<p>Me: My son goes to Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>Acquaintance: Oh, I thought that was a bank.</p>
<p>Ok, this one is my all time favorite, hands down! Hilarious!</p>
<p>Quote:
When my sister was going to college she decided to go Columbia, and one day we got a call from my grand mom all mad saying " Why are you sending the little girl to that dangerous country??"</p>
<p>Almost a daily occurrence: </p>
<p>People: “Where are you going to college?”
Me: “Johns Hopkins.”
People: “So you want to be a doctor?”
Me: “No, I want to major in Public Health.”
People: “Oh…what are you going to do with that?”</p>
<p>I got the same reaction once when i told the sophomore i tutor that I’'m going to Columbia. I had been gone for 2 days for Days on Campus. </p>
<p>Girl: Where were you visiting for colleges?
Me: Columbia
Girl: … (3 seconds of silence. she was unsure of what to say)
Me: It’s the name of the school. It’s in America lol
Girl: Oh ok. cool</p>
<p>I get blank stares, awkward silences, or just some feigned interest when I tell people I’m going to Pitt. I don’t understand why people in NY are so well versed with Penn state and not Pitt. Pitt is underrated here and it’s a shame. it isn’t till I mention my full tuition scholarship tht people are impressed. regardless, it only matters if employers in your intended field know your school; in my case, Pitt attracted me to it’s well regarded bioengineering program.</p>
<p>Another soon to be Smithie here…
Me: “So I finally decided on Smith for sure…”
My mom: “Great! My daughter’s going to graduate college either a lesbian or a first lady!”</p>
<p>And another one:
Male friend going to Miami of Ohio: “Wow, we have the same goal for college, to find an afluent wife!”</p>
<p>Ok, one more…
“Where are you going to college?”
“Smith College in MA”
“You must really have balls to go that far away…oh wait, no one there has balls!”</p>
<p>“USC. Well congrats, but I really don’t hope you become a condom brand”
Hahaha well, at least it’s more intentionally fail than most of the other ones on here.</p>
<p>Worst one for me was around May 1, in AP Statistics, with a girl who is going to a state engineering school that I totally respect. It nevertheless accepts upwards of 75% of applicants. We’ve only ever had statistics together. In statistics, I have this habit of asking questions about once a week. We have never talked before or after:
Girl: So where are you going to college, Lirazel?
Me: Harvard.
Girl: But you’re totally stupid. You ask too many questions in class.
Me: Uh.
Girl: <em>nods dismissively and walks away</em></p>
<p>yes, teamfrangela92, tb0mb93, this happened to me too with Cornell…because it’s so hilarious to suggest I’m going to go away to school and then die!</p>
<p>I have to admit, I had an easier time than most here because I chose a school that is pretty close to home, so most people had heard of it. for anyone who wasn’t familiar (particularly out-of-state friends/relatives), it was really easy to just emphasize the “close to home” part and everyone seemed to vaguely approve.</p>
<p>a friend had a conversation with someone.</p>
<p>“where do to go to school?”
“Miami University.”
“Oh, in Florida.”
“No, in Oxford.”
“England?”
“No, Ohio.”
“Oh, Ohio University?”
“No, that’s in Athens.”
“Greece?”
“…”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hey now, I take offense to that. Intelligence has nothing to do with ignorance. I presently suck at geography (though I’m committed to becoming better), but that has nothing to do with my general level of intelligence.</p>
<p>I was really set on going to NYU Abu Dhabi for a while, to the point where I readily claimed that it was where I would be headed in the fall. I found out that a lot of people pretended not to hear the ‘Abu Dhabi’ part (because they couldn’t understand it or something?) and were just like “Oh! NYU! That’s good!” … but if they did realize that I would be living in the Middle East, approximately 90% of everyone I told warned me that I might die in a terrorist incident. Or suffocate while wearing a burqa. Or get raped.</p>
<p>Two years ago:</p>
<p>Wife’s Client: So where’s your son going to school?</p>
<p>Wife: Harvard!</p>
<p>Client: Well, I know three people who went to Harvard, one’s a drunk, another’s a bum and the third one is a criminal.</p>
<p>That was the “nod and smile” moment. But she sees him a few months later and he once again asks where he is going to college, and when told gives exactly the same response that he did the first time. It has now been two years and she has seen him several more times and either he doesn’t really remember asking or he just likes to put down Harvard because he repeats his first comment. My wife finally just told him the last time that she has already heard the story.</p>
<p>I hear this a lot…
Friend: So where are you going to college?
