<p>I wasn’t really sparked to comment by you, I was more irked by nastynate’s post, which drew on the Penn/UPenn confusion. I have no beef with your previous post or this one.</p>
<p>During my senior year in highschool…</p>
<p>Friend: Hey, what colleges did you get into?
Me: Oh, (list of a few), Northwestern, and Chicago.
Friend: Good for you. Where you going?
Me: University of Chicago.
Friend: Why are you going to a state school over Northwestern. Did you get a scholarship or something?</p>
<p>Similar to the Penn story…</p>
<p>I get a really long pause and/or double take followed by one of the following responses:</p>
<p>“Lucky!”
“Cool”
“Whoa u must be smart”
“Who’s paying for that”</p>
<p>nobody really goes crazy. but i do get prompted to talk about it more than i would like to</p>
<p>Oh and i forgot the name dropper:</p>
<p>“Really? u know my friend’s daughter’s exboyfriend’s sister knew a guy who went there his name is (insert name) if u happen to see him around campus…”</p>
<p>The name dropper happens no matter where you go to school. It’s people trying to be nice and relate to you.</p>
<p>Ever since I told my boss, he’s taken to saying comments like: “A little further explanation would be nice. Not all of us are smarty pants got into [random university name which he knows has nothing to do with me] or wherever it is that you’re going.”</p>
<p>What is that? That’s just gross.</p>
<p>@ Hope2getrice</p>
<p>I think a common response to Hopkins is</p>
<p>“So what kind of doctor do you want to be?”</p>
<p>hahahah
I’m a little bit sad I won’t be joining you bluejays next year…</p>
<p>I usually say “Oh Cornell University… in New York”, I add in the location as a casual means of acting like they shouldn’t neccesarily know the school and make it sound as if I’m not bragging. It reminds me of Andy on The Office “I went to Cornell, ever heard of it?”</p>
<p>When I tell people my age that I’m going to Bryn Mawr I usually just get blank stares followed by, “ohh, where’s that?” It’s pretty pathetic considering I live in Pennsylvania. Then I explain that it’s an all women’s college outside of Philly. Then most preceed to tell me “ugh I could never go to an all women’s college.” They fail to remember that it’s outside of a major metropolitan city…</p>
<p>Even though that’s annoying, the great thing is that adults (well… intelligent adults) never fail to be impressed. I love meeting people who are really familiar with bryn mawr and the rest of the tri-co, since so many people around here are so oblivious to all the amazing LAC’s in Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>i told my conservative grandpa where im going, an ivy, he said “good job…their liberal thoughts will try to corrupt you” he is from the south haha</p>
<p>I go to a commuter school that’s in state and third tier. It’s funny though because I often find that the people who are most likely to give me ‘that look’ are people who aren’t so educated themselves or are very superficial when it comes to school’s. On the other hand, it will always be the teacher’s ,graduates from great schools, professionals such as doctor’s and lawyers who will always reply with, 'Well that’s a great school!" whenever I give them my reply. And it’s never really a ‘pity’ thing, but they’ll usually be the most encouraging or will talk to you and give you good advice about the school, etc.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten a lot of different reactions to telling people where I’m going next year. Most of them tend to induce awkwardness. </p>
<p>1) ■■■■ STANFORD?! So you’re a genius right?
2) Stamford? Oh that’s nice, you can commute (I’m in NY…)
3) Stanford? I thought you were smart. Did you get into any ivies?
4) Oh cool Cali! Awesome, surfing, palm trees, yeah!
5) Why are you going all the way to cali for some state school when you can go to an ivy here? </p>
<p>The most awkward part though is typically what happens afterward with people who respond with #1. They tend to bring up Stanford randomly and incessently and sometimes they’re nice about it and other times sort of snarky. Like someone will ask a question and I’ll answer and someone will be offended like I’m being pretentious (like the other day someone asked for the term for when you hire your friends even if they’re unqualified and I answered “nepotism” and someone else went “we all get it you’re going to Stanford.”) Or I’d do something stupid (I’m actually a naturally very stupid-acting person) and people will say “Aren’t you going to Stanford?” or some variant thereof.
And people tend to have unrealistic expectations. I’ve heard things like “Oh man you’re gonna be rolling in money,” “nobody graduates from Stanford without making a 7 figure salary,” etc.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>Yo dude, nepotism means hiring someone based on kinship, family relations… hiring based on friendships is called cronyism. But don’t worry they won’t know the difference anyway.</p>
<p>Tell them you go to a university where graduates can get into hedge funds with only 2.9 GPA… haha (that’s actually more like hyperbole)</p>
<p>Strangely, as a Canadian resident I didn’t know how the “south” seems so ignorant of education… but I just don’t understand why GM built its cars up North instead…</p>
<p>I grew up in a smallish town. When people asked which school I was going to I would filter the answer for each person. If I knew the person didn’t know anything about Columbia, I would say “Back east, in New York City.” It’s a normal answer that communicates excitement and pride. If they did know CU, then I would say “Columbia.” It gets awkward when you have to explain that it’s actually a well known school. It seems intrinsically wrong to have to tell someone that it is prestigious. Where I come from, people only know of the local state college, Berkeley, Stanford and Harvard. (I’m from CA)</p>
<p>Until Columbia makes it’s way into a B- movie, my hometown will still respond with, “The country?”</p>
<p>The country??? haha, that’s hilarious ^^</p>
<p>In my country Harvard, Princeton and Yale are the only famous schools and it’s a major event if you meet someone who has heard of other colleges.
So when I tell people which university I am going to attend they usually nod and say “Aha.”</p>
<p>^yo dude actually nepotism can be used to refer to favoring either relatives or friends while cronyism can only be used for the latter.</p>
<p>Ok, we get it Hippo, you’re going to Stanford.</p>
<p>I went to MIT a looooong time ago. People still ask where I went to school, and I usually say “Boston” or “engineering school” depending on what we were talking about. I get away with it maybe 75% of the time. Why do I not want to admit to MIT? Because some people <em>do</em> treat you differently afterwards (as Hippo says). I think it makes <em>them</em> uncomfortable because they think I must be a “genius” and what does that say about them? So it saves us all a lot of trouble to just keep my mouth shut.</p>
<p>A middle-aged perspective on your issue! Sorry to say people won’t stop asking anytime soon.</p>
<p>I live in AZ and I have a problem telling people I go to Cornell. Its rare when someone under 30 knows where it is.</p>
<p>When my daughter was being asked and asked and asked before she decided she just said “Cambridge” or our local community college and they were usually speechless, not knowing if she was serious or not.</p>