You gotta be KIDDING moments

[nkotb]

I'm having a "you gotta be kidding me" moment reading this thread.

[chaz]

Originally posted by nkotb:
  I'm having a "you gotta be kidding me" moment reading this thread.

exactly

[chaz]

NVCC was my safety school.

[you be betty]

Originally posted by Chaz, Lover of all Beings:
  Damn...I mean education is important and all...I'd venture to say it's very important.
 
 But you kids need to lighten up a little.  Seriously.  Spend your whole life trying to keep up with the Jones's and the Browns and all this competition will make you successful maybe, but what about being happy and living a little?

happiness?  what?  i've never heard that word before.

[kookiemnstr8]

Originally posted by Chaz, Lover of all Beings:
  Damn...I mean education is important and all...I'd venture to say it's very important.
 
 But you kids need to lighten up a little.  Seriously.  Spend your whole life trying to keep up with the Jones's and the the Browns and all this competition will make you successful maybe, but what about being happy and living a little?

Most of the appeal of these schools for me is their ability to nourish intellectual growth, not the fact that they're going to make me monetarily successful in life.  I mean, I'm probably going to end up with an English degree or something equally useless, but at least I'll (hopefully) have been challenged and my mind (hopefully) will have been stretched to get there.
 
 The stress is there, and there's no escaping, I may as well embrace it and try to do the best that I can.

[BookerT]

just go to your state school and do as many drugs as you possibly can. that way you have a built in defense when you flunk out/drop out/fuck up in some other way. in that at least your parents were only paying a few thousand dollars and not $35k or so. seriously, an undergrad degree doesn't mean too much anymore anyway. bachelor's is the new high school, graduate degree is the new bachelor's. you're not going to remember anything you learned anyway. well, as long as you actually do all those drugs.

[ggw]

Originally posted by Graace:
 Most of the appeal of these schools for me is their ability to nourish intellectual growth, not the fact that they're going to make me monetarily successful in life.  I mean, I'm probably going to end up with an English degree or something equally useless, but at least I'll (hopefully) have been challenged and my mind (hopefully) will have been stretched to get there.
 

Then don't shoot for the top tier New England schools.  >50% of the English majors there are going to try to land investment banking jobs when they graduate anyway.  Go to Carleton or Pomona or Claremont, where your east coast background will help them round out their geographic diversity goals.

[Venerable Bede]

yeah, why an emphasis on east coast schools?  surely there are some left coast and fly-over schools that will give you the education and intellectual stimulation that you are seeking.

[you be betty]

Pomona is a great school, but do you really think we have a choice?  Most of us who have been raised in Bethesda have been bred and had our entire lives leading up to the point we go to college.  Can't say as to why, but that's just the way it is.  My best friend has been strapped in for Harvard since the day she left the womb.  If I had a choice, I'd be at some random art school in New York where I'm nice and happy, or maybe here at the Corcoran, and that would be that.  But I've been instructed/stressed by my parents to do otherwise.  I already know what I want to do with my life, and where I want to live.  As long as I cooperate through high school, get good grades, and get into an exceptional college, I'm free to do whatever the hell I want with myself.  And that's fine by me.  I mean, it's really the best compromise I am going to get.

[you be betty]

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
  yeah, why an emphasis on east coast schools?  surely there are some left coast and fly-over schools that will give you the education and intellectual stimulation that you are seeking.

There are plenty of good West Coast schools...but first of all, we've got the Ivys down here.  Second of all, I'm not really sure what Grace wants to study, but I am looking for a school that is not only exceptional academically, but has some sort of partnership with a fashion design or arts school.  I want to study art, but I'm not allowed to go to an art school undergrad.  So far, the only schools that have that available to me are Brown, Duke, and Wash U.

[kookiemnstr8]

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
  yeah, why an emphasis on east coast schools?  surely there are some left coast and fly-over schools that will give you the education and intellectual stimulation that you are seeking.

There are so so many west coast/left half of the country schools that I would love to go to.  Any of the Claremont consortium, Reed, Macalaster, Carleton, a bunch of Canadian schools, etc.  My parents have basically limited me to the east coast, with the farthest western possibility being someplace like Northwestern or U of C, or WashU in St Louis.  They know I just wouldn't ever come home, and they do want to see me.  Plus with the costs of college already being so high, they'd prefer not to have an expensive plane ticket to pay for every time they'd want to see me.

[chaz]

Ever consider paying for school yourself and going wherever you want?
 
 You say this is a good compromise but it doesn't sound like it to me.  Work your ass off for 12 years just to go to some over-priced snooty school you never wanted to attend in the first place.

[you be betty]

I don't have a choice.  I also don't think it's the worst thing in the world.  I've been lucky enough to be born into a family that can afford to pay for a snotty East Coast school for me, and to have the opportunity to excell in a great high school.  I don't mind working hard in school - I enjoy it sometimes, I do.  The only thing that sucks is the stress, and feeling that you're expected to do these great things all the time.  I feel like a caged up little robot.
 
 How would I afford to pay for my own college?

[kookiemnstr8]

Originally posted by you be betty:
 

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
 

There are plenty of good West Coast schools...but first of all, we've got the Ivys down here.  Second of all, I'm not really sure what Grace wants to study, but I am looking for a school that is not only exceptional academically, but has some sort of partnership with a fashion design or arts school.  I want to study art, but I'm not allowed to go to an art school undergrad.  So far, the only schools that have that available to me are Brown, Duke, and Wash U. [/b]

I have no idea what I want to study as of now.  I have ideas and interests, and I have some ideas about what I MIGHT like to do with my life, but I really don't want to go to a school where I'll be locked into a choice.  Most of the schools I'm looking at have a fairly flexible credit system, in terms of requirement distribution and the application of credits to different categories of study, etc.  Right now, I'm just seeking an excellent overall liberal arts education.
 
 And as much as I wanted to hate the Ivies when I visited and say that they aren't all they're cracked up to be. . . they are pretty freaking cool.  The opportunities that are afforded to students at schools with that much money, that much clout, such a high caliber faculty, etc. blew me away.

[chaz]

Originally posted by you be betty:
  I don't have a choice.  I also don't think it's the worst thing in the world.  I've been lucky enough to be born into a family that can afford to pay for a snotty East Coast school for me, and to have the opportunity to excell in a great high school.  I don't mind working hard in school - I enjoy it sometimes, I do.  The only thing that sucks is the stress, and feeling that you're expected to do these great things all the time.  I feel like a caged up little robot.
 
 How would I afford to pay for my own college?

Grants and loans and scholarships......loads of people do it.  And you're right it certainly isn't the worst thing in the world, as long as you don't mind feeling like a caged up little robot, to use your own words.  Not trying to give you a hard time, I'm sure it's not easy.
 
 Just don't say you don't have a choice....that's the one thing we all have.