You could say this entry is a little spinoff from the Final Days in North Dakota series, like Razor was from the larger Battlestar Galactica show. I also didn’t bother to write about it five years ago. I did have celebratory banners over the 20th anniversary of attending my alma mater Marquette.
About this time 25 years ago, I most likely received all my acceptance and rejection letters with the universities I applied to. I can proudly say I didn’t get any denials. My GPA was well-above average but it wasn’t fantastic courtesy of my freshman year. I readily admit to my North Dakota residency being a bigger factor in the admissions peoples’ decisions too.
Where did I apply? I only bothered with five places: Vanderbilt, Marquette, Florida Tech, Texas and Illinois State (my safe pick). I could’ve tried for a couple more like Arizona State, Illinois and Northwestern yet I felt I had spent enough of Dad’s money on the fees ($200 then). I didn’t bother with the two big institutions in North Dakota because I wanted to get the hell out. I also skipped Notre Dame since I knew it was in the Indiana boonies.
My absolute first pick was Vandy. I wanted to go so badly. I had no hesitation on the essay part in its application (a big factor in trying with Notre Dame). I got assistance from my English teacher Mrs. Hoff too; critique and proofreading, I didn’t make her write it for me. Why did I want to go there? I honestly don’t remember. It was in Nashville. It was founded by a sleazebag Robber Baron who thought having a university named after him would expunge his crimes against Humanity and Democracy. I guess it sounded prestigious enough to assist me in whatever career I would pursue four years later. Why didn’t I go? Obviously it was expensive like all private schools, especially when it’s almost on par with the Ivy League academically. My parents were expecting me to score the NROTC scholarship I withdrew from weeks earlier. I wasn’t pursuing an engineering degree anyway so I’m confident the Navy wouldn’t have made me the offer.
I’ll come back to pick number two as we all know which one that turned out to be.
Numero three was the University of Texas. I had never been to Austin before and all I knew about it was my mother’s bellyaching from her 1983 visit with my grandparents. Why there? After a typical winter in Beulah, I thought it would be nice to attend school in a warmer climate. Besides, once I got a good view on how my St. Agnes classmates were on the fast-track to loserdom, I embraced the possibilities Houston brought for high school. I figured the great vibes and times I had with Houston would be recaptured via Austin. Again, my parents nixed it for two reasons: out-of-state tuition was more (nothing close to Vandy or Marquette though); housing was a nightmare. They were actually correct on the latter as I learned when I moved here a decade later.
Coming in fourth was Florida Tech. This institution was an earlier decision from months ago and I forgot to bail on them. Part of it was influenced by the month I spent in Tampa staying at Uncle Chief’s house. Florida seemed like a great place to live outside of the occasional hurricane, violence (Miami Vice and Scarface didn’t help) and being anywhere near my bossy cousin Julie. Tech seemed to be a more mature choice because my serious cousin Matthew attending Fordham said the majority of colleges in Florida were just party schools; his sister seemed to be living proof, all Julie jabbered on about were various times she got wasted. There was no argument on this choice since I had lost interest by Christmas.
As for my safe choice, Illinois State, I felt rather insulted by their acceptance materials. Despite having pretty decent grades, there were no scholarship or grant offers, just the letter with some loan applications from nearby banks. I was supposed to be thrilled over being chosen for the honors program instead. Being 17, I only saw it as more unnecessary effort and asked the ‘rents what was so great about it. Mom said it meant I would have priority on getting the classes I wanted/needed, therefore I could graduate in four years. ISU’s reputation for being a five-to-six-year institution was well known and had made the school a sad joke. The place remained popular since the state had worse choices if you didn’t get into the more prestigious universities in Chicago or Urbana. These factors didn’t faze Mom, she ran an ongoing campaign through the Summer to convince me ISU was the best decision. I am glad I stuck to my guns against it. Any place which thought I was honors material couldn’t have been very good and after being in the workforce for over 20 years, nobody gives a crap about your grades, employers only verify you graduated. The other factor was its location. I had been in and out of Bloomington-Normal all my life. I really wanted to be somewhere else…and away from any nosey friends/relatives; Brian suffered from this throughout his high-school years.
Which pulls everything back to my silver medal winner…Marquette. Unlike the others, they ponied up some dough. My cumulative high-school GPA earned me a $500/semester scholarship under the condition I kept my career GPA there over three; this was doubled to $1000/semester just for my sophomore year, the excuse afterwards was “budget issues.” Marquette was more expensive than UT, FIT and ISU but half the cost of Vandy so I won on this choice. Later I discovered how my parents claimed I “tricked” them by saying I was enrolled for a business degree, not communication. I never told them anything at all regarding my plans other than Vandy, a BS in Economics since I figured I would change to something else like 50 percent of all students do. The university’s location was another factor, it was in a large city and not some cow town which rolled up the sidewalks after 5 PM and/or mid-May. Too bad I had never been to Milwaukee, I think a good whiff of the tanneries from the valley and a week to discover it was the land in which Led Zeppelin never broke up, would’ve made me reconsider borrowing out the wazoo for Vandy. There were other charms I grew to love about the city made famous by Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Jeffrey Dahmer. Whenever, I griped about Milwaukee, I quickly remembered how dull ISU was.
Great things did happen to outweigh the numerous crappy events, especially the rampant amplified nepotism and feudalism in Catholicism. The biggest being the friends I still have to this day: Paul, Helen, Jose, Nelson, Sheila, Lee, Deb, Neal and Phil.
A few weeks ago, I participated in a survey from them. Its crux was over alumni donations which was an eye-opener. It asked what I thought was the percentage of graduates who gave money. I figured around 25, namely from the braggarts I keep seeing in the quarterly magazine Marquette keeps sending; I wish they’d stop, I really don’t care what goes on there. The reality was 15 percent which then proceeded to the question of why is it so low? Accrued debt was my immediate answer followed by the administration’s cowardly decision to change the team’s name from Warriors to Golden Eagles. (Paul has repeatedly told the telemarketers, Marquette won’t see another dime for the latter.) I did have to throw in some complaints regarding their obsession with winning another NCAA basketball title; how overpriced it is for the same education state schools offer while they have better resources in broadcasting; and in the end, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t go there because I grew tired of the autocratic Jesuits (may explain why dropout-alumnus Scott Walker is such a prick). Sounds like sour grapes initially but I’ve had 20 years to reflect. I’m not bitter or resentful, my diploma remains valid. Plus there were some awesome classes I loved with inspiring instructors and obviously a handful I wish I could’ve avoided, namely Dr. Masson’s apologist lectures. I blame myself more on the whys. School overall is what you put into it. This can negate the prestige or overcome the lack of it may have. Maybe if I had the opportunity to escape North Dakota to visit the candidates, I might’ve made a wiser decision. Probably not, I knew everything then.