My D immediately checked BU off the list after the tour guide showed us the “lie berry” and used “lie berry” in at least 6 sentences. She vetoed Georgetown after the tour guide was greeted with “happy birthday!!” seven or eight times throughout the tour and didn’t admit that it was a common college tour guide joke. (She also hated that during the tour, planes were constantly coming in directly over campus for landing.) She crossed NYU off her list after a home less - looking person spit on the floor of the subway on our way back to JFK.
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Our friend’s son is refusing to look at any schools in neighboring Wisconsin because he’s afraid of becoming a Packer fan.
You need to re-check the title of the thread. This is not a stupid reason.
^i think it’s pretty stupid. Unless BU teaches their students to say it that way.
A string of students misusing and mispronouncing words would be worrisome. One student misusing/mispronouncing one word is not a good enough reason to blow off a school. But it is a turn-off.
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D16 refused to consider Texas A&M because the architecture reminds her of a “state penitentiary”.
D18 has a serious Starbucks addiction and will not consider any school that does not have a Starbucks ON campus (hoping this is a passing stage or at the least I can get her to concede that a Starbucks within an “X” block radius is ok.
D18 also wants to ruleout schools in any state that experiences serious natural disaster like earthquakes and hurricanes and flooding. Guess she won’t be going to college?
^^^ That’s funny because my D works for a locally-based independent coffee chain and Starbucks is the enemy. She was excited when we visited a school that had a local / regional coffee chain’s shop in their student center and the Starbucks was off campus.
“too many hills on campus” for two colleges, then ended up going to RPI which isn’t a flat campus by any means.
I agree with the food aspect of it; my son wanted a campus that either had food and shopping on campus or very nearby. UMBC seemed very isolated and very commuter, no idea where nearest stores were. Even UMCP is kind of insular, there are mini malls not too far away, but the way the campus is (common with state schools), you have to walk along the main access roads where there is nothing until you get to the main drag with food etc.
“lie-berry” is a regional dialectical choice IMHO. I have a good and very smart and talented friend who is an educator, and he said “conversate” in an interview and was pretty much skewered for it. It is common usage in various areas near NYC:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conversate
It’s like “aks” instead of “ask”. Don’t show lack of worldliness by assuming that pronunciation = anything other than what was common where you grew up. And as for “lie-berry” - most people don’t say “feh-brew-airy”. Many say “feh-berrairy”.
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^ Must be a regional thing. I have never heard February pronounced without the “r”.
I think “feb-u-airy” must be pretty common where I grew up, because I find myself saying that if I’m not paying attention.
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On the topic of February (with a side of library): http://mentalfloss.com/article/54846/whats-correct-pronunciation-february
Ok, I was joking about lie-berry. Maybe. I’m not sure really, that is one of my major pet peeves. And yes, there are people who will point out that pronunciation and usage change, but lie-berry and aks will never sound anything but uneducated to me, and to many others. Unworldly or not. People are sending a message with those pronunciations that they should be aware of. They may choose not to pay attention to those who receive that message.
On with the thread.
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Honestly, I’d have the same reaction. But it was interesting to me to put it in larger context and examine that reaction.
My daughter refused to visit any schools in Pennsylvania “because there are so many”.
Ha. So I guess Massachusetts would be out too…
As would California!
I think only Illinois would suit her.
My wife used to constantly correct me when I said “lie-berry.”
She’s not my wife anymore.
^. There are a lot of colleges in Illinois.
@MakinNoise, perhaps Wyoming would be suitable for her?
One of my step-daughters refused to look at Purdue because her mother had attended school there, and she said “If that’s the school that produced Mom, then it must not be a very good institution!” Needless to say that any rankings and the fact that her mother, despite her dislike for her, did have a decent job was not enough to convince her to tour. In fact, she refused to tour any school in Indiana because that’s where her mother lives.
Other step-daughter wouldn’t tour any school in Illinois because she hates the Bears and “couldn’t betray the Packers.”
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