dalek

Please, please, please do not waste your time or money at Pratt. The program has a good name but it is terribly unorganized and getting good professors, I mean instructors, is a matter of luck. I feel held hostage to the program and wish I had known better before I made the decision to pour nearly $100,000 into their academic system. If you want an easy degree without any real learning then Pratt is the place. If you actually want to be an expert at something and feel stimulated and supported intellectually, go somewhere else. Pratt is a great place to get an unpaid internship filing your teacher's papers.

It also baffles me when folks wear full faces of make up, make their hair really nice, but still wear sweats to class...

Ha ha, this is a succinct version of what I wanted to say. Thanks! And, yes, I especially dislike the sweatpants with the writing on the behind (e.g., Victoria's Secret)... or the Juicy Couture matching sets of sweatpants/sweatshirts.

I don't think that's old-fashioned. I think that's good behavior. You don't wear hats inside. Why would you? I'm in my 20s and I think it's impolite to wear any kind of hats at a lecture.

BUT: I was just organizing a major international conference. And the people who did not dress appropriately (to European standards) were the Americans ;-) So I guess it's a cultural thing. I guess dress codes in Europe are a lot stricter than in the U.S. A European would NEVER EVER come to an international conference in Bermuda Shorts. Well.... some Americans did. Some even wore Hawaii shirts.

Call me old-fashioned or conservative, but I was a little shocked to see this to be honest (and I wasn't the only one...) But then others on the organizational staff of the conference told me that it's cultural: Asians and Europeans come to major conferences like this wearing a suit and a tie. If you're a student and pretty young, you can even skip the tie. And Americans come in shorts, flip flops, t-shirts etc. This way you can at least tell at first glance where the person comes from :-) It's just so much more casual, I was told. But still: Wearing hats in class is too casual. You can't even look a person in the eyes when they wear a baseball cap. It's like wearing sunglasses in class. You just don't do that... (I wouldn't allow it either when teaching... I guess my American students will call me the weird old-fashioned European girl then ;-))