Matthew Pearlstone Speaks
Apparently Matthew Pearlstone was an active poster on a forum site called College Confidential (CC). Below are some of his 167 entries:
On Getting Into College
Matt needed a little outside help with his essays:
I used essayedge.com – IMO, it was great. They did an amazing job of editing my essays – though they won’t write the content for you or anything. The main thing they helped me with was eliminating repetitive phrasing and just generally cleaning up my sentances. It is expensive, though, especially if you are applying to a lot of schools (and thus need many essays edited).
On His Own Underage Drinking
This, in hindsight, is very sad. Unfortunately, Mr. Pearlstone, your drinking was indeed excessive and interfered with your life:
How am I trying to “impress?” I didn’t say “wow look at me I drank 600 beers in a night therefore I know EXACTLY what I’m talking about,” I made a coherent argument against the anti-alcohol venom running through the rest of this thread.
I am against involving CPS/DFCS/whatever because I think bringing the government in should be a last resort most of the time. Sure, I think the police/CPS should be called if there is good reason to think a child is being sexually molested. However, unless there is reason to think that the parent is harming the child (i.e. molestation, abuse, whatever), then I think that the first step should ALWAYS be to contact them and try to resolve it without government intervention.
Take your talk of “haze” elsewhere – I enjoy drinking, but I certainly don’t go through life in a haze. I’m on track to either double or triple major plus get an MEng in 8 semesters, I run marathons for fun, and generally live life to its fullest. I do not drink myself into a stupor and waste days, months and years. Drinking is a recreational activity that I very much enjoy, but I keep it in its place – drinking only with friends and only when it won’t interfere with my other goals (I’m not Bode Miller, I don’t drink before marathons or prelims). Alcohol hasn’t limited me in any way, nor has it ever prevented me from achieving success. I’m sorry that alcohol has caused you such problems, binx, but I’m not telling you to drink. I’m just counteracting the anti-alcohol posts that everyone else seems to have and saying that it is possible for alcohol to be a positive, enjoyable thing. That, and also showing that liability wise that drunk driving (or other dangerous activity after drinking, like drunk jetskiing) is by far the biggest problem because it is far easier and far more likely that someone will drink and drive and kill themselves/someone else than it is they will drink enough to stop breathing.
dke, that is ridiculous even for me. It’s one thing for 16 year olds and 18 year olds to drink, quite another for 11 year olds to drink.
Emeraldkity4, there are plenty of teens who are capable and competent enough to handle themselves and don’t need much, if any, supervision; the amount of supervision necesscary depends on the kid.
If you have doubts, here’s a quote that confirms drinking:
Water, I’m still drunk from the jagerbombs last night.
This problem started in high school, or even earlier:
HS drug/alcohol policies are ludicrous. At my school, for instance, you get in more trouble for being drunk at a dance (on a Saturday night) than you do for fighting during school or cheating. Aside from the fact that drinking isn’t a big deal (it SHOULD NOT be suspendable in and of itself, in my opinion; just being drunk isnt’ a bad thing if no other rules are being broken) and that 18 year olds deserve the right to drink (tobacco is FAR more harmful than drinking even accounting for alcohol-related car crashes, etc…)
For public schools, off-school drinking (off school meaning not at school or school activities) can only result in suspensions from a team or activity – the school cannot suspend students from actual school or punish them in any way for actions at non-school related activities, with a few exceptions for violent crimes and other felonies. Some public schools may violate this concept (I’ve heard of it), but their policies wouldn’t stand up in court if challenged. Private schools, obviously, are a different story.
I personally was victimized for my drinking at a dance. Other kids who got caught cheating walked with minimal penatly and didn’t have to explain to colleges why they got in trouble – which I did. I thoroughly believe that simply being drunk when at a nonschool/noncompetitive activity is NOT wrong and is NOT a big deal. Especially for high school seniors, many of whom are 18 or older, drinking should not be a suspendable offense when it does not occur at school or at a competitive event (I can see why school’s are concerned with kids being drunk while trying to learn or representing the school on an athletic/academic team, etc…, but there is no reason for the school to care if kids are drunk at a dance or school-sponsored party beyond making sure they are OK (i.e. not ridiculously and overly drunk) and not driving).
