Private university

Yesterday I told my mom that I got rejected from 4 schools in a row and didn’t get into any private school so far. Her response literally made me cry 😢. She was like is that because we are asking for financial aid? Like she didn’t doubt that it was my ability that got rejected but potentially blamed for herself of not able to provide me the best opportunities😭😭😭

I know some of the schools are reach for me so I wasn’t blaming her or anything. I did give up the opportunity of ed2 to a school that I have a best shot because of the fee… However her immediate response literally made me cry. I love you mom🫶🫶🫶

College Admissions is like having a crush on a girl. You can be nice to her, send her flowers, write her poems, and she still has every choice to reject you and go for another guy. You don't deserve her love and the guy she picked did not "steal" your spot.

She can pick the guy for any reason at all. Maybe she likes rich guys, funny guys. Maybe all her life, she's been dating athletic guys and wants to date a slim guy or short guy. Maybe she finds Hispanic guys and their culture interesting and what she wants for herself. Don't go writing a whole 7-paragraph essay about how girls don't appreciate "Nice Guys"

That's the same with College (Private). Nobody deserves to get in (even the ones that get in) because the College owes nobody nothing (unless you paid for admissions and have a signed contract but what are the chances of that?) So if the College wants to accept more rich people to help their budget, why not? I'm poor but even I understand the basic economics behind it. So if a College wants to go test-optional and accepts someone with a 1100 SAT, so what? I didn't go test-optional but I understand the basic logic behind it. So if a College doesn't want to be a racial monolith and wants to accept more minority students, so what? Every student will benefit from the diversity anyways.

The College application process is not perfect and you have every cause to be frustrated as there is so little transparency and you can hardly know anything but this whole, "unqualified applicants", "Stole my spot", "Didn't deserve to get in" rhetoric is redundant. Nobody stole your spot because you never had a spot to begin with, Nobody deserves to get in anywhere cause the college has all arbitrary power to decide who they want and who they don't, Nobody that was accepted is unqualified because who dictates who is qualified and who is not? Not you!

So yeah, lol. Let's stop acting like babies. At the end of the day, people, justifiably, will use whatever legal means they can to increase their chances in this crapshoot system. It's how life works...

Edit: to those saying that they don't care if that's how life works and they want to work to make it better, go change your Public Universities. That doesn't detract from my point. They are established with the sole purpose of serving you. If you the people don't think diversity or financial ability is important to higher education then go ahead and petition your leaders to make your public universities "meritocratic". Do something about it! My plan and hope is to go to a top Uni, become billionaire rich and build a transparent, tuition-free college. What's yours?

Edit 2: giving this comment a pedestal. "For those of you arguing that OP’s post is bad because it says “just deal with it” instead of suggesting change - well, the point of this post is to call out people whining about losing university spots. And whining was never going to change the system in the first place. If you want to make a difference, if you want to fix the flaws, complaining about how your spot got stolen is not doing anything. Read OP’s post, accept that the system wasn’t fair to you (or to most people in general) and accept that others got in instead of you, and go fix it in a productive manner."

Hey everyone, a little background before we get started.

My name is Naissance. Weird name, I know. I’m told by my mother it’s French for
‘birth’. I’ve always thought that was real original of her. Yeah, I sure was born. But enough about that.

I’ve been a huge history buff my entire life. When I was younger, I wanted to pursue a graduate degree and become a historian, but I can’t really say I had the best childhood and opportunities; so I had to downscale a bit. With attending college out of the picture considering my financial woes, I started the long, arduous road that is finding a good job without a degree. I ended up meeting a faculty member that worked at a private college that was near where I lived (at a bar of all places), and they introduced the idea of interning as an archivist’s assistant to me - I jumped at the opportunity. Recordkeeping was a career path I had never really ever considered, nor thought about at all, but who really ever ended up doing what they expected to do in life anyway? I figured this was adjacent enough to history. Just with a lot more organization and sitting in a dusty old storage room all day.

