The Haves and the Have Nots

The Writing Seminars Students at Hopkins (the full-time, extremely competitive counterpart to my part-time M.A. in Writing program, program) give weekly readings on Monday evenings. Last night's was the first I attended with my Poetry Workshop class. The reading was held just two floors up from where my PW and Lit classes usually meet, and it was readily apparent upon entering what the other difference is between the two degree tracks. Being a full-time grad student means sitting in oak-paneled rooms that have paintings on the walls. It means sitting in comfortable chairs. Downstairs in the dungeon of the majestic hall where my lit and poetry classes are held it looks like something out of "Welcome Back, Kotter!" or any other generic high school sit com.

My PW instructor actually brought this up. She is a former Writing Sems student, and also taught in the program after she graduated, so her comment was not coming from a bitterness at being left out. And I bring it up here, not so much because the difference bothers me, personally (at least I don't think it does), but because it says so much about how the University feels.

Maybe it's okay to differentiate between those who are paying thousands more a year, who made the cut into one of 5 slots that are available per year (Fall admission only), as opposed to those admitted via rolling admission, into a significantly less competitive program. You get what you pay for, I suppose.