Back in 2003, Ragen posted to her LiveJournal that she was going back to college. She wrote this about her intentions to graduate:
“Went to see the Advisor today, O* is very nice man, really wanted to help me find a major that I was passionate about. One problem, I don’t give a crap what my major is, I want to graduate. The following is what ensued:
o-what are your goals?
s-I want to graduate as soon as possible
O*=what do you want to study
S=whatever will get me out of here the fastest
O=right, but what are you passionate about
S-graduating
O-but what do you want to learn
S-I know this must be frustrating for you, but I’m not interested in studying something that I’m passionate about, I just want to get my bachelors and move on.So, I am a government major with minors in Music Performance, Social Work and Nutrition. Good news, I can take 15 hours a semester and graduate in one year. Bad news: I have to take 4th semester Spanish. I am so incredibly screwed! I haven’t had Spanish for 3 years and the last Spanish I had was in community college in the summer with all of the people who failed Spanish at University in the Spring. I attended less than 1/3 of the classes, missed a test and still had the highest grade in the class. Hark, I think I may have the solution: I’ll be taking Spanish IV this summer at ACC with all of the people who failed Spanish at University this Spring. We’ll see how it goes. Anybody want to tutor me?”
Screen shot here and direct link to her LJ here.
Yup – she studied “trained researching.” She clearly didn’t give a fuck what she had to study as long as she could get a degree. I almost agree. But this is Ragen we are talking about. Who claims that she started college as a Clarinet major, even played Carnegie Hall because she was the best of the best. Someone needs to tell her that googling isn’t a college major.
And the best part of this? She posted this in 1/2003. And according to UT, her last semester was in the spring of ’02. So she never actually went back. She just blogged about it. You can check that for yourself here.
Anyone else see the pattern forming?
Dances with Facts 
Very interesting she thinks the only people taking summer school failed during another semester. When i was in college people took summer classes because it was better for their schedule.
My opinion is she took on majors that were too hard and she got to a class that was beyond her she dropped out or changed majors. Really if she just wanted to graduate she would have done it. How hard can a government degree be?
I highly doubt she did the best in her Spanish class if she rarely attended and missed a test. First, if a student is on the border between a B and a B+ and has attended all classes and made the effort, the teacher will almost always give them a higher grade. (Yes, this happened to me twice) Also, why does she believe community college is for flunk-outs? I don’t know that she flunked out of UT, but she doesn’t have a degree. Community College is for everyone (hence “Community”) and lots of very bright students go there because it is cheaper tuition and a traditional four-year college doesn’t work for them at the moment. Most have jobs and families.
In 1995 she enrolled as a music performance major, supposedly under a scholarship, but “just didn’t want to live that lifestyle”. By 2001 she was a “social work senior”, but in 2003 she still needed an entire year of 15 hours semesters to graduate?
http://www.utwatch.org/archives/disorientut.html
What a pleasure to find someone who idtfeinies the issues so clearly
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[…] Ragen titles herself with the academic-sounding credentials of “trained researcher”, says she “studied” various majors at UT Austin, refers to herself as a “UT alum”, and frequently talks about classes she took like “research methods” and “statistics”. University records and Ragen’s own Livejournal posts paint a decidedly unflattering picture of her lack of interest in academics, and show she attended UT Austin for a total of 7 years and never received a degree. […]
“I don’t give a crap what my major is, I just want to graduate.”
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“I don’t give a crap what my time is, I just want to get a medal that says I completed a marathon.”
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seems like she just wants prestige without giving a shit about the thing that makes the medal/degree prestigious – you know, the work that went into it.
Anonymous nailed it. 100% I’m surprised she hasn’t crowdfunded for her mail-order degree yet. I’m sure she’ll find a way.
[…] a full year of credit hours away from graduating, despite attending college for 7 years. She had a conversation with an advisor where she explained that she had no passion for any academic field whatsoever, and didn’t […]
[…] Ragen titles herself with the academic-sounding credentials of “trained researcher”, says she “studied” various majors at UT Austin, refers to herself as a “UT alum”, and frequently talks about classes she took like “research methods” and “statistics”. University records and Ragen’s own Livejournal posts paint a decidedly unflattering picture of her lack of interest in academics, and show she attended UT Austin for a total of 7 years and never received a degree. […]