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Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
Because many of our high school readers are probably finishing up their college applications right now, let’s see if you can guess where some notable people earned their undergraduate degrees. Today’s focus is the media, because my TV was tuned to Morning Joe on MSNBC when I put this quiz together.
Take the Quiz: Where’d You Go To College?
[And if you’d like to give your alma mater a ringing endorsement in the comments, perhaps you’ll convince one of the aforementioned high school readers to apply.]
This is eerie! I stayed home from school today to finish my applications, and four of the schools I’m applying to (or have already applied to) – UVa, Williams, William & Mary and Tufts – were answers to the quiz.
Any alums from those schools have anything good/bad to say about them??
posted by Cara on 12-4-2008 at 11:35 am
Give it up for the University of Phoenix! (Changing careers - from communications to accounting - made distance learning the best option.)
Requisite jokes are below:
- Did you hear about the U of Phx football team? Our games are Saturday nights on XBox Live.
- Our 5 year reunion is coming up. To celebrate, we’ll all log on at different times and email disjointed comments in response to a question posted by our professor.
posted by JS on 12-4-2008 at 11:41 am
It’s a great time to be part of the University of Florida family. Big game this weekend!
posted by Matt on 12-4-2008 at 11:44 am
Well I sucked at the quiz but at least I got Will and Mangesh right!
posted by Tricia on 12-4-2008 at 11:57 am
JS: I’m getting my degree via distance learning too, at University of Maryland. Being in the military makes it the best option.
Go distance learners!
posted by Tricia on 12-4-2008 at 12:04 pm
If you want to go to a school that will be good in anything you want to major in and has the best campus atmosphere imaginable, the University of Michigan is where you want to be. Sure, the football team took a hit this year, but we’ll be doing great things to come and we’re anything but a one-school sport. There are really unlimited opportunities here and the town of Ann Arbor offers the perfect college atmosphere. I couldn’t have been happier with my collegiate choice.
posted by Meg on 12-4-2008 at 12:05 pm
Cara, I didn’t go to Tufts (Wheaton College, word), but I lived with Tufts alums for a year and still live near there - a really cool neighborhood minutes from downtown Boston. Which is eerie, because my reCaptcha is Grosser Boston. Heee hee..
posted by Adrienne on 12-4-2008 at 12:26 pm
East Texas Baptist University. Yup, it’s still there.
On the bright side you will never see your football team loose on TV!
posted by Witty Nickname on 12-4-2008 at 12:30 pm
I’m at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro right now. It was a choice for me between here and UNCG’s more famous big brother, UNC Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill is nice, but I’m very glad I ended up here.
Our jokes include:
~Have you heard about our undefeated football team? (..the one that doesn’t exist?)
Also, the fact that our mascot is a Spartan gives us a good excuse to yell “This is Sparta!” at sporting events and other appropriate occasions.
posted by scoobnut on 12-4-2008 at 12:34 pm
Hey Scoob,
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying about UNC-G
“Where the women are women and so are the men”
FYI - It was once known as The Womens College of North Carolina
Elon ‘90
posted by It's Just Dave on 12-4-2008 at 12:54 pm
University of South Florida! And no, it’s not in Miami…it’s Tampa! GO BULLS!
posted by Steph on 12-4-2008 at 1:11 pm
It’s Just Dave- LONG LIVE ELON! And gooooooo Phoenix! I graduated December 06.
Although in ‘90 you would have been rooting on the Fighting Christians… yep.
posted by Kelly J on 12-4-2008 at 1:19 pm
Ooorrrr come on up to Canada! Cheaper schools, lower drinking age (18 or 19) and lots more snow than Florida.
Raise a toast to Bishop’s University! Where your classes cap at 50 students, you can buy beer at the gas station, and the poutine flows freely until 4am!
posted by Jenny on 12-4-2008 at 1:39 pm
Ha! I got 7 out of 12 right, even though I only knew the last one. I think I’ve taken too many quizzes!
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-4-2008 at 1:46 pm
I’m terrible at guessing as I got 1 correct. I knew one of you guys went to Duke.
Clemson alum here. Go Tigers!
posted by Ryan on 12-4-2008 at 1:49 pm
Hey Cara, I went to W&M and chose it over most of the same schools you’re applying to! (And also preferred it to Georgetown U.) Partly this is because I was a Virginia resident and got a good scholarship. But most of all I valued starting my college career at an institution that focuses on educating undergraduates and lets you get to know full professors really well. The party atmosphere of UVa was attractive to me, but then I figured out that I could easily travel some weekends to party with friends going there, then come back to W&M and get on with my good education–without having to clean up spilled beer, condoms, and vomit from my OWN living area. ;)
Seriously, though: Don’t just talk to current and recent students–talk to alumni many years out of school and ask how their colleges continue to influence them today. W&M really made me a better thinker, observer, and analyst (I’ll bet it helped make Jon Stewart as wise and snarky as he is now). Some of my classmates who complained about the academic rigor during their schooldays now realize how much they benefit from their W&M experience.
posted by Name on 12-4-2008 at 2:02 pm
loved the quiz (despite being in it!). I also love that St. Andrews in Delaware got a shout out. It’s where Dead Poet’s Society was filmed.
posted by Mangesh Hattikudur on 12-4-2008 at 2:06 pm
Woohoo Columbia! Go Lions!
posted by Regkins on 12-4-2008 at 2:06 pm
@It’s Just Dave
I haven’t heard that particular joke, but it made me laugh. The level of diversity here is actually one of the things that I like about the school. And yes, I learned all about the Woman’s College (and its many incarnations) in my honors proseminar.
posted by scoobnut on 12-4-2008 at 3:27 pm
@Name - great advise for Cara, i’m glad that someone answered her. I went to a state school in NJ William Paterson University (go pioneers) and never have I thought that I have suffered for not going to a big name school.
