Anyone here read the

The Most Deranged Sorority Girl Email You Will Ever Read

e-mail sent by University of Maryland student Rebecca Martinson to her fellow Delta Gamma sorority sisters? It's... uh, an amusing look at a twisted, arguably evil, definitely egotistical, manipulative, spoiled, college student.

WARNING: Lots and Lots of foul language (she would make a sailor blush)!

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/so … -mail-rant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQB812PtvgE

I always wondered if people got this way in high school or if it starts when they get into college.

It's in no way inconsistent with what I've overheard from stuck-up sorority girls in various classes or even around work (we have a lot of incoming preps at my job).

It begins in high school, if not earlier.

It was the uber-entitled frat and sorority people who were the reason I dropped out of University and just went to a local community college instead.

I didn't need to get $30,000 in debt PER SEMESTER so people could be assholes to me, for me to learn nothing useful, and still end up being unemployed at the end of my college career, when I could just come home and do the same, but for cheaper.

Besides, all modern American universities do is indoctrinate "students" with whatever Neo-Marxist non-ideology happens to be popular at the moment.

College sucks so hard, and is such a waste of God-forsaken money.

When I was in high school, I thought that choosing the college I went to would be the most important decision of my life.  It would shape my entire future, both academically and socially.  I ended up going to a couple of fairly prestigious liberal arts schools (transferring from one to the other after my freshman year).

In retrospect, I wish I had taken advantage of a scholarship I had at a state university and graduated with no debt.  I ended up graduating in three years thanks to community college credits and AP classes from high school, but it was still insanely expensive, and now it costs even more.

In my mind, college is really only worth it if you have a scholarship or study hard science, because (a) you might not have the opportunity to use super-expensive equipment/materials outside of a university setting, and (b) you have a better chance of getting a reasonably good-paying job after graduating which will yield a good ROI on your college investment.  The college you choose is fairly immaterial, unless it's either a super big-name college (the kind where you can tell anyone in the country where you went to school, and they've heard of it) or they have a great alumni network or connections to the industry.  Otherwise, you're better off from an economic perspective going to a low-cost college.

If you go to college primarily to party, you're wasting your money.  If you go to college to learn about French literature, you're wasting your money.  You can work in the retail or restaurant industry and study French literature at night if that's really what you want to do.  You don't need to go to school to be an expert in it.  Same thing with computer science.  The best coders I know were not people who studied computer science in college, but those who program on their own in their spare time because they find it interesting.  The internet has made the cost of learning and barriers to getting that information far lower than in the past, and it's far easier to share with others and get instant feedback.

Here's my opinion: I think it's important to get an education, and the primary reason is to be exposed to different schools of thought and to learn how to think on your own. Sure, that may sound cliche, but I really think it's true. Most Americans coming out of high school have only begun to learn, and of course plenty of people never seem to learn at all. I think the second reason is to be able to get a job. As some have already pointed out, a degree in French probably won't land you a stellar job. However, does that mean you should not study French? I don't think that's necessarily true, you just have to realize that if you pick a major that is not very marketable, it may take you a long time to find a job you are happy with. Here's an example of a Princeton graduate who actually majored in French, and could not find the job she wanted (at least as of 2011)

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/new … index.html

however, she does not regret studying French, and I applaud her for that. Of course, a lot of people are probably criticizing her for picking a major such as French, but I think people should mind their own damn business. Everyone is entitled to pursue their version of happiness, and frankly if she ended up studying something she loathes and then got a job she loathed, how happy would she be?

Now as for expense, a school such as Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard... yeah, those rich schools, they actually offer 100% financial aid to anyone that gets accepted. I think it's something like if your parents combined salary is less than $100,000, you get a full ride (scholarship, not loans). Unfortunately, state schools do not offer such programs. Also, tuition at many state schools has become insanely high. This is a major problem across the country. Depending on what your goals and aspirations are in life, it may not be worth going to a big state university or a private school. Nevertheless, I still think that an education is worth it, simply for being educated. However, I do think that in many instances it would be better for students to attend less competitive schools, or perhaps go to a community college. The situation is very different for anyone wanting to go to graduate school, at least I should say in a PhD program. For one thing, you almost certainly will need to go to a competitive school, to get research experience and have a good record. In graduate school, you typically not only get a full tuition-waiver, you also get a stipend, so basically you should be able to graduate with no debt from a good graduate program (typically in the sciences, and typically a PhD).