Wyogal, just because something is in someone’s best interest does not mean that those with power should or have to use it to make someone do it. By that logic, the government should run everyone’s life and make sure they live an optimally healthy life – a fundamentally un-American idea that lacks a respect for individual liberty.
I’ll conclude by saying that the disciplinary process at most schools is a joke. At my school, which is, as I’ve heard, fairly in line with other schools, the administrators did not need to prove anything to any standard – they just had to say that they “thought” I was drinking and I had essentially no recourse. At my appeal, one of the primary concerns of the superintendent (who I appealed to) was ensuring that the principle’s ability to intimidate other student’s into following rules was not compromised by my successful appeal – imagine the injustices that would result if that were the case in real courts.
Also, drinking, possessing alcohol, being under the influence of drugs and possessing drugs should not be grouped togather as a blanket offense (as they often are) – there is a big difference between going to a dance drunk and going to school with a kilo of coke.
On the Strength of Alcohol
Matt doesn’t find hard alcohol all that hard:
And a 12 pack of beer is nothing. I find it comical that they say one bottle of hard alcohol or 12 beers – a handle of 80 proof liqour (that’s 1.75 liters for the abstainers) contains significantly more alcohol than 12 beers, and even a fifth has more alcohol than 12 beers.
Apparently, in his own words, he drinks all the time:
Cornell is very do-able, I spend far more time drinking/****ing around/playing videogames/watching TV than I do studying and I got a 3.72 last semester.
Twelve shots in a short period is common, for him:
[M]any experienced drinkers who have a reasonable tolerance and a strong stomach can down 12 shots in a short period of time. That isn’t really even that dangerous of an amount, unless you are an unexperienced drinker or very small person.
He also totally dismisses the risks of drinking:
I am ignorant? I can tell you, both statistically and anecdotally, that it is very rare and comparitively hard for someone to drink themselves to death. Me and my friends are all very experienced drinkers, and we all know exactly how we get when we drink too much, so we go by those signs. For those we don’t know as well, we ensure that they throw up (so they don’t absorb any more alcohol from their stomach) and are responsive and reasonably coherent to make sure they won’t die. Given the huge number of teens who drink, and the amount that many teens drink combined with the risky drinking patterns inherent in teen drinking (chugging, taking lots of shots before you can even fully feel the first one, the list goes on and on), and the relatively small number of pure alcohol (i.e. stopped breathing) deaths compared to both the number of drinkers and the number of people who die from drinking and driving, it is clear that drinking is usually only problematic when combined with driving. Honestly, that’s why I like drinking with experienced drinkers – it is MUCH harder for someone with a tolerence to drink themselves dead than it is for a drinking novice who has no idea of how to drink and also has no tolerence.
Don’t try to intimidate me with medical facts; I know most any alcohol related fact backwards and forwards. I don’t take blind risks, and I’m fully aware of the risks I take with drinking. In my mind, the benefits of drinking – the fun, the camaraderie, the burn of that first shot – vastly outweight the costs (I’ve paid my dues for drinking in a number of ways). I learned as much from drinking/partying during high school as I did from classes (and I took 14 APs), not to mention that while a lot of the things I learned in HS I’ll never really use again (i.e. chemistry), I’ll always use the skills I learned from drinking/partying (how to read a situation, a lot about people in general, etc.). You’re every bit as ignorant as you accuse me of being, quiltguru.
His liver, he says, can take it:
Alcohol isn’t long-term bad for your brain, assuming your not like a 12 year old. And the liver is a very resilient organ – so long as you don’t start downing a quart of hard **** a day or something equally ridiculous, then you probably aren’t going to blow it out.
On Going to Class
Although many are like this, Matt didn’t attend class. Why is he being lauded as a “good student” in the press, then?
