Regarding Laura Vilines’ article, “Washington University’s True Life: How other University students stack up,” I must say I was not the least bit surprised with her survey’s results. Not all hope is lost, though. I just wanted to let you know that there are some students out there who are financially independent.
I will admit that I was quite pampered in high school (relative to the area that I lived in). I never had a job during the school year (I worked during the summer) and I never had to pay for a car (because I never had one). While in high school and applying to schools, all my dad ever thought about was costs. My mom, an English teacher who insisted on correct grammar all the damn time, originally wanted me to attend Wash. U.
She knew what it meant to graduate from a prestigious university. But I was presented with a problem. My father told me straight up that if I wanted to go to Wash. U., I would have to pay for it. Another requirement for attending was not becoming a brainwashed hippie. The latter has not been a problem. But I had to research how I was going to afford this school that was so absoludicrously priced.
I finally found a certain scholarship program that would pay my full tuition and room/board. It even gave me a monthly stipend and a little help with buying books! I couldn’t ask for more. Well, I could ask for more, but I would be told to shut up. Though, with all the benefits, there are MANY requirements involved with this scholarship, all mandatory and time-consuming (including, but not limited to, a class every semester that Wash. U. doesn’t even give you credit for, but that’s a completely different topic. It also requires a post-graduation job commitment, but I will not get into details. If you cannot figure out what program I am talking about, well, think harder.
Since graduation from high school, I have remained financially independent from my parents and I will continue to be when I graduate from this university. But…people like Julie Loewenberg make me almost regret my decision to attend. Hopefully, students who are responsible can make bigger impressions on the younger, impressionable MTV crowd (who all are thinking about where they want to attend college) than this snobby excuse for a “fashion designer.” I have enough trouble explaining to people from my podunk area of Ohio (the only thing notable from my village is our racing course that makes it on ESPN about once a year) where St. Louis even is, and how I do NOT, in fact, attend a school in the state of Washington. I don’t need help from MTV making my school look like a bunch of primped, Paris Hilton-wannabe socialites. Considering the percentage of bleeding-heart liberals on campus who exhibit these qualities, I suggest a new slogan for the College Democrats: “We love to help the disadvantaged and the poor, regardless of our extreme and needless spending on products that are required to maintain our superior social status.”
If you were offended by that last statement, then you are exactly the type of person who needs to read it again and think about what it is saying. This letter will probably fall on deaf ears, but if you ever have a chance to represent yourself in the mainstream media (or to ANYONE), please think of who you are representing. Some of us wish to maintain school pride.
Bill is a junior in Arts & Sciences.