Anyway, this has been much more of a rant than I expected, so my apologies
Obviously I care very much about education. Back to this Rebecca Martinson, I really wonder how she got in to the Univeristy of Maryland in the first place? It's a good school, and somehow I imagine she is not learning much...

My problem with college is you pay way too much to hear professors peddle their books and teach their perspective on things, while playing all kinds of BS games with your grades. And this is for classes that are required for the major you are going for, which contribute virtually nothing to your overall future. I was honestly disappointed that College math has the same broken teaching methods of useless information that regular schools do. When I took US History (pre-1865) at University of Maryland, the professor there spent 95% of the class talking about slavery, 5% everything else. He covered the actual military part of the Civil War in half a lecture!

I stayed as far away from the greek life stupidity as I could. It's amazing how colleges attract people that generally are amazing students in high school, then they get to college and all they know how to do is party and drink and shortcut their way through everything.

But you work in a field that has its own credentialing system. Most people don't, and rely on college to provide their credentials for them. And a more prestigious college gives better credentials. Even if you learn no marketable skills in college, a diploma that says "This person was smart enough to get into a good college and conscientious enough to finish" gives you an edge over job candidates who don't have that certificate. This is especially true for jobs where a candidate's skills can't be easily verified, and less so for actuaries (who have the actuarial exams) and computer programmers (whose job interviews are basically IQ tests). If nothing else, it gets you past the resume filter.

Now, this is all horribly wasteful in a macroeconomic sense. Having half our population spending nearly 10% of their working-age lives out of the labor force, learning things that are mostly useless and will quickly be forgotten, can't be good for the economy. But you don't control what other people do. From an individual perspective, it usually makes sense to go to the most prestigious college you can get into. You probably won't learn any more than you would at a state college, but it'll keep your resume out of the trashcan.

i had to drop all my fall '94 classes at Moraine Valley Community College because i got too addicted to final fantasy 3.
luckily back then the in-district resident rate was only $35 per credit hour

FTW!!!

And that's a little disheartening.  A lot of college students expect their college to do the talking for them.  The people I've seen who are the most successful (from a work sense) are those that have taken charge of what they do, learning about it every opportunity they can and immersing themselves in it.  They don't just do their job; they learn about how their job connects to rest of the company and try to expand their responsibilities without waiting for someone else to do it for them.  For a lot of fields, college can get you in the door, but having an obvious ability to perform the job and develop (regardless of formal training or number of years on the job) is what keeps you progressing in your career.

You bring up a good point that, by having an external credentialing system, I am not as reliant on someone's college as others might be.  When I'm hiring an entry-level candidate, I care about work experience (or internships) first, then exams, then college.  For more senior candidates, I care about work experience, work ethic, and whether or not they have their credentials.  College can be an indicator of potential, and can be important early on in your career, but if you've spent five years in your field, your choice of college has less meaning.

One thing that college can help you out with greatly (if you take advantage of it) is in making connections with others.  Having a strong alumni network can help you land a first job, and keeping in touch with your classmates can give you future opportunities others might not get.  In that case, going to a college which is well-renowned in your chosen field is an advantage (if the school has a good reputation, it's because the graduates succeed; if the graduates succeed, the school can be more selective and get better candidates, who have a better chance of succeeding in the future; better candidates in your class means they have more ability to help you progress in the future).

I will also say that if you change careers, your choice of college may end up being relevant again.  In that case, any transferable work experience is probably most important, but your college will probably be looked at again.  In that case, it helps to have a school that is consistently excellent across a broad range of disciplines for extended periods of time.

so you're the old saying has changed...

it's not who you know,, it's who you b... efriend on facebook, twatter, peninterest etc...