Embarrassed to admit I went to Yale
I have always been embarrassed to say I attended Yale.
During my four semesters there, I avoided telling people where I went. When asked where I studied, I responded Connecticut. If pressed further, I mentioned New Haven. Only as a last resort did I drop the Y-name, which was inevitably accompanied by raised eyebrows and silent judgment.
People look at you differently after you disclose that you’re a Yalie. Especially now, in light of the breaking nationwide college admissions scandal implicating top-tier academic institutions such as Georgetown, Stanford, and Yale, there is even more to elicit embarrassment.
As an institution that prides itself on keeping up appearances, Yale’s involvement did not surprise me. When I learned that the women’s soccer coach accepted a hefty bribe to recruit a student who did not even play competitive soccer, I thought back to the four years I slaved to earn perfect marks at an unknown high school just for the chance to go to a school that everyone told me was the golden ticket to my future success.
Little did I know, getting into an Ivy League school on merit is not the only route. It is no secret that prestigious institutions, like Yale, play favorites with the wealthy, well-connected, and Hollywood elite. Yale has always been a playground for the privileged and an estuary for the esteemed. That’s why people encouraged me to go there, so I could rub elbows with brilliant minds and make lucrative connections.
Despite Yale’s loudly touted 96 percent graduation rate, I ultimately fell into the dreaded 4 percent. I left after my financial aid dried up, and I was faced with incurring massive debt or moving on. I decided to venture across the city to Southern Connecticut State University. Because I was able to work and study full time there, I will graduate without a penny of debt.
I am not embarrassed to say I go to Southern. Revealing this information is never accompanied by shock or surprise or assumptions about my capabilities. It is not necessary to bribe admissions officers to gain entrance into this school of realistic expectations because the admissions requirements are far from stringent.
What Southern lacks in prestige and exclusivity, it makes up for in an honest approach to academia. At Southern, professors took a genuine interest in me. My advisors actually gave me good advice. At Yale, my advisors just signed the course schedules I compiled myself after hours of muddling through the course offerings and requirements.
At Southern, I have people who are invested in helping me succeed after I graduate. My advisor helped me find a paid internship for which to apply this summer. At Yale, it was always on me to find and pursue openings that were always extremely competitive.
I worked hard to get something out of my five semesters at Southern, and it is true that most students do not take advantage of the opportunities that do exist. Although Southern cannot compete with the hype of an Ivy League school, at least it is not a laughing stock of scandal and criminal activity.
Yale promised the world and gave me nothing; Southern promised nothing and is giving me the world.
Yale has always been a playground for the privileged and an estuary for the esteemed. That’s why people encouraged me to go there, so I could rub elbows with brilliant minds and make lucrative connections.