Yeah. I guess people will respond to almost any school with the worst thing that’s happened there in recent memory. I’ve spent the last four years telling people telling people I went to Virginia Tech and mentally bracing myself for the “So, were you there when…” and the awkward trail off.
I do something similar. It’s getting to where I tell people I majored in engineering because saying aerospace engineering always gets the “Wow! You must be smart!” or “Hey! You’re a rocket scientist!?” reactions. The only reason I don’t do it more is that so many people follow it up by asking what kind of engineering so I have to say it and get the reactions anyways.
Congratulations! My sister is a nurse and just listening to her talk about it makes it clear that I wouldn’t last a day in nursing school, let alone actually working as a nurse. I’ve got a ton of respect for those who can pull it off. Kudos!
How do Princeton grads do it? Saying “I went to school in Princeton” kind of takes the guesswork out of it. Do they use “I went to school in New Jersey” as their code phrase?
I have a master’s and doctorate from Harvard, and I just tell people I went there. Why wouldn’t I? I tell people where I went to undergrad, and athletically, it’s much better known (Texas), and people get as pissy about that.
I’m in my late thirties and work in academia. In my neck of the woods, nobody is that impressed by what school you went to. Most people went to pretty well known schools, too. Like the OP says, saying you went to school in Boston makes you sound like a pretentious git. If you went to Alpine State would you say you went to school in West Texas? Of course not. Not to mention there’s about 60 colleges in Boston.
I’ve played that game with the “I went to school in Boston” crowd before. Once it was a guy from Boston College. Fine school, but what’s wrong with saying Boston College?
I maintain if I went to Sul Ross State for a master’s or anything I’d claim it too. I mean, it’s not like there’s a higher education draft. We all chose to attend the institutions we did, presumably because we like them in some respect. If it’s going to be that much of a burden to discuss where you went to school, maybe you shouldn’t go there?
Well, some of us say “I went to school in Boston” because while we didn’t actually go to college, we did in fact go to high school in Boston.*
*Kidding, but now that I know I can be simultaneously evasive AND annoying, I’m tempted.
Wrong–my aggression is all out there you snooty mcsnootpants. Talking manners and etiquette and social skills is one thing—walking it is another. Where do you live anyway, that makes you so Masstastic? Newton? Lincoln? Revere? Roxbury? :o
Silly girl, old money doesn’t scold others for bashing boasting…old money knows better than to do it in the first place. Methinks that maybe tis you who has the inferiority complex. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go do something that makes me better than you. And don’t be snide, because I am entitled to be pretentious. N O K D
It was brought to my attention that I hurt some feelings and maybe some fragile egos too. So I apologize. Next time I won’t N O K D anyone or make a comment about anything.
off topic/ Hey Diana: I just saw your picture. Are those your real teeth? If so, they are lovely. Really. Clearly you are not a coffee drinker. /off topic
Just to toss my two bits in - I got an Aero Engineer degree from Purdue. In certain circumstances, I’m hesitant to mention either because, at least according to my husband, it’s intimidating. So in certain crowds, especially in social situations, I dance around it if I can. It’s easier now - I can just say “I retired after 37 years with the gummint.”
On the other hand, when I’m with a jerk who feels the need to wave his credentials, I can do the same if he pisses me off enough. It doesn’t happen often, because like it says under my name, I’m nice, dammit!
I don’t recall who asked upthread and I’m too lazy to look, but for most of the last 25 years of my career, I worked in offices where all n00bs were asked where they went to school. Granted, it was about which college football team do you root for :rolleyes: but it was always asked during introductions. At those times, I hated to mention Purdue - I didn’t follow the teams when I was a student and I most certainly haven’t followed them since 1979. Sheesh.
This. I went to Penn for my Masters, and I’m more worried about the connotation that I’m rich and spoiled than the idea that I think I’m so smart. I have a very different background than most people would assume. But I still generally just say it. Eventually if the person gets to know me they can decide for themselves whether I’m an elitist.
For the record, I’m way more enthusiastic and proud about going to University of Michigan than I am about Penn. And I’ll talk about U of M ad nauseum. I can’t even believe how great my experience there was.
Just remembered - I had a coworker eons ago who had a perfectly legitimate engineering degree from West Virginia Tech, but he was embarrassed by it. He used to wear his dad’s University of Florida school ring. I thought *that *spoke volumes…
N O K D