If I can get an A and not go to class, then why bother going? So I can be bored in class and read ESPN on my laptop while using maybe half my brain to take notes that I could just download later? It’s one thing to say you’re wasting your parents money if you skip class and get a 2.0 and barely graduate; if you have a good/great GPA and can get away without going to class then why bother? After college no one is going to know whether you went to class; all they’ll know is a)what your GPA was, b) what the profs you ask for recs write, and c)possibly any trouble you got into; attendence doesn’t enter the equation.
On Living with an RA
Matt wouldn’t like it, he’d have to stop his criminal activity:
Bad, bad idea. You wouldn’t be able to break any rules, have booze, et cetera. It’d suck, basically.
On Sexual Terminology
Here Mr. Pearlstone clarifies some sexual semantics:
I think its a matter of terminology. We use hooking up for most things in between sex and nothing (i.e. getting head) and “hitting it” for sex, we being me and my good friends.
On Buying Illegal Beer
Matt suggests UPC replacement as a technique to shoplift and purchase beer if underage:
The one’s I’ve seen DO call people over; however I had a friend who found a solution (admittedly, he DID later get caught shoplifting by doing this but he got away with it many times before and after):
Take a UPC from a product of similar weight that is nonalcoholic (for beer this is a joke; go get a 24 pack of soda) and cut it out. Then put it OVER the beer UPC when you are purchasing. The weight sensors in the self-checkout won’t know the difference. You save a lot of money on the beer too.Honestly though, doing **** like that is risky. Fakes are usually pretty questionable in collegetowns too, at least in terms of buying hard liquor (beer is easier to get; bars usually aren’t too bad carding wise). Just meet some 21 year olds and have them hook you up. It isn’t difficult.
On Life & Abortion Issues
Matt seems to fall on the pro-abortion side, in a discussion on the ability of pharmacies to offer a certain form of birth control:
Atomom, I’m an engineer at Cornell. I know my biology. Human life is different from life in general. Yes, you can argue that the fertilized egg that I came from was the beginning of my life. You can also argue that my life began when I became conscious/showed neurological activity (this happesn FAR later in pregnancy) or when I entered the world. The cell may have been the beginning of my BIOLOGICAL life; this is very different than the beginning of human life. The zygote I came from had the POTENTIAL to be me; it was not me any more than the sperm and egg that created it.
LKF, I’m sure you pharmacists want the freedom to do whatever you want. I don’t think you deserve it. You posted what is effectively a lobbying group for pharmacist’s views – I fail to see how that should persuade me. What else would I expect them to say, “we pharmacists want less discretion or power” instead of “we pharmacists want all the power and decision making ability in the world?” Though that is factual, it fails a test even more important than factuality – RELEVANCY.
On Fraternity and Sorority Hazing
First Matthew Pearlstone says that some hazing is acceptable:
I never said hazing should be done as hard in fraternities as it is in the military; that said, it serves the same purpose in both – assuring that people are dedicated to their unit and each other. Hazing isn’t what instills a “chain of command” – it is what forces a group of people (be they pledges or marines in training) togather and lets them know that, under pressure, they can rely upon one another to deliver. Do I want to know that my fraternity brothers have my back no matter what? Absolutely. Again, the “die for you, die for your frat” is a matter of degree, not type. I know that when I join next semester I’ll be willing to sacrifice for my future brothers, and I’d hope (and think) they’d do the same for me.
Deaths from hazing result from a variety of things. Some involve ridiculous, stupid hazing that serves no purpose and is simply dangerous for the sake of being dangerous; there is a big difference between forcing pledges to do pushups and run miles and forcing them to swim freezing lakes and act as human sponges for various bodily fluids/excretions. The kind of hazing I support – the kind that tests one’s mettle – need not be dangerous and is without doubt not disgusting.
