OT: Who Should Claim UM Alumni Status
So posts on another thread inspired me to post this as I have wondered about it for a while. To be considere a UM Alumni, do you have to have graduated from UM? I myself had about 50% of my undergraduate credits from UM, but I graduated from another school (grew up in Ann Arbor, had to leave). I have never been comfortable saying I am an alumni from UM. We certainly consider athletes who don't graduate alumni. The UM Alumni Association will take anyone who wants to write a check as a member.
April 24th, 2015 at 10:06 AM ^
I took nearly all my classes at the MMB but I did work-study from the Plant Dept building next to I-475 4x a week as a groundskeeper. I would first walk to the old now non-existent Halos next to CROB before heading to work. If you used to see a guy covered with dirt and grass and drenched with sweat while mowing the grass or shoveling snow it was likely me.
"The best students at Flint are equal with the best at AA, (and I have/do know many extremely smart and talented individuals)..."
A few of you have posted variations of this and it speaks to your naivety with regard to the achievement gap between a directional student body and an elite college student body. Getting into a strong college like Ann Arbor isn't just about raw intelligence, it's about soft skills, ambition, social IQ, being groomed for and seized with ascent, etc. If students at a satellite were fit for Ann Arbor, they'd transfer to Ann Arbor, or at least another school closer in calibre to Ann Arbor (UD-M, Hope, Albian, Hillsdale, K-College). An Ann Arbor student would go insane spending just one semester at Flint or Dearborn. All of the other context and excuses don't mean anything to employers or graduate schools. All of them know cream finds a way to rise to the top and surround themselves with like-minded ambitious peers. It's not like you put an asterisk on your resume or transcript to tell them how your dad was a drunk, you were in a car crash when you were 17, etc. Nobody cares. It's harsh, but it's the truth. Your resume can't even get read by anyone at a decent company, the software auto-deletes it.
Flint and Dearborn students who are deceptive and flaunt being a "University of Michigan alum" are a sad bunch trying to piggy back off the ANN ARBOR brand. Period.
You blew up your arguement as soon as you equated Hope, Hillsdale and Albian to UM @ AA. Hope will take anyone wiht 34k/yr and dutch parents. Anyone who's mom or dad works at Hope for 5yrs gets a free ride. Hope has prestige for ONE reason.. $$$$ it costs to go there. Same with Albian, Hilldale, K-College.
You, with every word, verify and justify what so many suspect. College, especially liberal arts at university, are nothing more than a rite of passage for the bourgeoise. Where how much $$ mommy & daddy are willing to toss into a hole where you might just learn how to beer bong & pack a bowl with folks from another state while having the time of your life on their dime renders you, the recipient of the proper sperm load, the beneficiary of this charity, as somehow superior to that CC kid who had to bust his ass to try and get ahead in this world.
Thanks for giving creedence to what most of us already suspected to be 90% true. Self rightous pricks deserve to spend 250k on your kids education and have them return home with an expensive piece of paper, a cocaine habit and a case of the clap.
Hope and Kalamazoo actually place ridiculously well at elite grad and professional schools, including MLaw and UM Medical School. A lot of their students go into debt to attend, because they value the personalized instruction and tight concentration of like-minded peers. My point was there is such a gap between a satellite and the flagship that students with even close to the chops for Ann Arbor are sorted to colleges in the middle, i.e., not drop off all the way to a glorified community college, sharing lectures with 2/3 of their classmates who can't read or write at a college level. Your class-envy is unbecoming. Stop glorifying lesser schools. Community colleges aren't full of super ambitious, actually the opposite. Mostly slackers who've never finished a book in their life, lack impulse control, exhibit an external locus of control, and make a million excuses for their situation in life.
April 25th, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^
April 25th, 2015 at 10:57 AM ^
I didn't know that my wife and I, both UMF grads, both with grad degrees (she from Purdue, I from UMAA and YTM), were so deficient in soft skills. I guess we had to make up for that absence with our pure ambition- nope, can't have that unless I am UMAA or Ivy pedegree (but apparently not Cornell or Brown.) Some day, when I am lying on me death bed and my mind revisits my life, I will finally comprehend why there was such a huge empty chasm in my soul.
I will have to tell my daughter at BGSU that she is destined for mediocracy. Say, if she married someone of ultimate grooming like you would she still be accepted in society?
April 24th, 2015 at 12:14 PM ^
I did my undergrad at an SEC school and am now a grad student at UM-AA. I worked damn hard to be a competitive candidate, knowing full well the reputation 'Michigan' enjoys, not just nationally but globally. I am proud to be a Wolverine, and proud of the effort I put into becoming one.
Do I think there's an element of white-lie deception going on if people who attend Dearborn or Flint claim to have attended "The University of Michigan?" Yes I do.
Does it bother me? A little.
But it doesn't bother me nearly as much as some of the statements I've seen posted on this board by fellow AA students and graduates. Visit a place like Afghanistan and you'll soon realize that all education - any education at all - is sacred and something to be encouraged and respected. When the opportunity to educate one's self goes away, everything else comes crashing down - literally.
Some of people bragging about the global perspective AA imparts seem to be lacking in just that regard. Spend some time eight or ten time zones east of your comfy middle-to-upper class American life and you'll quickly learn that it's not so much where you went to school, but THAT you went to school.
I assume that people who get to attend fine schools worked hard to create that opportunity. I commend them.
But you know what? Lots of people work hard but never get that opportunity, for any number of reasons. It could be finances, family obligations, civil wars, whatever. Some of the very fortunate on this board need to humble themselves and keep that in mind.
My two cents...
April 24th, 2015 at 12:34 PM ^
1st visit to campus to see If I wanted to apply, bought T-shirt in student book store...started calling myself alum then...so to qualify I say "Gave UM money" -Alum
October 22nd, 2016 at 2:20 AM ^
Sorry to drudge this up. I am preparing to graduate with my Bachelor's from Liberty University through their online program and am researching MBA programs. I am a lifelong UM fan and am considering attending UM Dearborn's online MBA program. Part of this is to form a link to the UM family and not be "just a fan". That being said the more I read the more I feel that a degree from UMD would not satisfy that link as I would be perceived as UMD alumnus and not UM. I'd love to go to UMAA but they do not offer the online MBA program, thus landing me in the situation I am in. Are UMD grads viewed differently? Wondering if I'm better off to go to a college that offers a full online MBA program such as Indiana, Florida or Arkansas.