Cornell Blog: An unofficial blog about Cornell University

There’s a fascinating story of a recent alumnus who is suing her college because she hasn’t found a job after three months of hunting (in this recession and terrible job environment). In Alumna sues college because she hasn’t found a job, CNN details how Trina Thompson, a student with a 2.7 GPA, is suing New York’s Monroe College for $72,000 because “they have not tried hard enough to help me.”

She suggested that Monroe’s Office of Career Advancement shows preferential treatment to students with excellent grades. “They favor more toward students that got a 4.0. They help them more out with the job placement,” she said. iReport.com: “Don’t sue your alma mater”

Asked whether she would advise other college graduates facing job woes to sue their alma maters, Thompson said yes. “It doesn’t make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald’s and Payless. That’s not what they planned.”

It probably doesn’t help that she got poor marks in an undergraduate degree in Business Administration, a degree like an MBA but without the years of work experience that usually precede it. Reviews for the college, which we’ve never heard of, are appalling:

• “As long as you can walk into the building and could sign a loan, receive financial aid, or pay up front they will accept you.”
• “… all they talk about in the hallways, bathroom, and even class is they BABY DADDY DRAMA.”
• “Monroe College is a mediocre school. Very similar to community college.”

The institution is a private, for-profit, college with 4,361 full-time students, 71% female, charging on average $9,000 / yr tuition. The school has a statistically skewed diversity profile, with 52% Hispanic, 42% African-American, 1% Asian, and 1% Caucasian. The graduation rate is 54%, and the acceptance rate a startling 61%. There’s no listing of the average SAT score of incoming freshmen (a bad sign), and a warning that “Monroe understands that for many students the SAT may not be a good indication of a student’s academic aptitude” is another red flag. We can interpolate from their minimum requirements for a presidential scholarship of an 1800 on the SAT (about the 80th percentile) that few of their students are objective academic achievers.

In a recession where qualified, experienced workers are being laid off, it takes a massive ego and sense of millennial over-entitlement to give up your job hunt after just three months and blame the college for your poor GPA and lack of marketable skills.

A tipster forwarded me this hilarious recruiting “oops” email sent from Deep Springs College after it emailed her by mistake. Deep Springs is an all-male college, so recruiting high school females would probably not be in its best interests:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Deep Springs College [comcom@deepsprings.edu]
Date: Oct 26, 2007 3:24 PM
Subject: An Apology from Deep Springs College

Dear ******,

We write from Deep Springs College to apologize for the fact that you were sent our recruitment brochure by mistake this fall.

Deep Springs has an all-male student body. You received the brochure because you had an exceptionally high SAT score, and fell within most of our recruiting criteria. However, when purchasing one of our SAT mailing lists, we neglected to check the “MALE” box and our brochure was automatically sent to the addresses of some women.

Needless to say, we are very embarrassed by this error. The only explanation we can offer is that mistakes do happen. But most of all, we want you to know that this actually was a mistake, not some malicious prank.

Please accept our apologies for the fact that we cannot consider applications from women at this time. We apologize as well if we have inconvenienced you during this busy application season.

Good luck with your endeavors, wherever they may lead you.

Sincerely,
Silas Hundt, Student
Communications Committee
Deep Springs College

David Neidorf, Dean
Deep Springs College

Note that a similar but worse thing happened when Cornell accepted all its applicants via email, “Congratulations on your acceptance into the class of 2007!” Unfortunately, the acceptance rate that year was not 100%, and they had to send a disappointing followup.

Even though Ivygate, Gawker, and Dealbreaker have written about John Fitzgerald Page with such titles as “Nightmare Online Dater” and “Ivy League Douchebag”, it’s worth pointing out his hilarious and egotistical homepage:

His flinty-eyed stare rivets you, and your heart begins to pound…

The guys in the comments at Ivygate suggest that Mr. Page can’t be found in either the Wharton alum directory or the Penn directory. However, this accomplished:

• Actor
• Online Cassanova
• Model
• Fitness Coach
• Mensa Member
• “In the fame game”

doesn’t need a real education; he goes home to swim in cash and surround himself with beautiful women. Or wait, do I mean beer and Papa John’s? If anything, this is a hilariously bad example of what not to put online about yourself.