<p>Notre Dame question:</p>
<p>Is it Noter Dame or No-tra Dame?</p>
<p>Notra is what my Brooklyn-born parents always said… </p>
<p>Once I got to school in the midwest, I heard Noter Dame… and figured that made sense - like theatre.</p>
<p>Miss-ooo-ree vs. Mizz-oo-ruh</p>
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<p>Is this an East Coast thing? No one hear says that. We say OHregon, OHranges, and FlOHrida… although here we interchange hOHribble and hARrible.</p>
<p>All that comes to mind is this not-so intelligent kid who is going to Polytechnic. Somebody said (not to him), “How did he get into NYU, hes so dumb!”</p>
<p>Or when I tell people I want to go to Carnegie Mellon, they laugh at the name. Barely anyone in my high school and the high schools in the area know about CMU, and many other schools…</p>
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<p>From what I hear most frequently, it’s Noter Dame, whereas the cathedral is No-tra Dahm.</p>
<p>“I’m going to NC State”
“Oooo, so you’re gonna do agriculture or something?”
“No, I’m in Engineering”
“Why not Carolina, they’re ranked better!”
“Carolina doesn’t have Engineering…”</p>
<p>Haha, on Carnegie Mellon my Math teacher had never heard of it and decided it must be a school for “fruits” because why else would it be named after one?</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>I’m a student actually but this does slightly **** me off.</p>
<p>Some adult who has known me for many years: Heeey DMOC! (obviously subbing my real name) You’re going to <insert college=“” that=“” 80%=“” of=“” students=“” in=“” my=“” school=“” go=“” to=“”> right?</insert></p>
<p>Me: No, I’m going to Willams.</p>
<p>Adult 1: Where is Williams?
Adult 2: Never heard of it (in a really disappointing tone)
Adult 3: Why would you go there when you could go <insert previous=“” college=“” here=“”></insert></p>
<p>Yeah you get the idea. I’ll be glad when high school is over.</p>
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<p>If only they knew…if only they knew…</p>
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Well, given that Miami University is in Ohio, Washington University is in St. Louis, Washington College is in Maryland . . . </p>
<p>maybe it’s not such a stupid question!</p>
<p>I have pretty good grades… which means to my friends, family, and family’s friends that I AM going to study either medicine or engineering. Period.</p>
<p>Imagine their agony and horror when I say I’m studying Finance and Economics.</p>
<p>“WHAT?!?!?!?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?!?!”
“Oh God… it’s your future we’re talking about”</p>
<p>One adviser at my school actually took me to one side and started a LOOOOONG (we’re talking 15 minutes out of my, whaddaya know it, economics class) talk about the difference between a job or a career, and what you love. According to her, if you love something, make it your hobby. It can never be your job (unless, coincidentally, that <em>thing</em> you love is medicine. Or engineering.)</p>
<p>And my father is just way too ****ed that I’m going to study Economics. He just LOVES to ask, “what are you going to do after graduation? Become a school teacher?”</p>
<p>No kidding. But I guess I now know the cause of the bad conditions in my country.</p>
<p>S is graduating from a very competitive public high school where most of the kids are going to the state flagship, OOS public or prestigious LACs. He is going to an in-state, no-name regional university that has one of the best programs for his major in the country, and when people, especially other parents, find this out, they’re almost patronizing, like we’re too poor to send him anywhere else or don’t know any better. Actually, they’re partially right about the poor part, but why should we pay and let him go into debt up to his eyebrows for snob appeal when there’s high quality right down the road?</p>
<p>@F-13 - my sister-in-law has both her bachelors and masters in Economics and makes money hand over fist … so much so that my brother is a stay-at-home dad.</p>
<p>Didn’t read the whole thread. I’m going to Smith.</p>
<p>When I first started looking: “Isn’t that the national school for gays?”
And that came from a Simmons alumna.</p>
<p>When I was waitlisted: “They only waitlisted you because you’re not a lesbian.”
Oh yeah, forgot about that section on the common app. It’s right under the race section, right?</p>
<p>I agree with Longhaul that PEA is a close second to QM (tho she’s still the winner!). And motherbear332’s comment about the UChi cooties made me laugh out loud! </p>
<p>This whole thread - yes, I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve sat and read it - has given me many laughs. The perfect antidote and therapy to a cra…y week. Thanks to all.</p>
<p>At the apple store near my home (in the midwest):</p>
<p>Apple store man: where are you going to college?
Me: Bryn Mawr
Apple store man: Oh, so you’ll be living at home.</p>
<p>That would be a long commute…</p>
<p>One of my high school friends once asked me if boys were allowed to step foot on our campus :)</p>
<p>I grew up in Pittsburgh, but have lived in Minnesota for about 24 years. What I’ve learned is that not a lot of people actually leave the state to go to college. So when my daughter went to Wittenberg (in Ohio) and then my son chose Middlebury (in Vt), I found myself getting the “where’s that” and “never heard of it” responses A LOT. So to them I would say… Wittenberg is like Gustavus, except in Ohio and Middlebury is like Carlton, except in VT. Actually, if I were honest I’d have to say I have been more surprised by people not having a clue about Middlebury than I did about Wittenberg. But, I honestly don’t see what the big deal is about wanting to experience a different part of the country for college. You can always move back to your home town, but at least you then have something else to compare it to. </p>
<p>I will also agree that when people tell me about what little known schools their kids might be headed to, I can thank CC for knowing SOMETHING. However, I was guilty of saying a school was my son’s safety that was/is a great school. But I saved myself by also qualifying that safety meant he knew he could be happy there and would be thrilled to go and in fact, it was still in the running until the end of last April.</p>
<p>Conversation between my older brother and well-meaning uncle.</p>
<p>“I’m going to Stanford”
“Why would you want to go all the way to England?”</p>
<p>wrong -ford i guess</p>
<p>Slightly older relative to my boyfriend upon learning what liberal arts majors from X college (the college both boyfriend and I were attending) made on average in the first few years: </p>
<p>“I couldn’t feed my dog on that!”</p>
<p>Flash forward 20 years and former boyfriend, now hubby, is CEO of company at which said relative is employed and makes triple his salary. :-)</p>
<p>S is a junior at an LAC that DH and I graduated from. When he was graduating from hs several people hinted that our alumni connections helped to get him admitted to said LAC. Well, he’s finished his junior year there with a 3.8 GPA and has been invited to do an Honors Thesis next year. Good thing he wasn’t smart enough to get in on his own…</p>
<p>I have friends that both went to BC, they get the same thing about their daughter. Except that she’s about to graduate from BC with high honors, AND a job offer with a major well-respected firm in her field. </p>
<p>Yeah, alumni kids only got in because of their parents - they’re all those kids in the bottom quartile of admitted students. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Moda- I made the day of a retail sales woman when I knew where & how good Middlebury is. Here in a small town in WA, she was so excited to meet some one who recognised her DDs school we talked for another 15 minutes.</p>