Cara, BTW, my grandmother was one of the very few women to have graduated from William and Mary back in 1931 or 32.
Good luck with your education.
posted by Bill on 12-4-2008 at 4:11 pm
Huh, I got 9/12 right. Wasn’t expecting that.
I’m a University of Maryland, College Park Alum ‘08 — GO TERPS!
posted by Rebecca on 12-4-2008 at 4:55 pm
Cara-
I grew up in Charlottesville, VA and went to UVa and I can say that it was a great experience. You don’t have to go party hard as was alluded to above; certainly, though, the opportunity abounds.
The toughest part of going to any VA state school is getting in if you are out-of-state, and the cost can be rather prohibitive as well.
Good luck with your applications!
posted by wahoowa on 12-4-2008 at 5:07 pm
I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, which I liked because of it’s urban campus and I thought Richmond was fun. We didn’t have a football team either and I have a t-shirt that has “VCU Football” on the front and “Still Undefeated” on the back.
Funny, I just got my Master’s from UNCG! I spent a lot of time at Old Town…
posted by What what on 12-4-2008 at 5:26 pm
I first enrolled at Ateneo de Manila University, a prestigious Jesuit school. I stayed three semesters before I concluded that it’s nothing more than a glorified seminary with mediocre instruction. So I transferred to the University of the Philippines.
posted by Danny on 12-4-2008 at 6:07 pm
@wahoowa:
I’m applying to UVa, and I’m in the running for the Jefferson Scholarship! I can’t wait for my interviews (a bit of excitement mixed with trepidation). It’s nice to hear from someone who went there.
Good luck, Cara! I’m in the same boat as you right now!
posted by Allison on 12-4-2008 at 6:31 pm
@Ryan–Clemson Tigers are going down on January 1st. :)
@Adrienne–I’m totally making the chocolate peanut butter cake that your name is linked to.
@Cara–Good luck with your decision. Don’t be afraid to check out your in-state school, especially if you’re planning on doing more school later on (law school, grad school). I went to my state school for undergrad, graduated debt free, and am now doing grad school at Cornell. If you’re motivated, you can get a decent education at many places and still get into good schools later on. You just might have to work a little harder to maximize your education. Of course, if you are from Virginia, you have some really fabulous state school options anyway, so you get the best of both worlds.
Oh, and proud graduate of the University of Nebraska! (Most famous/successful graduate: Warren Buffet). I loved my time there. Go Big Red!!! (And since we’re telling jokes…the one most commonly used by other Big XII schools about Nebraska= “The N (on the football helmets) stands for knowledge.” Har dee har har.) :)
posted by kate on 12-4-2008 at 8:39 pm
Art school grad here. I graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design. I had a good time there, got a good education, and had some, uh, interesting experiences there (see my comments in the Morning Cup O’ Links), but I wouldn’t recommend it anymore.
I also went to Texas Tech and studied engineering for a while. That didn’t end well.
ReCAPTCHA: responded $20,000
That’s about half of my student loan debt.
posted by Anthony on 12-4-2008 at 11:21 pm
I guessed on most of them and got 10/12. Not too shabby. I am representing the Midwest and Big 10 with Purdue! Go Boilers!!
posted by Andi on 12-5-2008 at 11:44 am
Xavier University here! (Cincinnati, not NOLA).
We too have an undefeated football team, since 1973! (You may remember us from We Are Marshall, our last year of playing football, hahah).
Jesuit universities FTW
posted by Brooke on 12-5-2008 at 12:19 pm
i got one answer right haha
i’m not american… but i doubt i would have gotten any better with canadian media personalities.
i’m at mcgill university right now.
very difficult, but great education.
and super inexpensive conpared to your top school tuitions.
posted by karina on 12-6-2008 at 12:28 pm
Scored 75%, but it’s not really fair since I work at the Newseum in DC - only really knew four (Brokaw, Couric, Stewart and Cooper) and got lucky on another five. Stewart was actually “Jon Leibovitz” at W&M. His fraternity was next to mine (brush with celebrity!) - Go Tribe! (best four-and-a-half years of my life)
posted by mike on 12-9-2008 at 9:35 am
Let’s not forget the SUNY system for an affordable college education! SUNY Geneseo was an excellent place to graduate from and very well ranked along with the big named more expensive colleges….There is more value there for your education dollars….I would highly recommend! Alan
posted by Alan McManis on 12-15-2008 at 2:24 am