AS MY FIRST semester as a transfer student at the University draws to a close, I have begun to reflect on the comical difference in atmosphere between the University and my last school, Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie Mellon was far from my first choice for college, and I reluctantly went there for a year with the intent of transferring. It was about this time last year that I was looking back on my first semester at Carnegie Mellon and realizing how surreal the place really is. As a displaced Boston native, I can't help but think about how unique the three radically different places are that I have lived in during 2001. Perhaps students at the University will be able to appreciate this school when viewed in comparison with my experience at a similarly large and prestigious university like Carnegie Mellon.
At Carnegie Mellon, I met approximately four sane people during the year. Among the "Melloners" who came to be associated with the weirdness of the school, I met people who disdained personal hygiene, hung door knobs from their bookbags, sang to themselves, drove around dorms on scooters, stole ketchup bottles from cafeterias, were compulsive masturbators, and partook in many other disturbing activities.
Though my experience at the University has been considerably shorter, I have yet to encounter such psychological disturbance with any students here. The people of Virginia may have that funny accent that a person from Boston never will understand, but they are infinitely more polite than people from Boston and more mentally balanced than the people at Carnegie Mellon.
The hot Saturday activity at Virginia is cheering on the football team and spending the night partying. At Carnegie Mellon, I can't even verify that they have a football team. The school allegedly has a Division III team, yet I never met anyone who played on the team or claimed to have witnessed a game. On Saturday nights, the difficult decision facing many Carnegie Mellon students concerns which to do first, engineering or calculus homework. Despite the many cultural offerings of Pittsburgh, you can always walk through a dorm at 1 o'clock in the morning and see a half dozen students huddled around a table playing a fierce game of Risk.
Both schools have their traditions, but the ones at Carnegie Mellon are more obscure, to say the least. Here, students wear school memorabilia, partake in the many traditions at sporting events, abide by the honor code, and occasionally streak across the Lawn at 2 a.m. on weekend nights. At Carnegie Mellon, students usually try to pass themselves off as students at the nearby University of Pittsburgh, stay away from public places like the plague, partake in the Wean Drop - the periodic removal of broken printers, 20 pound pumpkins, food or other unwanted items by dropping them down a large eight-floor staircase in Wean Hall - and sneak onto rooftops to write, "All our base are ours". After all, this is the school which held a major Al Gore for President rally in November 2000 and handed out pocket protectors brandishing the slogan, "Geeks for Gore." Six months later, I still don't understand that school.
Living in Pennsylvania and then moving to Virginia definitely has had its share of interesting moments for this born and raised northerner. The accents and colorful speech are alien to a guy who is used to people extending their vowels to replace consonants and yelling about how "Nomah Gahciapahrah" and the Red Sox are so much better than the Yankees. It is definitely disconcerting to live around the unique Pennsylvania and Virginia drawls, but nothing is more baffling than the Pittsburgh perversion of "you" into "yinz."
The past two years have been an interesting odyssey in which I have been constantly on the move from place to place. My experience at Carnegie Mellon led me to the conclusion that the school was evil incarnate, and I am glad to be settled here in Virginia. Carnegie Mellon may be a wonderful place for social deviants who enjoy spending more time in front of a computer than with people, so it might be offensive to write this story, yet the above is the complete and unadulterated truth of my experience.
I make fun of Carnegie Mellon, but the experience I had there makes me all the more grateful for the wonderful opportunities and life that the University affords. As the year winds down and everybody takes a look back at the past year, every American has more to think about than during the years of complacency and safety that have been the norm in America. I, and hopefully every other student here should give a moment's reflection on their place at this great school in this incredible nation and remember that there are many Americans who have been less fortunate this year - people who have lost someone to terrorism, suffered economic hardship or attended another year at Carnegie Mellon University.
(Brad Cohen is a Cavalier Daily columnist. He can be reached at bcohen@cavalierdaily.com)
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