All things considered, I liked the job once I started working it. There was something about being a caretaker for all of these old documents and items that was really appealing. I felt like what I was doing was special; I was preserving history. Mrs. Whittinger, the head archivist and my boss, was a seasoned expert on the care of these documents. She was also very particular about the way she went about things. I was forbidden from touching anything on the shelves at the very back of the archive room, for example. Apparently, the files and things back there were in such disrepair and had so much wear that if they were moved at all they risked damage. And that was their fate, just to sit there. So when the mean old lady croaked and I succeeded her position, I was excited. I would have access to everything in the archives, and I had a lot more leeway to explore and do things my own way. That being said, something was always eerie about those dusty archives. Like there were obscured secrets waiting to be discovered. My assumption would be proven correct soon enough.

It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon those old cassette tapes. They were on the back shelf, which I had been forbidden from touching since I started working. It wasn’t too common that people came down here from the university to ask for access to the documents I safekept, but I had plenty to do. Part of my job was digitizing the physical documents and transcribing tapes. As a lot of these files preceded the internet age, this was a monumental task. There were tens of thousands of documents in these archives, and plenty more film, tape, and other media. By the time I got to that back shelf, and those tapes, it had been a little over a year since I had become the head archivist. I’m going to transcribe those tapes as I found them here, along with some afterthoughts, for reasons I will explain later. I only hope, at least, that this record of them survives long enough to be seen.

TAPE 3A: ‘DECLINE’

DATED: JANUARY 19TH, 1982

[START]

[FOOTSTEPS ECHOING]

OLD MAN: Give me a light.

[SHUFFLING]

YOUNG MAN: You know, you really shouldn’t smoke cigarettes. Gives you cancer and stuff.

OLD MAN: Fuck off. Don’t lecture me. I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive and I turned out fine.

YOUNG MAN: Alright, alright. Just tell me what we’re doing here. I’ve never been down this way in the tunnels before.

OLD MAN: Electrical problems in the old building upstairs. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] —nts to repurpose it. Only problem is tunnel access from the old building got built over way back when, and the breaker is under the building. That’s why we have to take this alternate route.

YOUNG MAN: Seems like you could do that just fine by yourself. And what’s with the recorder?

OLD MAN: Yea, well. It’s an old, windy underground tunnel built a long time ago. Almost completely abandoned after [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -safety measures and yada yada. [PAUSE]. Here, through this way. It’s dark. Get your shoulderlight.

[CLICKING]

OLD MAN: There’s some boards in the way.

[BOARDS CRACK AND BREAK]

OLD MAN: There we go. Watch your head.

[SHUFFLING]

YOUNG MAN: God, it’s dusty down this way. And there’s webs everywhere — Jesus!

[WOOD RATTLES] [CRASH]

YOUNG MAN: Ow, fuck! Fucking spiders. There’s planks and shit everywhere, god damnit.

OLD MAN: Watch your step. Don’t be a dumbass. I told you it was old. Get up.

[PAUSE] [FOOTSTEPS CONTINUE]

YOUNG MAN: All this to check a fucking breaker. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just [UNINTELLIGIBLE]?. They’ve gotta replace that shit anyway, we can’t go this way every single time.

OLD MAN: They just tell us where to go, son. It’s not on us to question it. Come on.

[FOOTSTEPS ECHO LOUDLY]

YOUNG MAN: Did you hear that?

[FOOTSTEPS STOP] [SILENCE]

OLD MAN: Hear what?

[PAUSE]

OLD MAN: I don’t hear anything. Look, if you really didn’t want to go that badly, you should’ve said something.

YOUNG MAN: No, no, seriously. You don’t hear that? It’s so loud.

[FAINT SOUND OF WATER DRIPPING]

OLD MAN: I really don’t. Maybe the darkness is getting to your head.

YOUNG MAN: I’m not going fucking crazy, I hear something and it’s further ahead. It sounds like screeching.

OLD MAN: So what, what do you want me to do about it. Maybe some animal wandered into here and got trapped. It’ll be fine. Stray cat or some shit. Doesn’t matter. Let’s just get to where we need to go and then we can leave.

[YOUNG MAN SIGHS]

YOUNG MAN: Fine, but somethings not right.

OLD MAN: Quit being paranoid. Come on, it should be just ahead.

[FOOTSTEPS CONTINUE]

YOUNG MAN: [GRUNTING] This is getting… really tight. It feels like we are in a cave right now. We have to crouch, when did the tunnel start shrinking? Are you sure this is the way?

OLD MAN: I’m sure son, this is the only way that’s blocked off from the main tunnel system. I think the ceiling foundation deteriorated to the point it’s in danger of collapsing. Be careful now.

