"I went to school in Boston"

[timid1]

Bravo livin_in_hell.
“Boston” humor is both hard to take and hard to get.
But some of us get such kick out of it.
Oh well.

[Martini_Enfield]

@don_t_ask

The funny things is, being Aussie and unfamiliar with the phrase, on seeing the thread title I thought it meant exactly the opposite. Until I moused-over I assumed it was used by someone who went to a Boston school other than Harvard to assume some of its cachet.

That was the second thing I thought. The first thing was “Didn’t lots of people? It’s a large city with a couple of million inhabitants. They and their kids have to go to school somewhere.” Then I realised the OP was using “School” in its extended American sense, which includes university.

[twickster]

This time I’m speaking as a moderator: living_in_hell, personal insults are out of line in this forum, and being a jerk is out of line anywhere at the SDMB.

Dial it way back.

twickster, BA, MPhil, PhD, MPSIMS moderator

@living_in_hell

:D:D:D you spelled passive aggressive wrong :D:D:D

@living_in_hell

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

@living_in_hell

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

[Ichbin_Dubist]

I went to school in New Jersey. Hell was my safety.

[pseudotriton_ruber_ruber]

I went to an Ivy School. I went to grad school in Boston. I got an MA at the university with perhaps the most prestigious medical school in the country. You’ll have to torture me to get more specific details than that.

[MsWhatsit]

I went to Northwestern and I often find myself just saying “I went to school in Chicago,” not because I necessarily think that Northwestern is so intimidating or whatever, but just because it feels kind of weird and name-droppy. Usually my point isn’t to talk about my specific school, but to talk about some aspect of living in Chicago, or college life in general. I don’t want to have a big discussion about Northwestern’s academics or football team (ha) or whatever.

And yes, I know that Northwestern is actually located in Evanston.

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

@MsWhatsit

…And yes, I know that Northwestern is actually located in Evanston.

Similar to Harvard and MIT, which are located in Cambridge. But saying “I went to college in Cambridge, MA” probable reveals too much.

[sachertorte]

@olivesmarch4th

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.

Move to the West Coast. They all* think you went to Penn State.

*obviously not all.

[D18]

The one that gets me is people who say “I went to school in Ithaca”. I’ve learned not to say “Cornell?” because it always leads to embarrassment for a variety of reasons - whether they actually went to Cornell or Ithaca College.

Only took me four decades to learn that if someone is answering evasively, they don’t want to go into the details. :smack:

[Boyo_Jim]

@twickster

Good point.

[mod]twickster, you know better than to call another poster a twat in an MPSIMS thread – and, yes, saying that he or she is “coming across as a twat” amounts to saying he or she is a twat. Don’t do this again.

No warning issued.[/mod]

Shouldn’t another moderator warn (or admonish, I don’t want to be too judgmental) you over this blatant conflict of interest? Or – perhaps you can issue that admonishment as well.

[Boyo_Jim]

I didn’t live in Boston or go to Harvard, but I’m starting to think I should say I did, just so I can make somebody’s day by telling them.

I even know a Harvard joke!

Harvard freshman: “Can you tell me where the library’s at?”
Harvard Professor: “Young man, this is Harvard. We don’t end our sentences in prepositions.”
Harvard Freshman: “Sorry. Can you tell me where the library’s at, asshole?”

[tdn]

@A Monkey With a Gun

living_in_hell, you’re hijacking. Stop.

On the contrary, his posts are directly relevant to this thread. I now have a deep understanding why Harvard grads wouldn’t reveal their school.

And I say this as someone who went to school in Boston.

[tdn]

@Boyo_Jim

I even know a Harvard joke!

Q. How many Harvard girls does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. That’s Radcliffe, that’s women, and that’s NOT FUNNY.

[Brynda]

@Boyo_Jim

Shouldn’t another moderator warn (or admonish, I don’t want to be too judgmental) you over this blatant conflict of interest? Or – perhaps you can issue that admonishment as well.

Seriously?

[tdn]

@Brynda

Seriously?

Probably not.

[living_in_hell]

@twickster

This time I’m speaking as a moderator: living_in_hell, personal insults are out of line in this forum, and being a jerk is out of line anywhere at the SDMB.

Dial it way back.

twickster, BA, MPhil, PhD, MPSIMS moderator

Okey dokey.

What’s a MPhil?

I liked her teeth!

*Not Kidding, and now that I know I can’t be simultaneously evasive AND annoying, I’m not tempted.

[Voyager]

@Jackknifed_Juggernaut

Similar to Harvard and MIT, which are located in Cambridge. But saying “I went to college in Cambridge, MA” probable reveals too much.

If Harvard grads say they went to school in Cambridge, people would assume they went to the good school in our fair city, and they would be ashamed.

[Anamorphic]

I went to school in Boston. And, yes, actually in Boston; in the Back Bay. Definitely not Harvard, though.

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

@Anamorphic

I went to school in Boston. And, yes, actually in Boston; in the Back Bay. Definitely not Harvard, though.

Yeah, you’re pretty much forced to tell people the name of the relatively crappy school you attended. People will assume that you went to Harvard or MIT if you simply said that you went to school in Boston.

[andygirl]

@Little_Nemo

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?

You’re misremembering, I went to Dartmouth. I generally say that I went to college in New Hampshire.

I work in a nursing home, and one of the questions that I have to ask people when I am assessing their cognition is what their highest level of education was. Obviously older generations had much less access to education, particularly women. So I do get asked if and where I went to college all of the time in response to that question, and yes, part of the reason that I don’t specifically say is because of how badly it derails what I’m trying to do at that particular moment.