What fool came up with this stupid, lame idea?!

So, today was the day to call up and order my college ring. A very exciting day for me. Not only does it mean I’m almost done with school, but I didn’t get a high school ring because I was waiting for my ultra-cool college ring.

Sometime between sophomore year and now, I lost the catalogue they gave me. And I was having trouble finding the huge list of things you could put on your ring on-line, so I called the customer service line.

I’m in no way pitting the customer service rep (she was great), or the company.

Once I explained my problem, she informed me that the school had an “official” ring, which looked like a traditional school ring, and a few “fashion” style rings for women. (Fashion rings are girly little rings that look like something you could buy in a jewellery store in the mall.) So if you want something that looks like a tradition school ring, you have to get the official ring.

So, what does that look like?

Well, on one side there’s the school mascot, and on the other: the administration building.

*No “Student Government President” crest. (Gee, why would I want to remember that?!)

*No sorority crest.

*No music crest. (Why remember all the good times in campus choir and concert band?)

*No crest for either of the honor societies I belong to.

*No symbols for the hobbies, clubs, or activites that have made the past three years what they were.

An animal. And on the other side, a building.

I asked her if there wasn’t anything else I could do. She mentioned that I could personalise it with my name, my year of graduation and my degree. I thought she meant the degree side panel. It’s not very attractive, but it’s better than an animal or a building, so I said ok. She then informed me that it wouldn’t be a panel with my degree on it, just “chemistry” printed on the panel with the mascot on it.

So, add to the list above “no degree letters.”

To me, it’s an ugly ring. I’m sure someone out there wants it. But I sure don’t, and neither do a lot of other people I know. Why not?

  1. If you’re not a sports fan, the ugly mascot doesn’t really do much for you.
  2. This is a state school, with 19 local campuses. 12 of those local campuses can grant some 4-year degrees, and all of them can grant some 2-year degrees. It’s entirely possible for a graduate of this university to never come to this campus, and never see the administration building that will grace their butt-ugly college ring.

I don’t understand why the “official” ring can’t just be a choice. You can get the official one, or pick your own. I understand why they wanted to do this, so that every graduate would have an identical ring, but I disagree with it. That’s not what college is about. College is a different experience for each person. We have different achievements and different memories. If we’re prepared to pay $400+ for them, shouldn’t we have different rings, too?

I am so mad. :mad:

Or you could just go to a different company.

I know they’re expensive and annoying, but Josten’s does personalized rings, I believe.

That does suck, but you can get a ring elsewhere. You can even get them from Wal-Mart, though I’d advise going elsewhere for something like this.

My high school ring has the mascot on it, but that’s because the mascot is this cute little gondolier guy. (I’m not joking. Venice High School, Venice CA. Gondolier. Get it?)

The hotlink to her degree showed a Josten’s ring. So I guess she is dealing with them.

It makes no sense whatsoever that Jostens can’t just MAKE a ring to suit your needs. Lame idea is an understatement.

I’ve never worked with Jostens. I did work for nine years in a place that sold—among other things—lettermen’s jackets.

I can completely appreciate why they have a one-style-fits-all ring, if the requested customization is anything like the market for jackets. Jackets used to be one-style-fits-all too. You get a jacket and put on the school name, a letter, and maybe a mascot. Now people get various separate patches for each extracurricular activity, with different patches that show if you went to state championships in that activity, with patches that show how long you were in each activity, and when people begin getting creative—“I want my two-year swimming patch on the upper left lapel and the debate one has to be across and a little down from that because I was swimming captain but I had to quit debate halfway through, and below the swimming one, put the two stars and the bar because they look nice even though I was sick and I couldn’t go to state, and after that, on the right side, are you writing this down? I want the cheerleading patch, not the bullhorn, the other one, slightly left of the debate patch and just to the right of the letter, on which I want you to stitch some embroidery that has my chess club nickname”—the prices went up 800% and mistakes went up 500%. Full customization just isn’t very profitable.

On the other hand, I can appreciate your not wanting to wear something clunky and ugly and having the only alternative an overpriced selection from the Shane Company. One wonders how companies like that stay in business.

Or you could rely on your brain to remember college and forget about blowing money on a college ring.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Do you know how much beer you can buy for the cost of a ring?

That’s what I remember from college: the beer. :cool:

Tripler
Our class mascot? The paddywagon.

It sounds like Jostens is just as efficient in its ring division as it is in its yearbook / magazine printing division. Good lord, the hassles we go through to get the magazine published with them…

A gondolier!?! You should have a cool mascot. Like a centaur.
CCHS rules! :smiley:

I got my ring from Josten’s and it was fully customized.

The high school mascot was the Headless Horseman (from Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow - it was Ichabod Crane High School), but apparently that’s too fancy for Josten’s because the “mascot” panel they offered to us was just a horse’s head.

Huh! That’s why I have trouble remembering college.

In high school, I was a Trojan, so I just wore condoms. For college, I started as a Cougar and ended as a Buffalo. Either one of those would have been a cool ring.

But, I hate wearing rings. Makes me want to start chopping off fingers, yours and mine.

So, are you saying that you can’t get a customized ring with your college somehow indicated on it? That seems odd.

>>To me, it’s an ugly ring.

Aren’t they all?

Sorry, but I think school rings are uniformly clunky-looking.
And does anyone grab your finger and say “Excuse me – I want to see where you went to college, what activities you were in, and what your mascot looked like”?

Most people don’t care about those things. I would HOPE.

I know that I see a class ring and I think “fashion-impaired” or “still living in the past”*. I sure don’t try to read it to make judgements about a person based on their alma mater.

Just realize that there are a lot of people out there who graduated college and no one may be as impressed with you as you are.

*Or is it “Hey, everyone! I made it through college!” If there was some reason why you thought you wouldn’t and hung in there and made it, then by all means order a ring.

Sorry if I sounded cranky. I was. Bad day. Not enough sleep.

I feel for your frustrations… but I still hate school rings.

I agree. That is a stupid, lame idea.

:smiley:

Only joking.

But seriously, as someone not raised in the United States, i’ve never quite got the whole obsession with college rings, college stickers on the back of cars, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

I’ve seen cars where people could barely see out their back window for all the college stickers pasted there. It just all seems a little too…

You know, i don’t even know what it is. I just find the whole thing a little weird.

So I guess you never heard of the tradition of the “school tie” either?

Sure i have. What’s your point?

That rings and stickers serve the same purpose.

You wear your ring and stickers around your neck?

That they serve the same purpose doesn’t make it any less weird to me…

I agree with mhendo, it all seems a bit strange to me as the only people likley to give a toss which college you went to are going to be people who went to the same college, couldn’t they just ask?