Exam Season: Instead of Deviation Scores, Can You Make 100 Friends?

When exam season arrives, universities are often immediately discussed in terms of their "rankings." People talk about how Waseda and Keio are doing, which school is higher or lower within the MARCH group, or which one has a higher deviation score than the others.
While glancing at such talk, I suddenly remembered my own college days.
Before I knew it, nostalgic scenes came flooding back one after another. Don't you have memories of your university like that, too?

The university called the "lowest rank"

The university I attended was often called the "lowest" within the MARCH group.
It was like that back in the Showa era, and apparently, it is still like that today.

To be honest, it's not something I can puff out my chest and call a source of pride.
However, when people say it's a "bad university," I find myself thinking, "Well..."
I can't help but tilt my head in doubt.
Why is that?

A freshman year that began with a sense of frustration

During my freshman year, the atmosphere was a bit heavy. You could hear voices everywhere saying things like, "I failed to get into Waseda," "I didn't make it to Keio," or "Meiji was my first choice."

It was, so to speak, a university full of a group of people feeling frustrated.

But as the second and third years passed, that atmosphere faded away. We debated in seminars, stayed up late at training camps, and before we knew it, we were spending more time laughing than anything else.

Haven't you had an experience like that, too?

The professor who loved katsudon and mahjong

Our seminar professor was a distinguished researcher who later even served as the university president. But at our training camps, he would play mahjong with us all night long.

One seminar friend said, "The professor treated me to a katsudon bowl," and another later learned that he had quietly helped them with their job hunting.

The back of the professor that I couldn't see when I was a student becomes visible as the years go by. It's a strange thing.

On the way home from watching a university baseball game

On the way home from watching a university baseball game, while I was drinking in Shinjuku, a complete stranger who happened to be an alumnus paid for everyone's drinks.
As a thank you, we all sang our school anthem right there on the spot.

I was truly surprised. And I was happy.
At that moment, I genuinely thought, "Ah, I'm glad I went to this university."

The school anthem sung at my wedding

Time passed further, and it was my wedding day. The professor attended, and I sang the school anthem with my arms around my seminar friends.

At that moment, no one was thinking about what rank we were within MARCH.
We were just thinking, "I'm glad I met you at this university."

Attachment over rankings

There are many universities that rank higher in terms of deviation scores.
That is why I wouldn't call it 'pride.' But, I do have 'attachment' to it.

I have friends who gather for alumni meetings from as far away as Nara, Niigata, and Shizuoka.
And when we meet, we immediately return to our student days.

Is the value of a university determined by its ranking? Or, there are times when I think it might be better to determine it by whether you have friends with whom you can sing the school anthem together.

Looking back, I feel that at the very least, I gained several treasures of a lifetime at a university that is called 'bottom-tier'.

Isn't that enough?
Things might be different now than they were in the Showa era, but I still feel that
examinees should think more about how they will spend their student life after enrollment rather than worrying about deviation scores.
I suppose it's the same for elementary school and university.

The world is surprisingly simple, I think.
🎵 When I become a first-grader, when I become a first-grader
🎵 Can I make 100 friends?