Happens all the time, I don’t take it personally. I kind of agree with Post #1 - if something on cc is stated as fact and it’s not true, I might correct it, just as I would expect someone to correct me if I was wrong about something. But opinions are opinions and not worth the battle. I also love the smile and nod thread!
Ignore. Unless not true. There are ppl here who must get notified whenever their school is mentioned. They race in to defend:). Some are just being helpful. Some are obnoxious and if anyone has an issue with the school, they are dismissed as someone who either could not get in, or someone they obviously should not have let in!! Lol!
Me? My undergrad alma mater is not a big topic of conversation on CC, so it never comes up!
It depends. Sometimes I jump in and defend the school. Other times I will just shrug and say, “Huh. (long pause) Ok.” A long awkward silence can go a long way and it’s a way of saying a lot without actually saying anything. The uninformed/opinionated person who approached you will get the message that he/she was being a rude butt head.
I LOVE the “smile and nod” thread. It’s very entertaining!
This is a slightly reverse example of the same thing…
Last year, I was talking with another parent at my kids’ school. The mom got to talking about college plans. Her daughter (a senior in high school at the time) had her heart set on Reed College and the mom thought it was a perfect fit but they had made the mistake of going on college tours before looking at whether or not the family could afford it. And unfortunately, they learned that they couldn’t afford to send the daughter to Reed College. Her daughter is a really smart cookie and got a full tuition merit scholarship at the state flagship universities.
But, ironically, the mom was embarrassed about it. The mom kept talking down about the college and acted like her kid was going to correspondence school or something. When the mom said, sheepishly, “Yeah, DD is going to state flagship. She’s going to major in ___ and she got a full tuition scholarship,” I said, “Wow! That’s great! I’ve heard good things about the ___ department there. And how wonderful that the tuition will be free! That’s an amazing gift. She’s going to get a good education there.”
The mom seriously was in mourning over the daughter not going to Reed College…to the point where she was talking smack about the school that her daughter DID end up going to. Weird!
@Veruca, same here (although mine hasn’t decided yet)! I hate when someone who doesn’t know my child tries to give her unsolicited advice about which college to go to. It’s always all about that person and their own issues and never about my child. People should just say “Congratulations! How are you going to pick from those great choices?” Or even, “Oh really? What draws you to it?” if they want to talk about it. Instead we get, “Oh, don’t go to that one…” Blech.
In general, unsolicited advice, unless you’re saving a life somehow… just NO.
It’s not just outsiders who do this. I belong to a parent page on FB where I sometimes have to roll my eyes at the complainers. Their complaints about the school are nothing like our family’s experience there.
I don’t react. I don’t get back. I lower my estimation of the person who would make such disparaging remarks, and move on.
It depends, honestly. If it’s a valid criticism (i.e. it’s not diverse enough, the library needs to be open more hours on the weekends, etc.), then I actually do tend to agree with it - as much as I love my school, it’s certainly not perfect. If it’s something to do with academic quality of a comparable school, then I usually step in to say why my school is at least on par with the other school in question. But if it’s something that’s untrue then I either correct them or just ignore them.
I do feel obligated to defend the school when I feel it’s being academically underestimated, however.
I never say anything bad about anyone’s college, but I may report true bad experiences. My college gets dissed all the time, while others seem to worship it as the Holy Grail. The truth is that like every college, there are good and bad things about it. If you think it’s going to provide a perfect experience you’ll be disappointed. If you think it doesn’t provide a better education than Podunk U., I think you’re wrong.
I like @bopper’s "Interesting…that was not my experience at all. "
I know people who got their best financial aid package from NYU. I know people who were miserable at Princeton. I know people who had fabulous TA’s who were better than their professors. I know some name brand professors who were great, and others who were terrible.