YOUNG MAN: Seriously? Fuck this tunnel, this isn’t worth our lives.

OLD MAN: I’m not fond of it either. I’m beginning to think sending us down here was a huge oversight — But look, we're already almost there.

YOUNG MAN: Quickly, then. I’m sick of thi—

[FAINT SCREECHING]

[PAUSE]

YOUNG MAN: You hear-

OLD MAN: I heard it son. That’s no damn cat. Let’s turn back, regardless of what it is, if it sounds dangerous, we need to head back and repo— Fuck!

[SCREECHING]

YOUNG MAN: Let’s go! Let’s go! It’s getting closer!

[LOUD FOOTSTEPS ECHO, RUNNING]

OLD MAN: What? [UNINTELLIGIBLE] —king entrance?

YOUNG MAN: Why does it go down? Fuck fuck fuck… [UNINTELLIGIBLE] it wasn’t like this before…

[LOUD SCREECHING]

OLD MAN: Shit! Run, Al!

[THUD, RATTLE]

OLD MAN: Fuck, the recorder—

YOUNG MAN: It doesn’t matter, go! Go!

[FOOTSTEPS AND VOICES TRAIL OFF]

[PAUSE]

[LOUD FOOTSTEPS APPROACH]

[LOUD SCREECHING, RATTLING]

[FOOTSTEPS, SCREECHING TRAIL OFF]

[UNINTELLIGIBLE YELLING]

[PAUSE]

[FAINT SCREAMING, SPLATTERS]

[SCREECHING CONTINUES]

[END]

This tape was the first that I transcribed, and at first, I was skeptical of its nature. I figured it may have been some film student’s project or something of that nature. It was ‘fun’ and ‘inventive’ if I thought of it in that way, and surely was scary. However, upon subsequent listens, the contents of the tape started to bother me. Those screams felt all too genuine. Too real. Too guttural. Too life-threatening to be fiction. And that screeching — it wasn’t so much animal-like as it was alien. It sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. A sound like that felt like it was beyond technological capability.

That being said, I decided to do a little bit of research into this tape. The older man mentioned the name, ‘Al’, during the final moments of the audio recording. I had no way of knowing where this tape was recorded, but I did have a date, so I checked death records and missing reports on January 19th, 1982. It was a total crackshot, but to my surprise, I found an Alfurt ‘Al’ Hayward, 25, had died due to a work-related accident in Hillview, Oregon. The same town I had lived in my whole life, and the town in which I worked.

I can only assume then, that the tape is real, and was recorded here, in my hometown. This realization opened up way more questions than it answered. Who recovered the tape? What was Al’s and the older man’s actual fate? What was the thing that attacked them? It seemed like there was an old danger stirring in this sleepy town. It fascinated me. I wanted to learn more of this mysterious tape, and the subsequent ones.

Unfortunately, when I transcribed all of the audio recordings, the files got corrupted when I entered them into the university's system. I was bummed out, sure, but things like this had happened in the past. I begrudgingly rewrote the past few hours of work — only to find it corrupted again. There was something unnatural about these recordings. Forbidden. Secret. I figured I would try to log these transcripts in an alternate system, and this seemed like a safe bet. This is more of a trial run, so I’m only going to transcribe the first recording in this post. I hope nothing happens to it, or at least, that people see it before something does.

That being said, I realized something as I write this post; something that should’ve been so obvious to me before. Something I should know, living here my whole life, and as someone adept in this town’s history. Something that contradicted the validity of this first tape I transcribed:

There were no tunnels in Hillview, Oregon.

I am currently studying at a University somewhere in Malaysia. For all throughout my life I always have the impression that whenever you enter your univesity years, the main language to converse to people would be english or maybe even malay. But not at the university that I attend, majority of the students here are chinese (I don't mind them being Chinese or anything). Being Chinese is not a problem for me but unable and ignorant inough to learn how to speak or read English is a different thing. Everyone knows that whenever and wherever you are you need to be able to speak atleast to important languages, first is your main language and the second one is the main international language aka English, but not the students here. Honestly, I don't even know how in the world are they going to apply for a job or an interview, because you can't just speak Chinese to an employer or to anyone on an official settings like meetings, presentations and other stuff that I can't think of from the top of my head.

