Just got another letter from my college begging for money. I have fond memories of college and I am glad that I went. But I paid them a boatload of money at the time (well, it was a boatload to me, at the time, and I scrimped and saved and worked hard to be able to make that amount) and don’t feel like I owe them anything now.
And so I don’t send them any money.
Do you?
Hell no.
They never did anything for me that I didn’t have to pay for up front.
It was strictly business.
They were the vendor and I was the customer.
Sending them money now would be like me sending money to Walmart because of the swell memories I have of the times I’ve shopped there.
One of my alma maters is awash in money and the other is a state entity.
Hells no.
Nope. I gave them money and they gave me an education. We’re even now. I suppose if people were running up to me on the street offering me jobs and oral sex because I got my degree from that particular school I would be inclined to send them some cash, but until that happens I won’t be sending them a dime.
I was a single parent of three kids while I was grabbing pennies to go to college. I was only able to do so on a butt-load of federal loans, and since it took me twice as long to get through college than the average student (see the single parent with three kids line above), I will most likely never pay off my student loans.
Yes, I got an education and earned a degree, but as far as I’m concerned, when they received my tuition and fees, that made us even. Fond memories of being a student there? Please. What I recall was outrageous fees for books I used for only one semester, being gouged for a semester parking pass, and having to tolerate tuition hikes.
Maybe if I’d partied ever fourth day, or rolled out of bed at noon to make my 1:00 class, or grabbed lunch in the cafeteria using a lunch card (none of which was possible for me), then my memories, and my “loyality” to my college might have been a bit stronger.
Heh. This is pretty much exactly what I came in to say. I gave them exactly what they asked for during my stay; if they wanted more, they should have asked for more when I was willing to shell it out and they were willing to provide services.
Another ingrate checking in.
Just in postage alone I wonder how much they are on the hook for by now?
You’d think they’d take a hint.
My undergrad school (private and VERY expensive) gave me a full-tuition grant, so I do send them a few bucks when I can. I will never be able to give back more than a ridiculously small fraction of what they gave me.
My grad alma mater: well, I used to give them a few bucks a year, but then I realized that my out-of-state tuition (all paid by loans) already subsidized in-state tuition by 25%, plus they never gave me a cent, and I have been paying off the loans for years and will continue to do so for a few more years. Plus I got sick of them calling me every few days. So I told them to take me off their phone list. I’d love to be able to give them money for the grad scholarship fund in my department, but my few measly dollars of donations are going to go to the school that gave me free undergrad tuition.
Working for a university fundraising organization as I do, I suspect everyone here would be pissed at me. That’s your right. I don’t tell people what to do with their money, and there’s nothing I can really tell you that will make you want to give money to a college if you don’t want to. So, it’s pointless for me to try.
But there are plenty of people, mainly older, who do. I know that because I was the beneficiary of a scholarship when I took my undergrad degree. Near the end of my college course I decided that I should give some measure of thanks to the people who supported that scholarship, and I went to the school fundraising office to see if I could find them. The office was rather confused by my request, but in time they did send me the name and the address of the benefactor couple of the scholarship. I wrote them and thanked them. I got a nice letter back from them. For some reason, they wanted to meet me, and a few weeks later at the fundraising office, I did. And I asked them why they would have wanted to support me, why they would have given money to this big institution that maybe didn’t need the money to support some right-out-of-high school kid who they probably would never get the chance to meet. Well, they were just hoping they could help somebody, and they hoped I was having a good time there.
I wasn’t having a good time at all, but I lied about it.
And when I said goodbyes, and left the office, I felt like all of you did, that what they did was a waste of money, I hated the place there and couldn’t wait to leave. I still hate the place, and I’ll probably never give. But those people who did give, they did something. Without the scholarship I likely wouldn’t have gone there, then studied in the UK on exchange for almost nothing. That exchange program got me into an excellent master’s program. That master’s program got me into Oxford, where I’d dreamed of going since I was 12.
When my plans of going into teaching history started to run aground, I had to find another job. Somehow I ended up in this field. I don’t think it was by chance. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve seen students getting the same leg up I got. My student worker in California was an immigrant from Mexico who came to the US flat broke. A scholarship paid her tuition. Last I heard she was taking a master’s degree at Claremont. We have students here who are their family’s first college student, on scholarship because somebody they never knew felt that smart kids who couldn’t otherwise afford it needed a college education. We have buildings and labs and programs that wouldn’t be here without philanthropy.
I don’t know if I’ll ever give to any of my alma maters. I can’t afford it now with a family and kids. When I reach retirement? Maybe. I’ve got another 30 years to appreciate what someone else did for me.
Actually I’d like some of MY money back.
I loved college and wouldn’t give them money now. Like others have said, I already paid them. Why should I now?
No! I went to my college for the wrong reasons and stayed for the wrong reasons, which is certainly my fault. However, I don’t really have any regard for the school they’ve become over the years - the kind with TV commercials and lots of credit for life experience and auxiliary campuses and late night and weekend courses and a program that starts in October for all those kids that missed home too much when they were at Oneonta and dropped out early in the semester and an enrollment department instead of admissions because they have no standards. I would be delighted if they closed their doors.
I might, however, give to the college where I work. It’s friggin’ sweet, if you know what I mean.
Not only “no”, but “Hell no!” My education cost me a ton of money, almost five years of my life (I had to drop out periodically to earn more money, sleep, stuff like that), and now I have a big, pretty, framed piece of paper that’s useful for covering a hole in my studio wall (and very little else).
Yeah, I give money to my various alma maters. A fairly small amount, but I fling them a couple of hundred bucks a year.
They were both state schools, gave me an excellent education for not a whole lot of money, and, being state schools, are constantly facing budget cuts. If my pathetically small contribution can buy an extra book for the library or even buy a few bagels for grad students attending a seminar, then I’m fine with that.
Nope. They have a big endowment and can afford to graduate students debt-free, so I think they’ll be fine. Yes, things are tight right now but they’ll be fine.
When I went to college, I got a couple of grants and when I couldn’t stand taking out more student loans, my department (my faculty advisor in particular) helped set me up in a student job. So I don’t donate to my school, but I do donate to the department.
No (private high school). I’d sooner start paying back my parents for sending me. Plus forced “donations” don’t exactly engender warm ‘n’ fuzzies, nor does dumping money into our (mostly) shitty sports teams, but cutting the budget of the (damn good for high school) arts programs.
Caricci, I do know what you mean. It is friggin’ sweet, working here, the place I graduated from.
I haven’t given as an alumnus as such, but my boss recently retired and they named a scholarship endowment after him. I gave a big ol’ chunk o’ money to this as a token of my esteem for him, the best boss I or anybody ever had.
I’ve also given to a couple memorial scholarships named after dearly departed colleagues.
So, yeah, it’s not so much that I graduated from here but rather that I work here.
It’s actually a little clue about where I work. I only wish I graduated from this place!
Unless you’re saying you graduated from and work at a college whose nickname rhymes with Schmizdee.