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a Wolverine’s opinion on operation varsity blues
Watching this documentary reminded me of when I was applying to colleges and watching my peers nervously refresh their application portals. I live in Michigan in the U.S., and the school rivalry of the University of Michigan and Michigan State is prevalent… literally everywhere. I know people who don’t associate themselves w/ people who went to MSU when they went to Michigan or vice versa. However, an underlying factor that is present is how one’s class status and family income are associated in both schools. Both colleges hold strong values of “legacies,” meaning if your parent or sibling went to that school, that can be used in your application and express how important it is to you AND your family to keep up the “tradition” of being a Spartan or Wolverine.
My family is not from Michigan, but we have lived here for a while. When moving here, it was almost foreign to us how much college sports or the college one’s family is devoted to .. mattered. My mother was one of the only people in her graduating high school class who could go to college, as her siblings didn’t go. The question surrounded the culture that my parents grew up in, “Are you going to college or are you going into a trade?” etc. Now, the question is are; it is “WHERE are you going to college?”