Okay, not being able to understand English is fine by me, as long as I can communicate using malay. Oh what's this, you don't understand my malay dialect, okay I'll change it to malay baku. Oh what's this, you don't understand malay baku, don't worry I'll speak in simple malay for you to understand. Oh what's this, you don't understand shit that I'm saying, if so then tell me earlier on.

Yes I know that they know how to speak Chinese because they were thought how to speak the language, but really just knowing how to speak Chinese is a no go. Atleast learn basic malay with the dialects of the state you are in, or just basic malay is fine. I'm not saying that the Chinese language is not important, it is important but not on a scale that you would think that it is important at, like the amount of country that speaks chinese are countable by hand. And majority of other countries learn how to speak and write in English. So please learn English, even just the bare basic of it no matter where you are just learn the goddamn language.

Sorry for the long rant, it's been a while since i complained about stuff.

Just curious to see how people who made this decision in the past feel about it.

We worked at jimmy johns at the time so we just wore our work shirts and the security guard just waved us in. The town didn’t even have a jimmy johns.

A lot of those rich kids apparently didn’t care about re-selling anything. We cleaned up and found $500 worth of textbooks and a very nice cooler along with some ikea furniture.

Just saying if you have an old delivery driver shirt it can put in some work.

Hi everyone, I'm planning to take engineering program; Electrical, Electronics, or Computer engineering. One of those three engineering program are my prefer to take. Which is the best school that you can recommend?

Hi, I go to a private university and was wondering how my RA searches work. I’m not going to beat around the bush, yes, I am talking about hiding alcohol. I have a mini fridge that I own. It is not the school’s that I’m renting. With that in mind, is an RA allowed to open and search my fridge? Also, we have the boxes of the beer and alcohol hung up on the wall (it’s so dumb I know) could we get in trouble for that even if it’s just the cardboard box? Please let me know, thank you so much.

Aside the top local universities , which private institution education provider is well established There are many choices which we students can choose from , the likes of psb and simge . Which educational institution is rather ideal and gives you a fair playing field when looking for a career after graduation . Please share the experience you guys had

I come from an affluent family and my mom graduated from a T10 university. However while parents are capable of paying for my college tuition to a private university, my parents insist that they do not want me to go to any of the private T20s and instead going to any of the UCs. My mom believes that the ROI for T20s (specifically Duke and Vanderbilt) becomes marginally different in comparison to the UCs that it is not worth the shedding an additional 200k.

My mom says she would much rather have me go to a UC then work in tech, and invest the money we would have put on a private university degree into real estate or some other investment.

I know kids in this community obsess of the T10s but is there really a any financial benefit to studying at a T10 vs a UC/Public?

EDIT: To clarify something else my parents are not against T10s. They are against it for undergrad, they are willing to help finance any master/MBA and support me pursuing it at a T10. They believe that once you get your masters and work experience, your undergrad becomes almost irrelevant to job prospects.

Thoughts?

I teach applied music (private lessons) and sight singing classes at two colleges/universities as an adjunct.

At one of these schools, a private 4-year Catholic university, I am being contracted to teach the same course I taught last year (‘23-24), in the coming year (‘24-25). In the ‘23-24 year, I taught this 2 credit sight-singing classes remotely via Zoom to a low-enrollment class of 3 students (2 second semester). The stipend was $1,166 before tax, which I was told was the low-enrollment pay for the course. Now, there are 14 students enrolled in my course for Fall 2024, so I anticipated my pay would increase as well as my workload. However, I was just told that my pay would again be $1,166, as “the class is still just 2 credits”. They also want me to teach in person, which means a 1 hour commute each way with no help for mileage. My gut reaction is that this feels mildly exploitative as I’m a recent graduate and this is my second year as an adjunct, and the experience would help. But, I absolutely cant do the amount of work they want for barely $1k after taxes… I need to live! Any advice would be deeply appreciated!

Some questions I have:

1. Is this normal?

2. Am I being an a**hole/delusional about the situation?

3. Can I/should I try to negotiate for more?

I noticed that most people don't like students going to private universities without doing A/Ls. They finish their degree at a very young age like 20 or 21 and they are able to secure a job in the industry even before a government university student finish their degree. Wouldn't they have an advantage over a government uni graduate?

