Fill In the Blanks!
From my calendar, scrawled in bold letters next to May 1st:
"As Fate Has It, I, Jessi Holler, Will Be Attending __________ College, or I have sold out and shall be matriculating at _____________ University, or I am veritably dumb."
When helping me to fill this out, please don't pick option #3.
My realistic options are Michigan and OSU. I love absolutely everything about Michigan, but have heard less than savory tales about the LS&A, am unsure of how to handle the Telluride/Residential College split (RC is like a very terrible knock-off of Reed, and Telluride is, well...glorious, but also limits one's immediate social group to twenty-five people). Additionally, almost all of Michigan's English classes carry compelling titles like "Literature?" and "Analytic College Writing." A few more specific electives are offered junior and senior years. State Up North, I'm shaking my fists with glee.
I despise OSU because I am an official student anyway, and the idea that I could have already graduated from OSU via post-secondary classes, or that I could have entered as a senior if I would have taken more classes junior and senior year, bothers me immensely.
However, I am biased by proximity, and by a long history of promising myself that I would get the bloody hell out of this foul place. I had no intention of ever attending, but the students do continue to amaze me, and for some bizarre reason, I find the fact that several of my classmates are over thirty, or are college-age but with kids, or are pregnant, and that almost all of them work full-time, immensely humbling. They are also incredibly bright individuals, even if their lives are not hinged on the progress of Academe.
Additionally, there is the fact that OSU's English Department is undergoing a literary renaissance. Professor Sebastian Knowles, eccentric brit extraordinaire, is the head of the International Joyce Society, and the James Joyce Quarterly is based in a classroom two floors above my own. (Student at Reed: "Yeah! Professor ________ again, as my parents have informed me, I can't come out of school with a major in Ulysses. (Which, by-the-by, the British pronounce YULL-ih-sees, versus the good old American you-LHY-sees. Sorry to all of our resident linguists for my phoenetic folderol.)
I could almost afford Chicago.
Or Beloit, Grinnell, or Bard.
I think that I would like to go to Brown.
(1. I've never been--hence romantic fantasy sustained. 2. Only undergraduate Semiotics program in the nation 3. Comparative Literature 4. Countercultural Aura + Legitimacy...sort of.) I remember some intense diatribes from the likes of some of you concerning the "Brown Type," so any warnings/rants would be very much appreciated at this point in time. You wouldn't want me to sell my soul to Nellie May for a four-year degree in Hipster/Subcultural Elitism, right?
I have visited Reed. My lungs hurt for three days afterwards. I kid you not.
My love, however, has not diminished. My parents' finances, however, have not increased.
Tomorrow:
Swarthmore, Amherst, Brown...other places?...and Chicago.
If any of you could offer any advice about the benefits of large universities, or want to provide redeeming wisdoms in defense of the small liberal arts education, please do post below. I have experienced sudden conversion, and would like a big school, but I want it to be big, and liberal-sy. Je ne sais pas! The future's all a blur!
Love,
Jessi
"As Fate Has It, I, Jessi Holler, Will Be Attending __________ College, or I have sold out and shall be matriculating at _____________ University, or I am veritably dumb."
When helping me to fill this out, please don't pick option #3.
My realistic options are Michigan and OSU. I love absolutely everything about Michigan, but have heard less than savory tales about the LS&A, am unsure of how to handle the Telluride/Residential College split (RC is like a very terrible knock-off of Reed, and Telluride is, well...glorious, but also limits one's immediate social group to twenty-five people). Additionally, almost all of Michigan's English classes carry compelling titles like "Literature?" and "Analytic College Writing." A few more specific electives are offered junior and senior years. State Up North, I'm shaking my fists with glee.
I despise OSU because I am an official student anyway, and the idea that I could have already graduated from OSU via post-secondary classes, or that I could have entered as a senior if I would have taken more classes junior and senior year, bothers me immensely.
However, I am biased by proximity, and by a long history of promising myself that I would get the bloody hell out of this foul place. I had no intention of ever attending, but the students do continue to amaze me, and for some bizarre reason, I find the fact that several of my classmates are over thirty, or are college-age but with kids, or are pregnant, and that almost all of them work full-time, immensely humbling. They are also incredibly bright individuals, even if their lives are not hinged on the progress of Academe.
Additionally, there is the fact that OSU's English Department is undergoing a literary renaissance. Professor Sebastian Knowles, eccentric brit extraordinaire, is the head of the International Joyce Society, and the James Joyce Quarterly is based in a classroom two floors above my own. (Student at Reed: "Yeah! Professor ________ again, as my parents have informed me, I can't come out of school with a major in Ulysses. (Which, by-the-by, the British pronounce YULL-ih-sees, versus the good old American you-LHY-sees. Sorry to all of our resident linguists for my phoenetic folderol.)
I could almost afford Chicago.
Or Beloit, Grinnell, or Bard.
I think that I would like to go to Brown.
(1. I've never been--hence romantic fantasy sustained. 2. Only undergraduate Semiotics program in the nation 3. Comparative Literature 4. Countercultural Aura + Legitimacy...sort of.) I remember some intense diatribes from the likes of some of you concerning the "Brown Type," so any warnings/rants would be very much appreciated at this point in time. You wouldn't want me to sell my soul to Nellie May for a four-year degree in Hipster/Subcultural Elitism, right?
I have visited Reed. My lungs hurt for three days afterwards. I kid you not.
My love, however, has not diminished. My parents' finances, however, have not increased.
Tomorrow:
Swarthmore, Amherst, Brown...other places?...and Chicago.
If any of you could offer any advice about the benefits of large universities, or want to provide redeeming wisdoms in defense of the small liberal arts education, please do post below. I have experienced sudden conversion, and would like a big school, but I want it to be big, and liberal-sy. Je ne sais pas! The future's all a blur!
Love,
Jessi
posted by goodbye, goodbye at 6:16 PM
3 Comments:
Ach, Adam--
My father would love you.
If I went to Michigan, I would be fulfilling his Not-So-Secret plots & schemes to make a Practical Member of Society out of me, after all.
And we can't have that, right?
But, truly, the OSU/Michigan equilibrium/divide is a strange one--in this month of relative peace and quiet, I've begun to reflect on how very much I like Columbus, and how very low-stress and predictable and routine it would be for me to attend Ohio State with the other 92% of my graduating class.
Is it worth spending $20,000+ to defend my illusion of free will? Can the idea of determining one's own fate v. choice of post-secondary institution really be quantified?
I am worried that I am investing too much in this romantic notion of "breaking out" of Ohio and high school educations, but I think that the fear must be valid, because somewhere beneath all of this is the sinking fear that if I don't get out now (and my parents didn't get out,) I won't get out. Ever.
And when New Albany reaches critical mass and the faux-Palladian mansions stretch from Indiana to Pennsylvania...
I will be regretting my free undergraduate degree and comprehensive knowledge of Ohio regional culture.
Alas.
Somehow, someway, and contrary to all common logic, the "v." was meant to represent "via" and not "versus."
Watch out.
how much is going into debt a problem for you?
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