Me: New York University
Friend: Oh, so why do you like New York State University
Me: No, its New York University, its private.
Friend: …Oh, thats cool…</p>
<p>Or my all-time favorite:
Friend: So where did you decide
Me: New York University
Friend: Oh… so, where is that?
Me: …your kidding right?..</p>
<p>My child is headed for UChicago, and I can’t fault people who think it’s some urban state school, because I didn’t know much about it either until we started looking for places that were a good fit with interests and abilities. My favorite though was from a classmate’s father who said that his son wouldn’t consider going to a place like that because his ACT score of 30 was the highest he’d ever heard of and that he would certainly be looking at way better places like “lots of big state schools” all over the south. Hmmm…</p>
<p>Smile and nod, smile and nod!! Most excellent advice, and applicable in so many situations in life. There’s a good fit for every student and misconceptions are easy enough with all of the drama of college apps. Still, all of these stories cracked me up!!</p>
<p>Well … after reading a couple pages of this thread I now understand why so many people are attracted to name brand schools. I assume my own foreign school origins left me unaware of the cultural requirements.</p>
<p>My daughter goes (went!) to a HS that sends kids all over the country. Her extended group of acquaintances have matriculated to UMinn, Rice, Oberlin, Lewis&Clark, UNM, Carleton, Yale, UWash, Wustl, MIT, Tulane, UGA, UofA … the variety just leads to the assumption that end choices are mostly a matter of fit and money.</p>
<p>My son, however, gets surprised looks when he says he is going to our local tier 3 flagship:
“no, really ? We figured he was going to MIT”
Usually we just say “he likes it there a lot,” but at home we joke that a better response will be “it was the only school he was accepted into” with a helpless shrug. No reason to mention it was the only school he applied to for admission.</p>
<p>I chose St. Mary’s College of Maryland over UMD and Wake Forest.</p>
<p>My favorite response:
Random person: Oh, where are you going to school next year?
Me: St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Random person: Isn’t that a seminary?
Me: No, that’s St. Mary’s Seminary. I’m going to St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Random person: Oh, so its Catholic?
Me: No, its a public liberal arts college.
Random person: Oh, ew why do you want to go there? UMD is better</p>
<p>Gladmom, I’m right there with you. And another thing…could you all please pronounce it Ill- (short i as in sick)-inois rather than the increasingly prevalent Ell-inois? Drives me nuts! Especially because I hear it so often from radio newscasters here in the state. If your job is reading the news on a major radio station in a given state, shouldn’t you know how to pronounce the name of the state?</p>
<p>A student at my school: </p>
<p>Her: Congratulations!
Me (assuming she meant my acceptance to Harvard): Thanks!
Her: Yeah, I heard about it at school. So, what’s the big deal? Did you get a full ride scholarship or something?
Me: Um, yeah. Well, it’s pretty generous with its financial aid.
Her: So what school are you going to again?
Me: Um. Harvard.
Her: Oh. [pause] So, is that a good school?</p>
<p>momofasongbird: For almost every Illinois native south of Chicagoland, the correct pronunciation is Ell-i-nois, with a short “e” instead of a short i as in “sick,” and the short “i” pronunciation sounds wrong.</p>
<p>Finally, somewhere to vent!
I’m going to Pomona College in Claremont, CA. I’m from Northern California, and still most people have never heard of it. When I say I’m going to Pomona, most people think I mean Cal Poly Pomona and sniff at me because everyone else they know hates that school and THEY are going to UCs (to which I was accepted with merit scholarships, but decided not to attend). Never mind that it’s one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country and is more selective than any of the schools they got into, it CAN’T be any good because THEY haven’t heard of it. </p>
<p>Oh, and I got the lesbian thing a lot, too, when I was seriously considering Smith.</p>
<p>And I think I saw genuine fear in my grandmother’s eyes when I was considering that “crazy liberal school that turns kids into socialists” Berkeley. I actually got into an arguement with her over whether or not protesting is legal.</p>
<p>Off-topic but on a related note: My grandma started singing the praises of the grandson of one her friends the other day, who she claims got a 3200 SAT score. I couldn’t convince her that that was impossible.</p>
<p>I guess I just have to remind myself that a few years ago I’d never heard of my school either, and knew very little about the admissions process other than you needed good grades to get in. I’ll just have to grin and bear the pitying looks I’m sure I’ll get from family members at my graduation party in two weeks, and remind myself that they mean well.</p>