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the traction I had gotten on the last post. I’m new to websites like this, and it’s good to see that people are invested in learning more about these tapes. I read some suggestions, and decided to also physically copy the transcripts down on paper in case anything happens to the digital records. Seeing as the last post is still up and running, I hope this won’t be necessary to fall back on though. I tried using the copier to print out the transcripts, but it always came out super distorted. Weird. I guess I gotta stick with copying them down by hand.

I realize I've been poor in my description of the back shelf, and storage room, thus far. The archives are down a flight of stairs in the main administrative building of the university, which itself is hard to find through a maze of identical hallways and doors. It’s rather off the beaten path, which is probably why there isn’t a lot of foot traffic here. The archive itself is full of steel shelves that line the rectangular room in orderly rows as well as the back wall. It’s all very… ordinary. Or it would be, if not for an old, decrepit, wooden shelf near the back corner wall. This was the ‘back shelf’. The shelf seemed to be older than the room itself, with artifacts and documents on it much older than that. I can only imagine it wasn’t changed due to fear of damaging its contents. I have to utilize the utmost caution when interacting with them.

That being said, the rest of the archives was full of mundane administrative and historical documents related to the functions of the university itself. Miscellaneous old records from the local government were also given to the university to watch over. Were it not for that out-of-place shelf, the place would lose a lot of intrigue. That’s where the oldest relics in the archives were. That’s where the tapes were.

There were seven I found, in total. Each neatly numbered in a sequence from 1A to 4B. Varying dates. In fact, the sequence seems to not be chronological at all. It makes me wonder what it means, and what the connection between these tapes are at all. It felt like what I was doing was dangerous. Like I’ve invited some eldritch, malicious force into this world. It's starting to get me a little scared if I’m being honest; like I’m in freefall through a dark abyss, and I have no idea when I’m going to reach the bottom.

I really think I’ve been stuck in this dusty room for too long. I think being here all day is starting to get to me. Despite being a larger space, it does feel claustrophobic at times. And it always feels like that back shelf is pushing me to explore it even further. Although I was fascinated at first, It's a feeling I’m starting to dread.

I’ve made some progress on rewriting the transcripts on some of the tapes, and I just finished another one today. I’m probably just misremembering, but I swear it was slightly different when I listened to them the first time. I had this weird feeling when I was transcribing it, like the tape itself knew what I was doing. This one was much worse than the first. And there were these disturbing distortions…

I think I’ll need some time to myself after this one. I hope everyone understands. Here it is.

TAPE 1A: ‘ARROWHEAD’

DATED: OCTOBER 2ND, 1989

*Full lines in italic denote radio speak

[START]

[CLICK]

STEVENS: Expedition Log #2. I’m Jeffrey Stevens, here with good friend Tom Ford and my wife Clara. This is our second exploration of a massive unexplored cave system in the Rockies of northern Idaho, and we’ll be attempting to survey a southwestern lead we saw during our last expedition. I’ll be working point, Clara will be sketching, and Tom is on instruments. Say hi guys.

CLARA: Hi!

TOM: Hello!

[SHUFFLING, HEAVY EQUIPMENT DROPS]

STEVENS: Right now, we're in a large chamber near the mouth of a cave system we're naming the Sheer Strait. This is our last equipment check at the forward base before we head down a southwest lead passage Radio check?

[RADIO CLICKS ON]

TOM: Gamma this is Arrowhead Survey Team, do you copy?

GAMMA: Loud and clear Arrowhead. VLF radio operational. Walkies one and three?

[TWO RADIOS CLICK ON]

STEVENS: All good Gamma, thanks. Starting descent in approximately five minutes.

GAMMA: Copy that.

CLARA: Looks like everything is good outside. Let’s pack up.

[SHUFFLING, BAGS ZIP, EQUIPMENT RATTLES]

STEVENS: Equipment?

TOM: All good here.

STEVENS: Alright, let’s head out.

[FOOTSTEPS ECHO, EQUIPMENT RATTLES]

STEVENS: Here’s the entryway.

[PAUSE]

TOM: Inclinometer says 24.2° decline from the entrance. Door about 1 x 1.9 meters, and the passage continues at… 256° SW.

CLARA: Got it. Marking.

[MARKER SQUEAKS]

STEVENS: Let’s head through Clara. Watch your head, there’s some pretty sharp-looking rocks on the ceiling.

[RADIO CLICKS]

STEVENS: Gamma, starting descent.

