometimes others think it’s arrogant to tell people that the state college they just mistook it for is incorrect (technically there’s nothing arrogant about it). If people don’t know what school I just mentioned, it’s not really a big deal… but sometimes people find it arrogant to say “I go to Wharton” even though, technically, there’s nothing arrogant about that, either. </p>
<p>I just find that saying “I go to school in city/town of XYZ” tends to be the best response, because there’s usually no ambiguity unless the person hasn’t heard of the location before.</p>
<p>Then again, the kind of people who feel someone is being arrogant by mentioning a school that happens to be good aren’t the kind of people I would want to hang around much anyway. It’s usually indicative of some kind of misplaced inferiority complex, and I’ve encountered it a few times.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=Senator Noodles]
man sitting at the table next to ours heard and proceeded to give us all a 10-minute lecture on the virtues of a college education, that he, like us, had decided not to go to college after hs graduation and then later enrolled in the local community college and that it was the best thing he’d ever done.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who gets taken for a dropout</p>