Where did y'all go to school? Did you like it there, or would you never go back to campus even on a bet?

And what's your best story from college?

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Answers

For the record, I have been to Mike's alma mater multiple times. And gotten my butt kicked by College Bowl players from Mike's alma mater multiple times. Maryland is -- or was, as of two years ago -- up there with Chicago, Berkeley, and UVa in the CB hierarchy.

I am a proud graduate of Swarthmore, which is (a) near Philadelphia, (b) tiny (my graduating class was 330), and (c) not receiving any money from me at any point in the near future, because they killed the football team in a very graceless way. But the history department kicks a lot of academic ass.

I spent a lot of time hanging out with the SF geeks. But I was a cheerleader. And a newspaper editor (the same semester I had an 8:30 a.m. psych class -- oh, some bad memories there). And I wrote a 125- page thesis on social protest, local politics, and nationalism in early-20th-century, pre-Republican Shanghai. And played College Bowl. And did not drink, in retrospect, nearly enough.

It hasn't been enough time for me to consider going back. I've only been back once (to visit Then-WriterBoy, who was living near campus) and being on such familiar turf made me feel uneasy. Maybe for my 10th reunion I'll head back.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

North Idaho College. Cour'd Alene, Idaho is a nice enough place to visit...but living there is evil. I mean, you can only ooh and ahh over a lake and a kick butt golf course with a floating green so much. Then you actually have to look for substance in a town and a school, which I did not find. Thus, I am not EVER going back there. The town annoyed me, the people annoyed me, and the college REALLY annoyed me.

Transferring is the best thing I have ever done.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

WG, thanks for bringing up the College Bowl thing, because IMO Maryland doesn't get enough credit for its academics. The school has come a long way in the past decade or so.

I loved Maryland. Loved it. Would recommend it to anyone. It's a big school, but it doesn't feel that way.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. (Cal Poly is short for California Polytechnic.) If you watch the Rose Parade, the two Cal Poly campuses always have a float in the parade. And no, I never worked on the float. It was always one of those things I wanted to get around to...

My best story involves alcohol. The quarter started on a Tuesday for some wierd reason. I got into town early, and one of my friends wanted to go to a bar on Monday night. He always made it a point to get people drunk. I probably gave him more incentive by protesting that I had a 7am class in the morning. So I got fairly drunk - had a nice case of the spins when I got home. I absolutely had to drag my butt to class the next morning or else I'd be dropped from the class. I had a several hour break before my next class so I went back to the apartment to be miserable. On the way I passed my cute male neighbors and tried to appear chipper but I'm sure I failed miserably.

Haven't touched Long Island Iced Tea since.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

I went to Evangel College in Springfield, MO, a liberal arts college owned by the Assemblies of God. Great teachers, great school academically, great place if you want to believe everything you were ever taught in (an Assemblies of God) church. Not so great if, oh, you are an adult or want to learn about other beliefs or think it just might be possible to see an R rated movie without going directly to hell.

It is now Evangel University and apparently the addition of upper grad classes finally made them realize that these are not teenagers or children but adults. Daily required 10am chapel? Now only required twice a week. TWICE A WEEK? Fuck, I could have done that. Daily chapel was one of the many banes of my existence at that school. I was on spiritual probation 3 of the 4 semesters I attended. There were 2 all male, 1 all female, and 2 "co-ed" dorms. Those co-ed dorms? 1 floor of men, 3 of women. Never the twain shall meet except in the 2nd floor lobby and then real, actual street clothes only, no pjs, no robes, nothing even remotely relaxed. You could only go into the room of the opposite sex during bi-monthly, 3 hour pre-set visiting hours. During which the door had to stay open and no two people (of any gender mix) could sit on the same bed at the same time. Now? You can visit any time (except after curfew, a rant I'll not subject you to), door still open, sit where you want.