GAMMA: Roger that. Stay safe down there Arrowhead.

[FOOTSTEPS ON GRAVEL]

CLARA: Floor is uneven, watch your step. Don’t want to slide into a hole.

STEVENS: That was one time.

CLARA: Hopefully your last.

STEVENS: I think I’ve got a few more in me, personally.

CLARA: Personally, I don’t want to spend a few hours rescuing your ass again.

STEVENS: Fair enough.

[HEAVY COUGHING]

CLARA: God, it smells rotten this way. What is that?

STEVENS: Something probably just crawled in here and died. A surprising amount of life in these caves. Not unheard of. But fuck, it’s really strong. It must be close.

CLARA: Just our luck.

STEVENS: Here, the passage dips again.

[RADIO CLICKS]

STEVENS: Tom, if you’re finished with the measurements you can come on over.

TOM: Roger that. Jesus Stevens, did you take a shit over here? It smells.

STEVENS: Next time it’ll be on your face, asshole.

TOM: Very funny. Did something die?

STEVENS: We’ll probably come across it further ahead. Just hurry up and get over he—

[PAUSE]

[LOUD STATIC]

DISTORTED VOICE: NON FLUIT HIC. EST ENIM INFINITUM.

[BUZZING]

[PAUSE]

TOM: —a sheer cliff, we’ve gotta rappel down. I’ll set up the rigs.

[BAGS UNZIP, SHUFFLING]

CLARA: I can’t see the bottom with the light. I’ll toss a glowstick.

[GLOWSTICK WHIRRS]

[PAUSE]

[FAINT THUD]

STEVENS: It’s barely visible. Can we get distance?

TOM: It’s out of range; couldn’t be less than 100 meters.

[RADIO CLICKS]

STEVENS: Gamma, team came upon a drop. Going to rappel down deeper, more than 100 meters.

GAMMA: [STATIC]

STEVENS: Gamma? Do you copy?

GAMMA: [STATIC]

TOM: That’s weird. We aren’t that far from the entrance.

STEVENS: Not too weird. Might just be something in the rocks throwing off the signal. Gamma told us to turn back if we lost radio access.

CLARA: Should we go back then?

STEVENS: No, no. It’s alright. Our radios should still communicate with each other as long as we are in eyesight. I’ll just rappel down to get an idea of what kind of passage we are dealing with, and we can rendezvous back at the forward base.

[RETCHING, COUGHING]

CLARA: Ugh, fuck! There’s that smell again. It’s definitely coming from down there.

TOM: Aw, hell. I sure am glad I don’t have to get closer to that shit.

STEVENS: Whatever died must’ve fallen off this cliff. It’s fine, I can handle it. I’ll make it quick. Just stay on the radio.

TOM: Alright, let’s set you up then—

[PAUSE]

[LOUD STATIC]

DISTORTED VOICE: SANGUIS MANET. SANGUIS MANET. SANGUIS MANET.

[BUZZING]

[PAUSE]

STEVENS: —fuck! It’s fucking everywhere, jesus christ. My god. How were their bodies… bent like that? Christ.

CLARA: Jeffrey! Are you there? Are you alright? What happened?

STEVENS: There’s fucking blood everywhere, Clara. It’s all over the walls. So much blood— what did this? T-there’s two bodies— no, three? I can’t tell. There’s a couple arms I see… This is fucked up. These people didn’t fall. Ripped apart… guts everywhere. Torsos missing legs. The blood is pooling at the bottom of this pit…

TOM: Bodies? You found bodies? Jesus Stevens, that’s horrible. — ve gotta get — ck up here. We — to repo—

[PAUSE]

STEVENS: This blood is— this blood is fucking warm. I— this couldn’t have happened more than a couple hours ago— these bodies are fresh. And it doesn’t smell like rot anymore— what happened here?

CLARA:* —at? We were h— a cou— hours ago.*

CLARA: — ome ba— u— w— n t— ab— — la—

STEVENS: Hello? Clara? Tom? Fuck, the radio.

[FAINT SCREECHING, PAIRS OF FOOTSTEPS APPROACH]

STEVENS: Oh shit— what was that? CLARA! Pull me up! TOM! Something’s down here!

[PANICKED MOVEMENT, METAL CLANGING]

STEVENS: FUCK! This goddamn harness! The rope is stuck! CLARA! TOM!

