There are a couple of interesting letters-to-the-editor about Shawna’s opinion in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here’s a link.
The irony is that some newspaper or magazine will probably read her whining missive and hire her to write more drivel as “the voice of today’s youth in these uncertain times.” Well, maybe they can throw in a pacifier as an added bennie; she certainly hasn’t grown up enough to not need one.
Loved the response letters in the Atlanta paper.
My question for this whiner - it applies to all the young dopers out there, too, is: why go to college? Do you go to prepare yourself to become a self-sustaining adult? If so, how about selecting a major that has at least some probability that it could provide some means of financial support? If you love the English language, there are ways to make yourself more marketable with an English degree. If you want a job in marketing, perhaps you should have considered a business degree. In a good economy, it might open a few doors.
If you’re going to school strictly for the joy of learning more about what interests you most, you’re probably not too concerned about the big bucks as long as you can indulge your passion. More power to you.
While most 18-year olds probably don’t have a clue when they matriculate, anyone bright enough to get into Yale should be capable of thinking a year or two ahead by their sophomore year.
Too bad we can’t teach street smarts or at least common sense.
I was exaggerating a little when I called 1400 SAT low. Anyway, it wasn’t a 1400, it was “just shy of a 1400”. With Shawna, I am sure that is somewhere in the 1325 range. It is a very good score but I think it is hysterical that she just admitted t the whole world that got into Yale with a below average SAT score and still felt that she had the right to brag about it.
I love Dartmouth, it is the prettiest little country club in the world although you have to wonder about a school that is located in the same town as the Army’s Arctic Condtions Research Lab.
I, for my part, feel very sorry for her.
I suspect that people have been telling her for her entire life that her hard work, her sacrifices, and that her her superiority (imagined or otherwise) to her peers would somehow pay off in the long run. I bet that is what kept her warm on Friday nights when her friends were drinking, dating, hanging out, or doing whatever it is that high school kids do.
So she bought into the grand American myth of hard work and the reality just bit her in the ass. Sure, she is a little late on the learning curve, but whaddya expect, she went to Yale. 
(Columbia '00 grad checking in, who scored respectably well over 1500 on the SAT. 
Like nearly everyone else he knew there.)
The degree opens doors, to be sure, but it is only as useful as the person who earns it. I got my first job not because of the little Universitas Columbiae on my degree, but because I needed it. And I was willing to take whatever job I could that would pay my rent.
So don’t speak so harshly of this girl. I suspect that she has just witnessed her entire worldview and all of her dreams go to shit. If she still isn’t working in six months, well, she evidently did not learn very much from the books she claims to have read.
Speaking as someone who attended two schools before transferring to an Ivy, I will tell you that my experience was that there was a large difference between what I got out of a particular text at the Ivy and what I got out of the text at the other two schools. There at least three texts I can remember that I studied at the Ivy and at one of the other two schools.
The diffference was not in the text itself, but in the quality of the interactions between the professor and the students. The professors I studied with at the Ivy shared a wealth of information and insight with us that the other professors did not, and the other students in the class had more to contribute to the class than did the students at the other schools. They seemed to have a much firmer grounding in history and the classics, which are invaluable when studying western literature.
Not only did my fellow students have more valuable information and insight to contribute, they simply seemed to speak more than the students at the other schools.
The profs at the other schools may have been just as knowledgable in their fields, but perhaps they chose to not put out the effort for a class who sat silent, seemingly waiting to be spoonfed information.
Add to that the fact that we read a lot more and wrote a lot more at the Ivy than we did at the other schools, for classes of a comparable level, and the Ivy simply offered more to me and EXPECTED more of me than the other two schools did.
Will my brand name diploma get me a job? No, or at least not on its own. Under certain circumstances it might get me an interview, but I still have to prove I’m worth something to a prospective employer. Something Shana may have trouble doing with that chip on her shoulder.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
P.S. My sister went to Yale, and I once sat in on her first-year survey lit course. It was very advanced for first-years. I always assumed, based on that example, that Yale expects even more of their lit students than my Ivy did.
FWIW…ad guy and Ivy League insider checkin’ in.
Yale truly does have a rockin’ English program, with incredible teachers and an amazing library.
There are many English majors who go into advertising, a business that revolves around a “message”. Words and meaning are very important. Lots of Psych majors too.
Finally, good luck finding an entry level job ANYWHERE in advertising today. I don’t care how smart you are, or where you went to school…there are no entry jobs anywhere. And even if you did find one of the few, you’d still need to work at Chili’s to support your advertising career. Lord knows I did when I first started.
Welcome to life’s lesson for today…it only gets harder after you graduate.