However, a followup post intensifies his support for hazing:
Why do I think hazing is good? Because it ensures that everyone in the frat wants it badly enough. It helps to ensure that everyone who is in will be dedicated – if they toughed it through hazing, they obviously want to be in with me. It also helps bring a pledge class togather, as long as its done correctly (Don’t believe me? Then why does the military use hazing to bring units togather?). I liken it to water polo summer practices during high school (effectively our training camp) – hard, brutal, but a good experience in retrospect. It weeded out those who didn’t want to be on the team badly enough to care, and made those who got through it a closer, tighter knit unit. Same concept with hazing in frats, as long as it doesn’t get ridiculous or disgusting. If you want to think that I need to “prove” myself, go ahead. I personally think that intelligently designed hazing is an effective way to bring people togather and weed out the people who don’t care that much – ensuring dedicated fraternity members. A lot of people don’t agree with me, and I can respect that – there are plenty of valid reasons not to haze.
I’ll concede, to some degree, the elitism – I enjoy knowing that I have done/do things that other people couldn’t and can’t. I definately think I am tougher and smarter than most people, and have the evidence to back that up. If that makes me a bad person, then so be it. I have zero problems admitting that – elitism isn’t bad as long as its based on the right things and you can back your talk up.
FYI, I’m going to be pledging a fraternity that doesn’t haze at all (not that anoyone really gets away with that much hazing up here). I have nothing to prove; I certainly could have rushed/pledged the few frats that haze even mildly up here if I had something to prove. Instead, I rushed and am going to pledge the frat I fit in best at.
EDIT: Just to be clear, and in case you didn’t read my previous post, “normal” hazing is the kind involving booze/physical exertion (running, pushups, whatever)/mental or emotional toughness (talking trash to pledges, etc). Intelligently designed hazing is hard but keeps a solid saftey margin so as not to push anyone over the edge or anything. I’m certainly not advocating dangerous levels of hazing (i.e. making a pledge chug a handle or something stupid like that, making pledges run 20 miles in the cold, being so mentally harsh that someone cracks). There is a safe level, and as long as done correctly I stand by my statement that hazing is an effective deterrent to people who want to join just for the parties/who aren’t really interested in/dedicated to the frat.
Update
I just received an email which reads:
Sir, could you provide me with a copy of Matts blog that some beleive revealed his drinking problem? As a family friend, nobody was aware that he had this problem and we would find some solace in reading his words.
Well, most of what he wrote on CC (College Confidential) is here, and I’ll send them the URLs they need to investigate this more.
Update 2
If you’d like to know a little more about Matthew Pearlstone, please check out:
Matthew Pearlstone dead, not drunk
Matthew Pearlstone, 19, was found dead in a University of Virginia dorm on Friday morning. While police sergant Melissa Fielding said “we don’t know the cause of death,” his grandfather acknowledges that his grandson was partying it up on Saint Patrick’s day:
“He went to sleep and never woke up,” Howard Pearlstone said. “The whole thing is beyond my comprehension.” [src]
While an autopsy will be performed, the cause of death appears to be illegal underage drinking. He writes about his spring break plans:
Visiting UVA/Drinking in St. Louis: It’s St. Patrick’s Day at UVA, what do you think I’m gonna be doing?
Matt’s self-chosen facebook picture–in front of a trunk full of Bud Light–spells it out:
Although I didn’t know him personally, friends confirm that Matt Pearlstone is never far from a drink. Clearly, the cause of his death is drinking at a UVA fraternity. If you’d like to know more about Matthew Pearlstone, his personal details are as follows:
Born: 01/12/1987
Home town: 9800 Sundown Sq, St. Louis, MO 63141
Email: mtp33@cornell.edu and matt.pearlstone@gmail.com
AIM: lucifer11287
Cellphone: 314.662.0849
One Katherine Collins, an alumnus of Auburn, presciently noted on January 12th, “Happy bday pstone..hope college is going well and you are drinking yourself to death.” Michael Gabel, a Dartmouth undergrad, also wrote on Matthew Pearlstone’s birthday, “why do i have a sneaking suspicion that this is the last night that pearlstone will be alive…” How sad that such a promising young student of Computer Science should meet his end, not drinking it up on his birthday, but on green Saint Patty’s day.