Maybe if they'd been more relaxed like this when I went there I'd have been less wild, not had sex in the chapel, and not be asked not to return. But they weren't and I did so they did and I wouldn't go back there on a bet. Unless you were offering a hella lot of dough.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

HB and I share an alma mater, shich is the reason I started reading her journal and then found this place and all of you. Miami University, Oxford, Ohio...the prettiest place on earth in the fall. Feels like a private school, but it's public. Great academics and a perfect size for me....15,000 students, the vast majority of them undergraduates. Miami's a quintessential college experience. It's very greek, nestled in a small town. The student houses off campus are big and old and lovely. everyone names their houses, with names like Fox Den, Dew Drop Inn, etc.

I had a great time at Miami, got a fanulous education and I give money to them every year. I'm even an Alumni recruiter for the office of admissions. My parents both went to Miami as well as two of my siblings. I head back to campus at least once a year.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

The better story about my alma mater Cal Poly is it was a dry campus. The only dry campus in the state of California. While I was in the dorms they periodically searched the rooms for booze. They relaxed the rules ever so slightly while I was there so alcohol could be served at fund raising events. I don't know if they ever got rid of the rule.

I haven't been back in well over 10 years and don't plan on visiting. It would feel really wierd.

Here's an eerie thing: The alumni association has an uncanny ability to find me, no matter how many times I've moved. They are simply not going to let any possible revenue stream no matter how small, slip through their hands. I think the military ought to set the Cal Poly Alumni Association on Ol' Bin. They'd find him.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

I tried to do the alumni recruiter thing, where you meet high school seniors and talk up the school, but I always missed the info meeting. I guess that means I'm not ready yet.

I also give money to Miami, mostly because I did the Phone-a-Thon one year and know all the facts to get people to give, and how can I say no to the kids who call me? So I give.

I would be hard, hard-pressed to think of a "best" story - there are so, so many.

Miami has a tradition called Green Beer Day, which is the Thursday before St. Patrick's Day, and it's when all the bars open at like 5:30 a.m. and you drink green beer (natch) all day. There's much lore around how it originated; most people are of the opinion that it's always been around. The administration hates it and professors vary. Some of them are like - don't bother coming to class; others give quizzes on that day just to be asses. Like they were never 21. Basically, if you're not old enough to get into the bars you go to parties.

Freshman year Kimi had just started dating a Kappa Sig and he was still pledging. They were having a Green Eggs and Kegs party and he invited us. We drank first in her room, I think there were four of us, and the funniest part was the bean bag. Bridget, who was getting drunk on Zima sat down on Kim's roommate's bean bag and a little bit of the kernal stuffing shot out. We were like, what was that? So Bridget stands up, jumps up and lands on the bean bag shooting the stuffing out everywhere. Needless to say this went on for awhile. I have the greatest photo of us laughing and all this white stuff just floating all over the room. I barely remember going to the party, except that's the night we met Troy, this 5th year senior who became like our big brother, even the NEXT year when he was like a 6th year.

That doesn't beat the time, however, that this guy purposefully emptied his bean bag out into the hall and all the guys played slip and slide.

Or the guy who had a beach party in his dorm room and emptied out the volleyball court.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

North Idaho College. Couer d'Alene, Idaho is a nice enough place to visit...but living there is evil.

Tami... if you are brunette Tami who belongs to the Church of the Nazarene and used to be with Sean, please e-mail me right away. And please don't send me a mail bomb, 'kay? Thanks.

I mean, the chances are small. But, I'm having a bad month cosmically. And, another different Tami from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho? I'll keep my fingers crossed, but it would figure.....

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

WG, thanks for bringing up the College Bowl thing, because IMO Maryland doesn't get enough credit for its academics. The school has come a long way in the past decade or so.

There was a Washingtonian article to that effect . . . I think the summer of 2000, it ran. Not sure. But it was all about the school's rep hadn't yet caught up to its new academic offerings.

The CB people I knew all seemed to like it -- certainly they liked it enough to continue their careers there as grad students. But I don't know how you can ever look at another brick building without going blind.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

The guys are too busy watching the girls tanning themselves on the lawn outside the chapel (right across from frat row, where they filmed some of the scenes from St. Elmo's Fire) to notice any brick buildings, so it's all good.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Well. . .I don't have an alma mater, yet, but I will in 3 semesters!

