Watching the Penn State scandal from a front-row seat in Pennsylvania has been interesting – many alums have passionate attachments to the school, regardless of whether they care about football or not. I don’t entirely understand it, because I don’t really have a passionate attachment to either of the universities I attended (for undergrad and grad).
What about you? And if you’re going to comment, could you indicate how long it’s been since graduation? Have your feelings changed over the interim?
Radford University. Graduated 2008. No strong feelings either way and hasn’t changed since I graduated. I have no desire to go back at any point but neither do I avoid it. (I do interviews there twice a year)
I chose “Other,” as I have strong, but mixed, feelings about the college I attended. I went to a rigorous undergrad institution. On the one hand, I’m proud of having graduated from this school, having a degree from this university made getting into grad school a breeze, and the experience confirmed that I am a complete academic elitist. As a bonus, I met my spouse there. On the other hand, by the time I graduated (with honors - I can legitimately say that I did well there), my self-esteem was completely shot. There were so many people out there who were brighter and/or more motivated that I was! How could I ever hope to be anything other than mediocre?
I absolutely love my alma mater and I’ve loved it since I was 9 years old, when attending was just an idle fantasy. It was my dream school and it lived up to my ridiculously high expectations. These were also the hardest years of my life. For some reason I just managed to connect with people who were really willing to go out of their way to help me. The more time passes, the more I appreciate it, because I realize not everyone is as satisfied with their college education as I was. In so many ways, the University of Michigan shaped me into who I am today.
Neutral to slightly positive feelings about my alma mater (graduated in '07). I had good professors in my liberal arts classes & particularly in my major department, but less positive experiences in some other courses.
I also never attended a sporting event (not 100% sure that the school had sports teams?), so that may be part of it. It often seems that a large part of alma mater love is sports-related.
I didn’t graduate, but I was at college for 4.5 years so I feel qualified to comment. I have good memories of the place. Even if everything about the school wasn’t perfect (one of the key reasons I ended up dropping out was a horrendous professor–the only professor who taught a non-optional class), I underwent the transition from a kid to an adult there. And they paid me to go to school. So I have warm fuzzies about my alma mater. I don’t have enough money to donate to them, but eventually I’d like to set up a small scholarship for students in a similar situation to mine. I know how big of a difference a couple thousand dollars made in my education, it’d be nice to pay it forward someday.
Cornell University, class of 1973. I loved it. Beautiful campus and location, challenging and interesting classes, and an excellent cultural environment.
Not so much my graduate school, the University of Colorado at Boulder (finished 1980). While the campus and location was beautiful, the academic culture, and the university atmosphere in general, was much inferior (in terms of my personal preferences) to Cornell.
Love and support the town, the school and sports. I truly had a great time there.
But I will never give another dime to those corrupt greedy pukes. The way they nickel and dime you for everything on top of already paying tuition. “You mean I have to give you $200 so that you will process my graduation, what happened to the $20,000 I just gave you.” “You mean I have to give you an $80 fee so that you can test me to see if I can read and write, I’m a junior.”
Purdue University, 1979. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. I didn’t join the alumni association, and thanks to many moves and a name change with marriage, they haven’t managed to track me down and ask for donations. I harbor the school no ill feelings, but my education there was a means to an end, not an emotional bonding experience. People seem amazed when I can’t discuss the sports teams - heck, I didn’t pay attention to them while I was a student. I certainly don’t care now. So I voted for no strong feelings.
I wanted to go to my school my entire life, and I had a really fabulous experience there, so in that sense, I still have very warm feelings toward the place.
OTOH, I didn’t pay any attention at all to sports, so that part is completely lost on me, and I can be as critical as the next person of the school’s shortcomings.
However, when I see a negative mention in the news or pop culture, I feel a strong urge to defend the place, so there is still some residual loyalty. It will always be my school.
Put it this way, one of the main reasons I went to grad school was so that when people asked me, “where did you go to school”, I didn’t need to say the name of that $%^&hole. I abhor, despise, detest, hate, loathe, scorn, & shun the joint!
To give one example, it was a big co-op school, I went on one co-op interview where I learned it was to make cold calls. I don’t believe there is any financial product you can sell without being licensed by one regulatory body or another. I understand lots of college kids get in trouble with the law, but that usually involves alcohol & not the backing of the school.
I went to Tulane as an undergrad. My stepfather also went there. It was great way to break out of my tiny town upbringing and gave me a great educational experience. I also met the mother of my kids there. Tulane is a fairly difficult private school located in a beautiful part of New Orleans. You study hard and party hard with people from all over the country. What’s not to love?
I went to Dartmouth for grad school. It is set in in idyllic setting in an especially gorgeous part of New England. It is a country club disguised as an Ivy League school. I loved it too and would live near Hanover forever if it weren’t so cold much of the year.
I voted love because there is nothing I do do now for any reasonable amount of money that replicate those experiences.
I have never met a person that got out of the place who still doesn’t have night terrors. When I see someone wearing a Georgia Tech t-shirt, I’ll ask them when they got out. Because no one ever graduates. You just get out of that shit as fast as you can.
It wasn’t the worst experience in my life, but the calluses on my brain? I can trace them to specific classes, with specific professors. If someone starts to shape their mouth like they’re about to say “e-mag”, I instantly run from the scene.
But it was free for me to go there, because I had a HOPE scholarship. It was also close to home, which I took for granted at the time, though I did stay on campus. It toughened me up so much that grad school was nothing. Nothing could faze me after I escaped from that place. And I learned some things. But man, I wouldn’t go through that madness again for all the money in the world.
I have two alma maters, a small liberal-arts college for my undergraduate degree and Penn State for grad school. I really enjoyed my time at both, and I remember them fondly. But I would never donate to the alumni association or become a booster or anything like that.
It was a nice place- beautiful campus and decent facilities. I had a few mind-bending good classes, some “meh” classes and some classes I blew off. I was at a weird and difficult time in my life, but I had a good enough time. Overall, I think I got out of it about what I put into it. I found my way eventually, and I’m sure what I learned there contributed.