Since my family couldn't afford it, though, it made the decision ultimately fairly moot.
That was me, too. I moved out of the dorm and commuted in from NJ after one semester, but even with financial aid, NYU was just too much. So I went to community college at home for a year and then went to Hunter.
I think that's part of why I feel like I never really went to college, not in the way most people experience. Being in a classroom is one thing, but that whole campus experience was completely missing.
I went to Boston University which at the time (early 80s) was filled with self-identified JAPs (Jewish-American Princesses). My freshman roommate had been put through EST by her mother, and couldn't have been more self-centered than if she'd been Ayn Rand's daughter. I had a lot of problems including clinical anxiety and depression, but nothing there helped any of them.
They didn't even have Prozac back then.
Oh god, one of my good high school friends went through EST repeatedly with her mom and her sisters. After a while I had to tell her I honestly didn't want to hear about it. I think later it became "The Training" or something? They were into it for YEARS.
It's Landmark Forum now, right?
I think later it became "The Training" or something?
The Forum, and then Landmark. One of my friends has been involved with it as Landmark.
I think that's part of why I feel like I never really went to college, not in the way most people experience. Being in a classroom is one thing, but that whole campus experience was completely missing.
Yep, this. I only lived on campus one semester for my entire college experience. I would do things so differently now if I could do it again.
The Forum! That's right.
I have no real idea if it was good or bad, but she was one of the proselytizers who wouldn't be satisfied until everyone she knew had gone through it with her, and I didn't like that.
I also was at BU, Theo, but in the late 80s.
Landmark is also very involved in the Cafe Gratitude chain of vegan restaurants. I don't think they directly own anything, but the people who do own the restaurants are very involved in Landmark, and there have been a lot of allegations that they pretty much force all their employees to go to the Landmark seminars if they want to get promoted to management. (I won't go to those restaurants anyway, because they're the ones where all the dishes have names like "I am empowered" or "I am enlightened," and you have to order by saying, "I am enlightened," and then the waiter responds, "You are enlightened." If you don't order like that, then you don't get food. I'm willing to go through a lot of ridiculousness for good vegan food, but that's a bit too far.)