Update
Pearlstone’s facebook profile has been yanked. Additionally, the coroner confirms that his death was due to alcohol poisoning, as we already knew. The LD50 for Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is accepted around .40. As a heavy drinker, Matt Pearlstone probably had even more in his system. However, the coroner refused to release his BAC, so we’ll never know.
Update 2
If you’re unaware of the other resources I’ve gathered about Pearlstone, please review these links:
Cornell’s Easiest Classes
Keina Z. Jackson ‘07, a Sociology & Government major at Cornell University, authored a MS Word document called Easiest Classes at Cornell which recently appeared on underground file sharing networks. The contents of the document are as follows:
Geol 111 – To Know Earth (EAS now)- basically rocks for jocks
EAS 111 – To Know Earth…imagine majority of the stuff you learned in a typical middle school science class (geology, oceanography, etc.). Don’t go to class, just read the book & go to review sessions before the exam. It’s straight short-term memory people.
ILRHR266 – Personal Computing Basics… i mean..we all know Word, Excel and Powerpoint already…. right guys? Class meets once a week for 2 hours (2credit class) and should be an easy A… just show up…
Thetr 352 – themed entertainment (rollercoasters)
Music 245 – Gamelan you bang on drums
Soc 101 – with Szelenyi (3 prelims; she gives 3 possible questions and answers before the test) Any class with her is easy
Soc 316 – Gender Inequality with Szelenyi
Physics203 – Heavens and Earths, no tests, take home quizzes with ‘game show’ buzzer, don’t have to go, one section a week, easy, easy, easy, good for science req
ART 214 Art and the Multicultural Experience- taught by Ray Dalton, show up, have the slightest inclination of an imagination, excel
HE 100- Critical Learning and Thinking Easiest class by far. No homework. Two easy tests. The easiest class I have taken since second grade. Not kidding.
R. Soc.101- easy A, lecture not required,1 section per week, 2 exams
Entomology 260 (Beekeeping)- not required to go to lecture, questions derived from lecture posted on internet-prof. takes the exact questions off of the posted questions and puts them on the exam, easy easy A-just have to memorize the night before the exam
R Soc 100, i think, Indians – easiest class at cornell. you only have to go to drop or pick things up at the beginning of class
H Amn 339 Wines – you have to go every week, and you take a quiz that is on the notes which you can get off the internet. the final is mostly the quiz questions
I’ve heard that Anthro 101 and Human Bonding are easy, but not verified.
History 371 – World War II in Europe This is probably the easiest class at Cornell. I never went to class once, read one book, and wrote one nine page final paper on it and got a B+. Any class taught by Weiss (who teaches it) is probably easy.
English 268 – Culture of the 1960’s. Good class, very interesting, prof is weird but subject matter is still interesting. I’m pretty sure it’s just a take home midterm and take home final paper.
Com 204 – Effective Listening. Ridiculously easy, but I guess it depends who the prof is. Not sure if it’s offered next semester.
Government – US Congress. Any course taught by Shefter is an automatic A.
Governement – Urban Politics also taught by Shefter
Nat. res. 201 (environmental conservation) -three papers. no exams. lec. mwf + section once a week–
Arch 132 (intro to architechture) – attendance required, but it’s a good time to nap. the only work is looking over takenote the night before an exam.
Art history 200 (art, archeology, and analysis) -so fuckin easy. i was drunk just about every day and got an A.
LA 155 or any course taught by Prof. Venerbles
This is, of course, not scientifically sound. The easiest courses should be the ones with the highest average grade return. For that, we can turn to the Cornell University Median Grade Reporting. This has data on the median grades in every class back to Spring 1997. With 8 years of data, we should be able to draw reasonable conclusions as to which courses are the easiest at Cornell.
Unfortunately, the register refuses to release data not in pdf format:
The link for these documents are available on our department web page. They are in a .pdf format. That is all that I have available to provide. You should however be able to save this document and import it into Excel.
I am going to OCR all the median grade reports, and, upon competion, upload the results here. Stay tuned!
