Well, as nostalgic 20-something, you start to feel some fond tug at your heartstrings when it comes to your old alma mater. Particularly, I supposed, if you went to a tough, small, liberal arts college in suburban Pennsylvania.

My wife and I went to Franklin & Marshall College, which (as you can easily infer) is a tough, very small (<2000 students) liberal arts college. It is old. Like 1787 and founded by Benjamin Franklin old. Yeah... Ben Franklin. Never heard of it? You are not the only one.

It's generally kicks ass in all the books - its only real limitations are that it is small and it isn't Ivy. Look it up on Wikipedia, it isn't anyone's "safety" school. Its a tight little community, and even though (as old liberal arts colleges have) sometimes daddy's-money dough-heads get in on legacy alone, they seriously work to stay and graduate. It's not a sure bet like a Harvard or Yale - and grade inflation is traditionally non-existent (to the point that F&M is sometimes used as a counter-example of grade de-inflation - e.g. it is really fucking hard to convince any of the professors to give you anything higher than an A-).

Besides that, F&M is and always was a very community-driven little school. Some say that it is because it is in the middle of nowhere in Lancaster PA (which is a point far overstated by the NY-metro-types, who never really explored LancLanc - it's no Philly, New York, or Boston, but it is much more lively and interesting than many small college towns, and leaps and bounds above the surrounding countryside). I think is is because, even if you don't know their names, you know the faces of every single person +/- 3 years of your class... almost without exception. It's very residential, there are a million little groups, the faculty are uber-tight with the students.

One of my high school friends (we grew up out Lancaster, so it was pretty close by) commented he loved F&M parties and F&M girls in particular - he said that they were are smart (even the "dumb"/"ditsy" ones) and that after studying and working like bastards all damn week and (almost without fail) juggling two majors and a bunch of other shit, they really cut loose on Fridays and Saturday nights.

F&M people, regardless of stripe, are ass-busting kind of people - even the more laid back ones. Almost all that I know went on to grad school (and almost unilaterally, kicked ass and breezed through that).

But, alas, there are few of us around.

My wife and I signed ourselves up recently to be part of F&M Alumni groups in Boston - as a part of that, we have been taking steps and making connections online and generally having a fun time with linking up. Hell, our best friends here in Boston (another couple) are F&M Alums as well... '03 just like us... well, also, he was my freshman roommate, but I would say the four of us are closer now than back in college. We are planning on going to a Sox game pretty soon with the Boston alumni chapter and having a fun time with that. I think it should be pretty cool.

In any regard, I started up a F&M group on VIRB. Hopefully more people will come out of the VIRB woodwork.