Anyway, I politely disagree with HB and Catherine about Miami being the prettiest place on earth in the fall. I go to Denison and *Denison* is the prettiest place on earth in the fall, no contest. And Granville? Cutest little town EVAH, honest.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Or the guy who had a beach party in his dorm room and emptied out the volleyball court

ok, Hannah, that is hilarious. who was that guy anyway? remember the black light and the highlighters?

so i went to miami of ohio also, as some of you may have gathered. loved the school and the friends i made there. miami gets kind of a bad rep from being called "j crew u", which it pretty much is, but redardless of how many crew necks you own, you still can be a pretty cool person. spoken like a true MU alum.

anyhow, my brother also went to miami so i got to go back last May for his graduation. the campus had changed so much, but still made me all nostalgic. i just look at the kids walking around and wonder if they know how good they've got it...what a great time of your life that is, surrounded by 16,000 kids your age. craziness.

my favorite memory would probably be anything from freshman year, when hannah, dana and bridget and i all met. from stealing pizzas from the emerson basement, failing chem, eating mashed pototoes and pasta at harris, learning that you cannot drink everclear as a shot, falling for fraternity guys (and collecting party favors in an obsessive way)...the list goes on. but maybe the single best night was also the saddest...the last night of freshman year, when we all hung out in emerson, drank on the third floor, and went out one last time. (all except for bridget. wasn't she too drunk?)

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I graduated from Ole IU. Downtown ghetto campus, baby. It was a commuter campus so I have no college memories directly tied to the campus. Or like, even any friends that I made there. But I feel like I got a good edumacation.

I don't give to the alumni fund because I hate Bob Knight with the searing passion of a thousand white-hot suns. Now that they've fired him, I should probably start donating since a lot of people have stopped.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I totally forgot about the highlighters and the black light! I just remember waking up the next morning, like 'What in the world. . . ?!"

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

Hendrix college. More bricks than Maryland. (I know I've seen both) Liberal arts. All professors. All undergrads. It was a hoot.

Ah the first time I got really drunk. That's a story.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I totally forgot about the highlighters and the black light! I just remember waking up the next morning, like 'What in the world. . . ?!"

Well, now you have to tell us, dammit!

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

We have highlighter parties all the time here at the Denidoo. Basically, a frat fronts money, buys lots of highlighters and blacklights, tells everyone to wear a white shirt and voila! People write on you and it's really neat looking.

Except..I'm thinking that HB didn't have a white shirt on..that people literally wrote ON her? Hmm...

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2001

Uh, yeah, something like that. No, it's really not that seedy, but yeah. Basically went to that guy's dorm room (the one who had the beach party) and even though it was weeks later there was still sand everywhere. I'm sure kids in that room in Morris Hall are still finding sand. But he had black lights and I'm not sure if started doing it or we did, but we drew all over our legs and arms.

Clearly, we were not sober at the time.

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2001

Seems like a nice safe place to jump in after reading the name thread. I went to the University of Chicago and majored in English Lit and am currently at Penn Law which will NEVER be my alma mater.

I miss Chicago, but I don't miss being cold.

Don't have a best story, but Scavhunt was very cool. I was on the team that built the working nuclear reactor.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Working nuclear reactor??? What kind of scavenger hunt was this?

Please elaborate! I'm dying to know.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Hey Melissa,

At the U of C, home of the biggest geeks ever, there's this scavhunt in May. It's a list with about 300 items, plus or minus a few. You form teams (shout out to Team Shoreland) and go about completing the list. You have from Wednesday at midnight until Sunday morning when judging starts. There're scav olympics with weird things like "make a 50 foot Grimace," regular items judged inside including trivia, art, and stuff to find, and a road trip team which does things like steal a sign off Bourbon Street in New Orleans or get on the Indianapolis speedway.

I ran the list last year (kept everything organized and tried to get it filled). It was fun, but exhausting since I stayed up the entire time except for 2 hours. I got pretty cranky toward the end.

Anyway, very fun. See http://scavhunt1.uchicago.edu to read the lists if you're interested.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2001