The Observer, November 10, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 10
One Foot Out the Door: Unspoken rules applied to Case students
Like any other group of people with daily interactions, the culture of Case students has developed its own "unwritten rules." For example, when a male enters a restroom, he knows not to choose the stall right next to one already occupied. How? No one ever explicitly explains it to him, but somehow he knows that it is not appropriate. Case has a few more of these implicitly taught rules – some worth breaking…
1. Finding out your peers' MCAT/LSAT scores. Students here appreciate how hard their peers work to become competitive for graduate and professional school, and also know you generally cannot ask bluntly how they did. To settle seemingly innate curiosity while retaining basic social tact, we have learned to rephrase the question. Instead of asking for a score, we ask less obvious, but equally revealing questions: So, do you know where you're applying? Have you heard back about interviews? Oh – you don't like medicine anymore?
2. Not talking on the Mather Quad. I'm not sure how this got started, but everyone seems to stop talking once they step onto the long diagonal walkway through the middle of Mather. I daringly asked a first– year student and was given the following response: "Maybe it's because…we're so close to PBL and all that metal…when the sun reflects off it, it creates some kind of… gamma rays…and that somehow changes our speech pattern?" That was a true response and without commenting on it, I'm going to suggest this unwritten rule needs to go.
3. Not talking to CIM/CIA students. They don't bite. Seriously. In a moment of bravery I went outside my normal social habit to say hello to a student with an instrument case, and later to another carrying an art portfolio. Engaging in conversation, I settled rumors that they actually do have work, and a hell of a lot of it. Equally important, they have better parties than most Case undergrads. That said, this rule definitely needs to be violated.
The comforting thing about these unwritten rules is that they constantly have to be reinvented. Meaning, if you want to keep them, you can perpetuate them. If you're a bit more ambitious, you may want to break them, and invent your own. The core of it will be finding a small group of committed citizens willing to take on the new ethos.
Ibrahim is a senior Medical Anthropology major who has just returned from a year abroad in London.
