What's in a name?

I signed up for a conference on Corporate Social Responsibility this weekend. Standing as it does on the border of the corporate world and the idealistic, philanthropic world, the idea of CSR, and perhaps of working in the field, is highly appealing to me.

I was looking forward to this weekend with rose-tinted glasses until I received a phone call today from one of the organizers. After the usual preliminaries, the conversation went like this:

Organizer: Have you graduated or are you still studying?
Me: I graduated in June last year.
Organizer: Ok, which school did you graduate from?
Me: Princeton University
Organizer: Can you spell that for me, please?
Me: P-R-I-N-C-E-T-O-N
Organizer: Which country is that in?

Sigh. I'm not one to brag. In fact, here's a typical conversation about my tertiary education:

Random person: Where did you go to school?
Me: America
Random person: Oh cool, lots of people I know went there too. Where?
Me: Uh... New Jersey.

And this is where the conversation splits into one of three paths:

Path 1 - No further questions, Your Honour.

Random person: Oh ok.

Path 2 - Oh I know all about New Jersey universities

Random person: Oh, Rutgers is it?
Me: No, very near there, though.

Path 3 - The truth comes out

Random person: Where in New Jersey?
Me: Urm. Princeton University.
Random person: OH

And then one of two things happen: they either have a blank look in their eyes or the way the person looks at it completely changes. Sometimes there is new-found respect. Mostly there's that look in their eyes that goes 'Oh, she must be a smart aleck. Such a bragger." Sigh.

Seriously, I'm not one to brag, but sometimes I wish my alma mater were better known where I come from. At least then I wouldn't get questions like "Can you spell that, please?" or "Which country is that in?"