The Reason Behind the U.P. Swagger

19 July 2007
Thursday

It is not true that the University of the Philippines has the monopoly of bright and smart students. However, from what I gather from the Philippine social context when it comes to local education, U.P. is the bastion of smart local education. U.P. students and alumni are generally regarded as smart and intellectually gifted. You can't be a U.P. student if you're down there in the pecking order in terms of intellect.

Surely there are smart and intelligent students/alumni from other universities. Others would contest that it's not the school --- it's the person. Others too would even go further stating that they choose NOT to study in U.P. even if they passed the UPCAT.

And rightly so. I have met people from other schools and universities and they would strike me as people who may even be smarter than some people I know from the U.P.

The question is, why do these U.P. Maroons display this type of pride and swagger over other people from other local schools and universities?

My theory is this: True, Ateneo, DLSU, UST, UA&P and other prestigious unis would have their fair share of I.Q. wunderkinds, but what separates U.P. Maroons from the rest of this pack is THE EXPERIENCES these students had to deal with during their stay in college.

It is a given fact that U.P. students are intelligent. The question is, are you smart enough to graduate? The running joke in U.P. is that a normal U.P. student does not get to finish his/her course in four years --- it's the abnormal ones that do.

Not all intelligent students get to finish or graduate from U.P. It's the smart ones that do. I have known graduates from prestigious highschools who happen to be honor students who would get kicked out of U.P. But if you're intelligent and smart and still did not finish in U.P., there is what we call legitimate bad luck as well as circumstances beyond one's control. There are also personal decisions --- they chose to leave for reasons only privy to them.

You see, there are a lot of things that Maroons have to face in order to be able to wear The Sablay (when other uni grads wear the togas during their commencement exercises, UP graduating students wear this native-looking "sash" over their Barong Tagalogs or Filipiniana dresses). It takes savvy and smarts to come out alive from what we consider as a microcosm of Philippine society (actually I don't agree with this, because if this was true then why the blue blazes do I see a number of stupid people around?).

1. Registration: Unlike other schools and unis who would have their students' scheds and subjects handed on a silver platter, Maroons have to fight over tooth and nail in order to be able to get the subjects that they need to be taken in scheds that they want. You start with your blank Form 5-A and it's up to you to sign up for the subjects that you intend to take in that sem.

Here is where you test your social skills, networking skills, skills of persuasiveness, and all those "diskarte" skills and talents in order to be able to land that subject that you're aiming for. One also has to deal with signing up for subjects whose enrollment rooms are not just floors apart, but buildings apart! Imagine signing up for Math subjects at the Math building then go to the College of Science for Nat Sci and STS, the GYM for P.E. and your major subjects in your respective colleges. Even if you had a car, it's no walk in the park since you have to deal with looking for parking spaces first.

2. Spacing your subjects: In connection to point 1, the smart U.P. student would come up with the right combination of subjects. One does not finish all his easy G.E. (General Education, not Geodetic Engineering) subjects and electives and leave the tough ones and major subjects later on. That's suicide! Imagine taking the Math 50 series, the Physics 70 series, and higher Chem subjects all in one sem without any easy subjects as buffers in order to maintain the minimum number of units to pass in a semester.

3. The Sense of Freedom and Open Opportunities: Compared to other students from other unis, Maroons "are more free" to do anything that they want provided that they pass their exams and projects and that the professors wouldn't give a crap how many times you were "absent" from their classes. What this means is U.P. students are very much exposed to temptations and distractions given a great number of freedoms allotted to them: you may opt to just hang out with your buddies or fraternity brods in your respective tambayans; cut classes to get that quality time with your S.O. for a little nookie; or even have a few rounds of alcohol a few hours or minutes BEFORE exams. You won't be sanctioned if you show up in class or exam wastedly drunk or reeking of alcohol.

4. The Competition: Given the profile of a typical U.P. student, this means that you're not the only one who is smart and intelligent. You have to at least show that you deserve to be in this class, in this university.

5. Student Organizations, Fraternities, and Sororities: Need I say more? This is very much related to the aforementioned point no.3.

The name of the game is Survival of the Fittest.

Only the strongest (and smartest) survive.

And that, my friends, explain why U.P. Maroons have that swagger.