Every Wabash man has one.
No, not what you are thinking.
It is what I like to call the reaction story. They change across time and space and some are overwhelmingly positive and others are lukewarm at best. I thought it was time to share some of mine from the different periods of my life.
As an eighteen year old making a college decision a lot crosses your mind. For the typical eighteen year old guy the most important thing is young women. Following closely behind would be: the food, how good are the sports teams, and how many years can I go before I have to graduate. Which is why when I told my friends I would be attending Wabash they just looked at me like they didn’t get it.
“You are aware there aren’t any ladies there, right? And you’re going to major in Latin? Have you thought about this? Wait, are you gay?”
That was an actual conversation I had with my girlfriend at the time. Just getting to Wabash often means doing something different than everyone else. Choosing Wabash is our own little piece of educational disobedience, and it may be the road less taken, but it has made all the difference in the world.
As if proof is needed, try explaining how the Gentlemen’s rule works to anyone who doesn’t go to Wabash.
“Wait, you mean you only have 1 rule? How does that work? I don’t get it. Explain it again.”
For guy friends of mine visiting Wabash they just couldn’t understand keeping order without a specific set of rules. For women friends who visited Wabash they thought it was great.
“Wow everyone here is so nice! Guys get the door, they let us go first, and they talk to me instead of staring at me. I wish I could go here!”
After I got to Wabash the reactions changed drastically. The summer between my junior and senior year I was looking for a summer job. I was not having much luck when a friend’s mother called me up and asked me if I had ever driven a forklift. Later that afternoon I had an interview to be a warehouse management intern. I didn’t have very high hopes as they were looking for someone with supply chain management experience. But about an hour after the interview I received a call from my friend’s mother.
“David was super impressed with you. He said you really understood what they wanted you to do, and that you had some really great ideas. He was even more surprised when I told him you were a Latin major at Wabash College. But he just chuckled and told me to call you right away and offer you the job.”
When I got to graduate school it was the first time in my life I really got to be the face of Wabash College. I went to school in the south, in a program where very few people had heard or knew of Wabash. However it wasn’t long before people started to understand what being a Wabash man was about. Many of my classmates had attended large public universities with classes often reaching into triple figures, and they had no real concept of how to “talk out” issues and come to collective conclusions. Many had never had to write a large research based paper, and even fewer were used to reading as much as we did.
All of which leads me to my favorite reaction from graduate school. A young woman in my program was a major in folklore (my program) at her college, and she seemed to think she would do better because of this. When we got our first tests back and mine had an A and hers a B she was furious. She asked to see my notebook and when she looked over the 2 pages of notes I had taken and compared it with the 18 she had taken she couldn’t understand how she had gotten the B and I had gotten the A. When I explained that you don’t have to write down everything the professor says — just the main ideas — she responded:
“Oh sure, that may work for you because you read everything and understand it. The rest of us come to class to learn the material and you come to class to discuss it. Was that what they taught you at that college of yours?!”
Wabash Diploma by Indiana Jonsmo on Flickr
As I continue my job search I always wonder what the people who read my resume think. Do they understand what being a graduate of Wabash College means? Do they even know that A.B. is a bachelor of arts conferred in Latin? Whenever you tell someone you went to Wabash you’re sure to get a reaction.
I want to thank all those Wabash men before me who have made it a positive reaction.
This post was submitted by Matthew Ripley.
Matt has come up with a truly great idea for Wabash Stories. He would like to have a conversation between a newer Wabash grad and an older Wabash grad. Here is my response to his story about the Wabash Reaction.
Although I’ve experienced the Wabash reaction many times before, I was fascinated by the story about the late Tom Topper, M.D., (Wabash ’70), as told by Rudy Cope in the fall 2009 Wabash Magazine. At a pretrial hearing during questioning about his college education, Tom noted that he had graduated from Wabash. As it turned out the examining attorney, judge, and another attorney in the courtroom that day were all Wabash grads. The court reporter, who had seen this happen before, proposed a short break, thus enabling the Wabash grads to swap Wabash stories.
As a physician, and a sometimes expert witness, I’ve had similar experiences. Like Dr. Topper, this usually happens during initial questioning about educational qualifications. During such examinations, I’ve met judges and attorneys who have graduated from Wabash. However, my having graduated from Wabash has never cut me any slack in the courtroom. It really gets interesting if the attorney or judge graduated from DePauw. What usually follows is some playful banter about the Wabash DePauw Monon Bell rivalry.
My wife, Liz, a psychiatrist at Indiana University School of Medicine, has had a number of encounters with medical students who have graduated from Wabash. She usually asks her students where they went to college. If they proudly reply, “Wabash,” she will respond, tongue firmly in cheek and with a subtle eye roll, “Oh, you’re a Wally.” After they nod in the affirmative, she will tell them that her husband also graduated from Wabash. Because she believes that all Wabash grads belong to a semi-religious cult, however, she strictly limits any further discussion about Wabash. I don’t know how she ever got the idea that we Wabash grads belong to a cult because I only have a few Wabash memorabilia around the house and she’s never seen Jon Pactor’s Indianapolis law office, which is truly a Wabash shrine. I wish I had a picture….
Personally, I found continues to change over time. I am an extremely proud alumnus (just like the rest of us). I know during my time as a student my answer could even be defensive. Wabash is an extremely unique place and offers a different, unorthodox, and maybe even an “unpopular” experience. Here were/are some of my answers:
1. To be a part of a prestigious, winning-tradition football program.
2. Small, intimate class sizes where discussion flourishes and professors are easily accessible.
3. I wasn’t looking for the “state school experience.”
4. My dad (not an alumnus) was crazy about it.
5. It felt like a home away from home. I was raised in Texas.
6. An admissions counselor came to my high school. It was a one-on-one and greatly influenced my opinion.
7. The size and atmosphere practically forced me to get involved. And I am very thankful.
8. The “Wabash prepares students for graduate and professional schools” selling point greatly appealed to me (currently a graduate student at Louisville).
9. During my two visits, students displayed a great amount of pride for Wabash. I wanted to talk about my alma mater that way too.
10. I was searching for a college that would impact my life. Found it!
All kidding aside about Wabash being a “cult,” I think Travis’ comments hit the nail on the head about why we chose Wabash. For me, the small class size and chance to interact with professors was a definite plus. Attending medical school with a class size of 200 was a real downer. I couldn’t believe it when a pharmacology professor refused to meet with me to discuss questions about the course.
It is interesting for a lot of us to justify why we went to Wabash and a great deal of the time only another wally would understand anyway. For me – the moment I really knew- was on my first visit. My parents and I went on the campus tour, and we did all the normal things you do at a college, but that wasn’t what really did it.
It somehow just felt like home. I felt like I was part of something special, and I was just on the tour! It was amazing how the whole thing just made me excited and anxious to get to college. I never felt that at another school, and I probably won’t ever again. But with anything, we try to find the least common denominator- much like Travis mentions when he tries to justify his motives- and we try to explain the somewhat unexplainable.
It was always difficult for me selling Wabash on honor’s scholar weekend, because the truth was, that for so many of us, there was just something in the air. How do you tell someone that the reason to choose Wabash was because it felt like “home” or it felt “right”? The truth is Wabash isn’t for everyone, and that is alright. But in so many ways that is what makes it special.