Almae Matres

Pride in a school attended frequently extends beyond school years. Alumni frequently take pride in their almae matres. Personally, I don't care for that nonsense.


Schools are not exactly variable. Your local community college is essentially the same thing as Harvard when you look at how they operate (let's not include prestige, cost, or anything that is irrelevant to the actual processes used). Is it really that important to brag about how much better your school was than the same school experience just because that experience was elsewhere?

It gets even worse with college rivalries. People develop lifelong commitments to ridicule anyone who pursues the exact same things they did just because of the different name of the school attached to the experiences.

Support for an alma mater can influence people in other ways as well. For example, an employer might prefer an applicant who attended the same school over a more qualified applicant who learned elsewhere. Even if this is a subconscious influence, it is a problem.

Let me put this another way. Imagine that someone from Yale decided not to hire an applicant just because he attended Princeton. Now imagine that someone who owns a Hyundai refused to hire an applicant just because he owns a Kia. That might not be as prestigious, but it's the same concept.