babbleismysuperpower: inthisquarter: whitepeopletwitter: Harvard? Never heard of her Want a more sub
babbleismysuperpower: inthisquarter: whitepeopletwitter: Harvard? Never heard of her Want a more subtle way to accomplish this same kind of power move? DON’T ASK WHERE IN BOSTON. Story: I go to a fancy grad school, where a lot of folks did their undergraduate degrees at fancy places. The two schools whose alumni here are the most full of themselves about it are Harvard and MIT. They’ll drop the name of their alma mater at any and every chance they get. However, upon introductions, they all name-drop it in the exact same way, that YOU can take advantage of. They want it to go like this: “Where did you do your undergrad?”“Oh, I went to school in Boston.”“Neat. Which school?”“MIT.” or “Harvard.” This way, they can act like they’re trying to be humble and not mention it, but then because you asked, they can brag. Now, I am from a midwestern public football university, so I get a little sick of people pulling this kind of stunt, especially because the same people give me a down-their-nose look after I say my school. So, I have learned that it is WILDLY hilarious to make the conversation go like this instead: “Where did you do your undergrad?”“Oh, I went to school in Boston.”“Neat; that’s a cool city. Hey, have you all seen the latest Star Wars movie? [Or whatever subject change]”*stunned and frustrated silence because they have no excuse to name drop* They can’t bring it up the topic change because it would be rude, and because the obvious response is that everyone knows that “where did you do your undergrad” implies what school, not what city, so they were being unhelpful in the first place. Anyway, for the small percentage of people that regularly meet braggy Boston alums, go get ‘em. i too went to a midwestern public football university and now i live and work in greater boston, and while i haven’t had the opportunity to do this myself i fully support it. but i also wonder, because boston is kind of the land of 1000 colleges, when someone says “oh i went to school in boston” would it tick them off and make your point to just run through a bunch of local schools that aren’t mit or harvard. like,“where did you do your undergrad?”“oh, i went to school in boston.”“yeah? where? bu? bc? tufts? simmons? lesley? berklee? northeastern? umass? bunker hill?”(note for the non-bostonians: bunker hill is a community college. no shade to community colleges! but someone who desperately wants to humblebrag that they went to harvard is going to be annoyed as hell that you think they went to one.)this may or may not also suggest to the bragger that you’re familiar with boston schools and you know they’re being an asshole. so now if you meet one of these people, you have options on how to respond. have fun with it. :D -- source link