[SCREECHING GETS CLOSER, GALLOPING]

STEVENS: No no no! No please! CLARA! Fuck! Pull me up!

[LOUD CLANG, METAL RATTLES ON THE GROUND]

[SPLASH]

STEVENS: Oh fuck, there’s blood everywhere. Fucking rig brok— [PAUSE] What? How… Why is there a ceiling there? Where’s the fucking cliff? CLARA! TOM! Please, god. Help me! Where am I?!

[LOUD SCREECHING, GALLOPING]

STEVENS: No, please, fuck!

[PANICKED SPLASHING]

[FAINT CLAWING, BANGING]

STEVENS: Please let me out, please! CLARA!

[SCREECHING, GALLOPING STOPS]

[PAUSE]

[RADIO CLICKS]

[PANICKED BREATHING]

STEVENS: Jesus, Clara. It has your fac—

[SPLATTER]

[DRIP, DRIP]

[END]

It was difficult to listen to this one. When I first transcribed it, I was still under the assumption that most of these were student projects, or fake. Now doubtful of that, I can’t help but feel horrified when I think of those dark caverns. When I think of that creature— Stevens, he was about to say face, wasn’t he? It had Clara’s face. Why would it have her face? I hoped to god that this creature was a hoax. I hoped that my initial assumption was correct. But as I go back through these tapes, the less plausible that conclusion is to me.

I don’t know whether or not this tape and ‘Decline’ are closely related or not. I think this creature and the one in ‘Decline’ may be the same, but there’s no way to know for sure just going off of audio. I wanted to do a little bit of research on the two supposed survivors, though. Tom Ford and Clara Stevens. Ford unfortunately passed a few years ago of unrelated health complications. It was hard to track down Clara, and it took making a few of the right calls to communities living near the Sheer Strait to get a lead. She lives in California. I got her number, and I’m going to drive down to interview her sometime next month. I want to know her retelling of these events.

I feel like I’m getting more and more affected by these tapes the more I listen to them. I’ll admit that I haven’t been completely transparent about how this has influenced my mental state. While working on ‘Arrowhead’, I smelt something rancid. Lifting my head from my laptop, I saw broken limbs covered in blood crawling out of the back shelf; An amalgamation of horrifically twisted arms and legs that pulled itself out to invade our mundane realm— to escape the confines of the tapes. I blinked, and it was gone. The hallucination thoroughly terrified me. I chose to go home early that day to rest.

And that strange voice, in the tapes. I feel like I’ve heard it. Or at least, I’ve imagined it since finishing this transcript. I imagine the bodies, sometimes, too. In the hall. Near the back shelf. Even at home. I wonder what they looked like in life. I wondered whether or not they lived meaningful and fulfilled lives before their unfortunate fate. Most of all, I imagine the pain they felt when they were torn apart, reduced to scattered viscera. I imagine their blood on the walls, pooling in a deep abyss for all eternity.

Sanguis Manet.

The blood remains.

By "well-known" I mean ranked in US News's Top 10 for undergrad schools. I'm in the social sciences.

I'm currently multitasking multiple gig job earning around 6.5k monthly and am confident that this could last few years at least if i choose to continue. The money is good and i can save to invest ( staying with family) , trying to increase my capital...However, the gig jobs will have 0 help towards my resume as it is a manual job...

i have always been doing freelance jobs since young and regretted not taking any internship or ft jobs, currently my resume is empty with just a private degree for show. If i were to find a ft marketing job it would likely start at 3k ...

I am at a dilemma now, should i continue working this gig job, tbh am already used to it and i like the job but am worried about my future career too... should i stay or quit it and move on to corporate...( abit heart pain also as i will give up 3k+ pay difference and i heard that the job market is bad now)

Please advice me i really appreciate it

Hello, I’m applying to schools for civil engineering. One is private and the other is public. Both are ABET accredited. The difference in tuition adds to about 45k, with the private school costing more, but boasts a 100% job placement statistic and overall seems like a much much nicer school.

Does the school matter to you or to future job employers? In my opinion the coursework should be similar between the two schools, so why pick the more expensive one. I would end up taking the FE exam either way.

However, in terms of potential starting pay increase after graduation, internship potential, and overall quality of experience, is it worth the extra 45k to go to the private school.

To clarify, total cost of tuition is about 125k for private vs 80k for public.