<p>legendofmax, I wasn’t referring to your post, I was just using Penn/Penn State as an example. Look over some of the earlier posts in this thread and you’ll see what I said applies to a good number of them, without me having to make any assumptions at all.</p>
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<p>Especially if they just asked. People can be strange.</p>
<p>Well, the funny thing is, many people, when asking which school you are going to, have unreasonable and incorrect expectations. For example, some people might judge you a bit too soon and expect your response to be ______ State University instead of Duke, Hopkins, Emory, Yale, or whatever. Then again, if they don’t like your response or treat it as a personal insult to their intelligence or social status, it’s their fault for having pre-judged.</p>
<p>My brother is always just like “Notre Dame” and then everyone is like “sh** dude!”</p>
<p>no one in Arizona knows what/where Cornell is. I’m proud that I got in and I’m going (especially with the high school i attended, where most don’t go to college and the counselors stress pushing kids to go to community college) so I don’t mind telling people, but i know NO ONE from my school knows of Cornell.
This is usually how the conversation goes:
1: Where are you going?
Me: Cornell
1: Where’s that?
Me: Ithaca, NY
1: Oh, is it a good school?
Me: yes it’s an ivy league
1: oh good!</p>
<p>Although I’ve had to then explain to about 5 people what ivy league was, because htey just gave me a blank stare to that last one and shook their head.</p>
<p>Sigh.</p>
<p>Now i just say the full thing: I’m going to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. It’s an ivy league school.</p>
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<p>Lol, not even after The Office? I know a few people who heard of it first on that show. And then came to me all: “You’re applying for college, right? Have you heard of this place… what was it? Cornell? Is it a good school.” To which I replied (trying not to laugh): “Yeah, I might have heard something about it…”</p>
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<p>Agreed. It’s a bit ridiculous.</p>
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<p>How utterly pretentious of you.</p>
<p>Random Person: Where are you transferring to next year?
Me: Wash. U. in St. Louis
Random Person: Oh, University of Washington has a satellite campus in Missouri? That’s cool.</p>
<p>Ugh…lol</p>
<p>I just say school in California. </p>
<p>If they ask specifically, I say where.</p>
<p>For some reason, no one in Cali ever asks me where I go to school.</p>
<p>I just say Duke, and people are like “awesome!” I don’t brag about it or anything though, and I love talking sports with people cause Duke has such a great sports culture. I actually think it is more respected outside of NC than inside of it, because so many Dukies are on Wall Street and UNC is the big university in North Carolina.</p>
<p>And yeah, a lot of people on here are pretentious. I got into ivy leagues, but didn’t go because I like Duke better and personally I think it provides a more close-knit education than some ivies. Really, what other people think about where you go doesn’t matter one bit!</p>
<p>I personally don’t like it when people ask me where I’m going to university because I know that it’s simply to find out “how smart” I am. However, since I’m international, I can’t just say “I’m going to school in the US.” Not to mention what people think doesn’t really matter to me so I just tell them straight up. They can make their silly assumptions if they so desire. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the question, at times, makes me feel a bit awkward. For instance, I’ve taken a gap year and I’m working as a substitute teacher at my alma mater and many students ask me “So where are you going to school in September?” When I say Stanford they go “OMG so you’re REALLY smart then!” to which I respond…“Ummm I dunno.” Then there are other students who, after I tell them where I’m going, tell me things like “Omg you’re going to be so cold!!! You better buy lots of winter clothes.” I then proceed to intentionally watch them blankly and say “Hun, Stanford is in California.” So they’re asking where you’re going just to mind your business and judge you, are at a total loss as to whether the school is “good” or not so can’t “judge” you just yet and then they start to talk about the weather and incorrectly so. (Many people here assume that everywhere in America except Florida is freezing cold during the winter). Lol.</p>
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<p>we californians have transcended small talk 
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<p>Hmm. I name my university, and people are either like:
- “That’s such a good school”
or - Is that an Ivy? (<em>sigh</em>)
- Isn’t that for potheads?
- Where the heck is that?
Maybe it’s because I’m in the deep south?</p>
<p>^ You’re absolutely right about some of the reactions in the South. Sometimes it’s mind numbingly annoying. People don’t seem to have heard of most prestigious colleges. The “Isn’t that for potheads?” comment made me lol.</p>
<p>I’m a rising junior at Cornell and there is still something I haven’t figured out with this question. Now I usually don’t hesitate when people ask where I go, and generally people are familiar that it’s a great school since I live in NY and it’s not far. However, I often get the “Oh, you must be smart,” reply once I tell them. I usually try and quietly laugh that off, or say “thank you,” but I can’t help but feel pretentious. I definitely don’t want to be like “Oh, I’m not really that smart,” since I worked hard in high school to get into Cornell. I also feel saying I’m not smart would belittle my fellow classmates at Cornell since the reputation of quality students is generally warranted. It’s not like I think I’m God’s gift to the world or anything for being “smart”, I just have no idea how to respond to that and take that complement without being seeming arrogant or full of myself.</p>
<p>Yeah, the “you must be smart” comments are usually very difficult to deal with without 1. belittling the other person unintentionally or 2. belittling yourself intentionally in order to make the other person more comfortable. I usually just laugh shyly (shyness is certainly not a character trait that I possess) when someone labels me smart.</p>
<p>I haven’t read this entire thread, but I usually get the Penn State response… (which, I must say, is a great school, just NOT the school I am going to…)</p>
<p>“You’re going to love it in the mountains!” (Penn’s in Philadelphia…)</p>
<p>I usually get blank stares or the “Wow!”, not really much in between.</p>
<p>Penn State has single handedly ruined the reputation of U Penn in the minds of so many. When will it end?</p>
<p>Really…what does it matter if people don’t know you’re going to UPenn instead of Penn State? Since when was people knowing that you’re going to a certain school an important part of your education?? Penn State is huge, so they have more alumni - people know it more than they know UPenn. If it upsets you, correct them, but know it’s not a freaking insult to you (that says something about your personality, if you take it as such), it’s statistics. </p>
<p>Also, that confusion could be avoided by saying the “University of Pennsylvania” instead of Penn…</p>
<p>panther, it doesn’t matter in terms of my actual education, yes, I do say University of Pennsylvania (it doesn’t really make a difference though…), and it’s not an ‘insult’ to me for people to confuse the two…it’s just ‘how people respond when I tell them where I’m going’ (which was the original thread).
I mean, if you went to Haverford, and people said to you, “You’re going to love Boston! What a great college town!” People thinking you are going to Harvard wouldn’t be an insult…it just wouldn’t be where you are going. That’s basically how I feel about the UPenn/Penn State confusion.</p>
<p>edit: reread your post…um…i am saying in terms of classmates telling me penn state or penn, not in terms of general alumni base or whatever.</p>