the napkins in john jay? Mine had a turkey and a clock on it!

how enrolling lots of black students is in and of itself an admirable end.

however, this is great ammo for those of us tired of shrill protests with ridiculous demands...

"Frederick Lee, SEAS ’11, agreed. “As a person who is upper-middle class, I wasn’t offered much financial aid,” he said. “I’m not satisfied with the current plan.”"

This is probably a fair quote on Frederick's part. But why is it my instinct to be repulsed whenever one classifies him or herself as 'upper-middle class'?

americans have fucked-up views of wealth:

-they don't want to be called "rich"

-they often believe they personally are doing okay but the rest of the economy is going to shit

-19% of them think they're in the top 1% income-wise

"the decision to not extend financial aid is an issue of commitment [by Columbia to its students]"

No honey, it's an issue of them having a lot more money for undergraduate students than we do. And the Dartmouth arguement is poor. Not only does dartmouth a) have fewer undergraduates than Columbia (4,000 vs. 7,000), they also b) have only 1,000 grad students, as opposed to 15,000.

"But why is it my instinct to be repulsed whenever one classifies him or herself as 'upper-middle class'?"

Because people who refer to themselves as upper middle class should really just drop the middle.

It makes me want to vomit when people say 120-180k is upper middle class. Last time I checked, that was in the top 15% of incomes in the United States.

those napkins were clearly used before, too. enviros don't think that coffee stains and stupid scribbling count as "used?" gotta be against health code.

"over 90 percent of Americans identify themselves as middle class"...

[ external link to books.google.com ]

Also, this great quote:

"Everyone wants to believe they are middle class. … But this eagerness … has led the definition to be stretched like a bungee cord - used to defend/attack/describe everything. … The Drum Major Institute … places the range for middle class at individuals making between $25,000 and $100,000 a year. Ah yes, there's a group of people bound to run into each other while house-hunting."

[ external link to en.wikipedia.org ]

Not necessarily! That said, "upper middle class" is pretty vague. I'm an undergrad but have an income that qualifies me as "upper middle" (WP likes $62,500) working professionally, and I doubt I'm the only one. Also, in New York, household income of $140,000 means you make *much* more money than most city residents, but can't afford the house or lifestyle that would qualify for "middle class" anywhere else in America.

I hate you independently wealthy Columbia undergrads, with your... courage to be entrepreneurial. I wanna have an idea and make a website and hire a lawyer to write up papers. _I wanna_.

i refer to myself as lower upper class.

Peasants, all of you!

new snoop dogg album = awful.

why does columbia fail at everything? it's not one of the top-tier Ivies, it has shitty financial aid, no one cares about it, the school runs like shit... ugh... i hate it.

It's not HPY, but I wouldn't want to be at any other ivy.

Don't get too down. It could be worse. You could be at Cornell.

like, every single bwog entry devolves into 'fuck, why am I not at Yale or Princeton? Fuck. fuck."

how many folk here are at columbia because he or she heard of its name mentioned once in reverence, and they wanted that in connection with him or herself for the rest of his or her life? is that why we're not at all Berkeley or Michigan or Grinnell or Middlebury? Really?