# How do you feel about your alma mater? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199 "2012-02-08T15:47:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/61 "2012-02-10T06:31:51Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > Don’t they change every week? 😃 The Duck’s do, but Beavers are always proudly black and orange. Just like Halloween, but every day. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/62 "2012-02-10T15:35:16Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > For my first college adventure I went to a LARGE state university. Meh. For my actual degree, I wound up at Jack Daniels University. It’s actually a community college at which I earned a nursing school degree(AAS) that is largely supported by the Jack Daniels distillery. I’m certainly not ashamed to say where I got my degree but it is definitely not a “prestige” nursing school. I’m happy it was there, inexpensive and relatively convenient for me, but school spirit in general is highly overrated, IMHO. The bottom line is I am entitled to put RN after my name and that was what I was aiming for. > > There were sports teams (one of my classmates played on the basketball team) but I never saw a game. Not that I doubt you or anything, but I couldn’t find this place online. Is this a whoosh, or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/63 "2012-02-10T16:11:32Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Not that I doubt you or anything, but I couldn’t find this place online. Is this a whoosh, or am I missing something? I think it’s a whoosh. My understanding was that it’s not really called Jack Daniels University, but people in the area refer to it that way due to the presence of a nearby Jack Daniels distillery that provides a lot of the school’s funding. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/64 "2012-02-10T16:16:51Z")
Cal State Channel Islands. I’m somewhere between indifferent and like. I like it enough to send in $50 every year to stay in the alumni society. I have fond memories from there, but I’m just not the sort of person that identifies myself with an institution. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/65 "2012-02-11T01:17:16Z")
The halo effect of having gone to MIT started even before I graduated and lasted my whole life. I also appreciate how much I learned how to learn there more the longer I live. I am happy to give them money. When I lived in Princeton I was active in the MIT Club and met some really fascinating people, including Alicia Nash. It helps that from the resumes I see, kids graduating from MIT today are a lot smarter than I was. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/66 "2012-02-11T01:46:22Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The halo effect of having gone to MIT started even before I graduated and lasted my whole life. I also appreciate how much I learned how to learn there more the longer I live. I am happy to give them money. > When I lived in Princeton I was active in the MIT Club and met some really fascinating people, including Alicia Nash. > > It helps that from the resumes I see, kids graduating from MIT today are a lot smarter than I was. Don’t sell yourself short. The halo effect for MIT is real. I meet a large number of people who went to Harvard around here. :yawn: Some of them aren’t that smart professionally although certainly well above average. I just figure that some of them got in because a relative slept with a Kennedy at some point. MIT grads stop me dead in my tracks. My aunt’s nephew is one and he is a Brigadier General in the Air Force and a leader in the existing Star Wars type projects. From what I read, you are pretty smart too. I have never met an MIT grad that wasn’t genius level. That is a scary school. I went to an Ivy League grad school yet I have inadequacy issues because I think I would flunk out of MIT on the first day. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/67 "2012-02-11T03:33:26Z")
Well, I’ll put it this way, the only reason it is still standing is I don’t have enough dynamite… and I’m only half joking. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/68 "2012-02-11T16:52:58Z")
BSEE, University of Cincinnati. 1992. Yea, nothing too exciting there. 😛 But around these parts (Midwest/Ohio area), UC has an excellent reputation in engineering. I went to the University of Dayton for my MSEE. It’s not quite as prestigious as UC, but my employer paid for it. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/69 "2012-02-12T00:07:22Z")
I enjoyed college, made lifelong friends there, and feel like I learned a lot and got a good education. But, I limit my feelings to “like” instead of “love” because of my dislike for the higher education racket in general. Colleges are tax-supported institutions which have thrown cost control to the winds, jacking up the price higher and higher just because they can. I don’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/70 "2012-02-12T13:36:27Z")
UC Davis class of 2006. I voted for like my Alma mater. I enjoyed college for the most part. It’s a world class school (especially in my field) for a diminutive price (although that has been changing in recent years). I got a good education, but I didn’t get the most out of it. I was too young and stupid to really know how to extract everything out of college. I’m in grad school now at a Cal State for a masters degree (science) after having failed to make it into a PhD program. I like it significantly less. 2 semesters in and my masters level course work is mostly stuff I did while an Undergrad at UC Davis 5.5 years ago! The caliber of student seems to be significantly less then UC davis and they mostly seem interested in getting a degree then actually learning the science. Although I will make a few notable exceptions for people who just blow me away. I will admit that the one thing Cal States do exceptionally well is teach you how to work. Even if you are super smart, you don’t pass classes by passing tests like you might at a UC. You have lots of deliverables to turn in and this translates into just hunkering down and doing the work. This is a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/71 "2012-02-13T11:28:49Z")
Voted “meh”. Attended two different schools for undergrad, and a third for grad degree. Haven’t set foot on any of 'em since graduation. School was just another job to me. I wonder if the level of affection for one’s alma mater is correlated with the level of interest in their sports teams? I suspect it is. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/72 "2012-02-13T16:01:07Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > VI wonder if the level of affection for one’s alma mater is correlated with the level of interest in their sports teams? I suspect it is. Not for me. I hate sports, always have, never went to a game of any kind while in school. Always railed against the big athletic budgets. But I loved both my alma maters. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/73 "2012-02-13T16:18:16Z")
D.Phil, Jesus College, Oxford University. It’s rather good. Didn’t do much to prepare me for my current job, though. I’ll always go to alumni events, though, because you meet the most interesting people there. Meeting, marrying, and separating from my ex-wife while I was there colored my experiences negatively…but still, wow, I really like the place. I’d still work there for almost no money if I didn’t have a family to support. The place I took my BA from was mentioned in the OP. I still feel sick about what happened. What can you think? The four years I spent there were a blank, I was happy to get away from there to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/74 "2012-02-13T16:32:27Z")
I felt my undergrad was a pretentious, expensive frat party for kids who didn’t have the smarts or connections to get into the Ivy League. Sort of like something out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel. Although I do feel very connected to it. It has a very strong alumni network. My business school was similar, but I don’t feel as connected having graduated from the evening part time program. Both are regarded as really good schools, but not in the same way as Harvard or MIT. IMHO, they are schools that produce middle mangagers, not Fortune 500 CEOs (except for a couple famous ones). ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199/75 "2012-02-14T01:28:51Z")
Brown '95. Love. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-your-alma-mater/612199.md?page=3)