I realized last night, in the middle of my third class as a UHCL graduate student, that I am an educational snob.
I don’t like this.
I keep on walking into UHCL marvelling at all the students. I wonder, do they actually all take classes here? Why? It’s just UHCL, a community college. Somewhere in my brain, I think I held off on taking classes at UHCL for a long time because some part of me considered it an inferior school.
My professor talks a lot about competing for jobs in the industry, and about how UHCL does it differently than UH downtown, and in my brain his comments are interpreted as trying to defend UHCL’s puny program, when in actuality I’m sure he’s just trying to point out the differences. The program’s “puny-ness” is entirely in my head, of course.
Last night I suddenly became aware of all those thoughts and realized what it meant. I am an educational snob. I’ve always said that the school doesn’t matter; it’s what you learn and how you apply it. Apparently I have not been doing as I say. So, in addition to doing all my graphic design homework this fall, I am also going to work on going to campus without my nose figuratively stuck up in the air.
Class went well. I shouldn’t have been worried about how good or bad my text-based picture was (to see it, go back a few entries). Mine was one of the best 3 or 4 in the class of 20, and I got some nice compliments and helpful critiques on it. A lot of people had really great ideas but were stymied by their lack of knowledge on the ins and outs of Illustrator. They had a great idea in their head, but lacked the technical knowledge of the software to turn it into reality. In that sense, I realized that I’m very lucky to have one of those brains that picks up and processes new software tools fairly quickly. I’d never used Illustrator before a month ago, but it’s intuitive enough to me that I was able to do what I wanted.
You just have to think of why UHCL is a good school for you – specifically someone trying to broaden their skill base part-time while working full-time locally and paying out of pocket. Its not going to be Ivy League or large state school caliber, but part of what makes a school like that so well known is not an individual class or professor – its the entire experience, the accessibility of research/jobs to students, availability of financial aid, equally ambitious classmates, the variety and difficulty of course offerings, etc. You also have the name recognition of a major univerity (which opens doors for you whether you like it or not). You’re not going to find that at UHCL, but, in this case, you don’t need it.
Me too…I didn’t know I was an educational snob until someone told me that I was and then I felt guilty for about a month, wouldn’t wear my ASC ring and then I got over it and am going to use it to my advantage to get into law school. Practicing opposite action to correct our defects of character is a great behavioral psychological excercise to change our thinking though. My opposite action is to keep my opinions on schools to myself and pray whenever I have a judgement. Good luck in your class!!
I know I am one too and I didn’t even go to Stanford or the like. I went to a small private college that was expensive as hell. Then I went to a large state grad school. I thought about going back to school, but there aren’t any universities here I would go to in order to make a huge career change. I’d take classes at a UH school to do something I’m interested in as a hobby or side job, but if I wanted to go as far as do something drastic (like law school) I know I wouldn’t go to UH. Not real good reason as so many of my huge firm attnys went there. It’s just something stupid in my head. I don’t like it either.
I think I am a snob about other things, but education isn’t one of them. But it’s good that you recognized that in you….because as GI Joe said, “Knowing is half the battle.” 🙂