Alma maters
Between today and this past weekend I made an important realization about the schools we have graduated from and our feelings about them post-graduation. I was always very confused as to why people would give so much money (or even a little) to their universities once they had already graduated. Yes, I understood many of them were thankful and owed their successes to the university, but there had to be something more. In my experience with Boston College, I always said I wouldn't give them a dime. The place is (or was, when I was there- I suspect it hasn't changed) run as a business, and all that bullshit in the admissions catalogue about a "well rounded education" is a bunch of crap. They want my money and that's the bottom line.

I always used the analogy of college as a whore. You pay while you use the services and once you are no longer receiving its services you stop paying, right? Isn't that how whores work? So why on earth would you keep paying for something you are no longer getting anything from? I already paid a LOT of money for my time there, and the universities had better have given me something in exchange (presumably the tools to succeed) for all that money. You know? Anyway that was always the reason I didn't get all the alumni giving so much money years and years after they had graduated. Many times these people didn't even have that much money - but they gave something.

THen this weekend I think I was looking at school ratings or something and kept looking for Boston College. I had already heard a few comments from younger people who had recently investigated schools and it turns out BC is now a much more exclusive school to get into than when I went. MUCH MORE. We had heard intimations of this in our final years there, little brothers weren't getting accepted despite ridiculous scores and other numbers I knew I didn't have. Not only that, the athletic department has exploded. Our football team is going to a bowl game for the x year in a row. Our hockey (always great) is ranked number 1. Soccer is in the playoffs, basketball was in the tourney while I was there and is reaping the recruiting benefits from it. Football will move on to the ACC after this season, more exposure and more money.

In short, the school has blown up - in a good way. How do I feel about this? Great. you always want to see your school do well, no matter what your experience there was like. It was home for 4 years. So then this weekend it hit me: it makes me feel better as a person that the school is doing so well. Not only that, people see my having gone there with more awe and respect now. It is literally a VERY tough school to get into. That reflects on me because I was there. It must be what it feels like (albeit to a lesser extent) to have graduated from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and those type of schools. So it makes sense, of course people will give money to their school - it can make them "seem" like they are more than they were or are. Especially if things didn't pan out all that great and they didn't get the success they thought they would get.

"Oh but you went to Yale? Wow."

"Damns straight I went to Yale, now pass the crackpipe and let's get fucked up."

You see where I'm going with this?

I also saw a top 10 schools list in a Guatemalan paper and was eagerly looking for my high school, kind of wishing it was near the bottom (we all hated our school - more for its failure to capitalize on its potential than for anything else) but kind of rooting for it to be in the top 3 - you know, to validate me. It did make the number 10 slot in Mathematics, which doesn't surprise me, we always had great math teachers at that school.

I hope I've made my point. If not, post a response, it seems we've been running short on those lately.

Go BC!