Hi,

I am so excited to find this very interesting forum, and I can't believe that there are so many FP enthusiasts out there. I'm currently a freshman at Cornell U in Ithaca, NY.

I have used FPs for as long as I can remember, but didn't become an addict until fairly recently (when I chose a limited edition Etruria over a new computer for a graduation gift :doh: ). Actually, I don't regret it one bit, but none of my friends seem to agree. In fact, I haven't seen anyone use a FP on campus.

So am I one of those freaks of nature, or are there more college students lurking here? If you're out there, give a shout (especially if you're a cute girl with nice handwriting!)

THN

Hi THN,

Welcome into the FPNuthouse. I don't fit into any of the categories you addressed: finished my masters in Dec., I'm a guy, and I doubt "cute" is appropriate either. Nonetheless, I figured I'd shout out to you anyhow!

Glad you're here and hope you stick around. BTW, there are plenty of college folks here.

See ya around,
southpaw

Hi THN
Welcome and enjoy. I'm quite recent to the FPN and I'm already an addict. My handwriting is ok, but I do look like my avatar, cute if you like grey hair and big behinds!

Hey thn,

I'm a senior at Grinnell College (IA), and I've been around these parts (FPN) for a while now. I'm also an obsessive FP user/collector/accumulator/drooler, etc. It's cool to have another student around - welcome!

Hi thn,

I am in grad school and started using FPs last semester after realizing that I was going through several gel refills a semester. In theory, a bottle of ink should last a few semesters, but who stops with just 1 bottle

Now I am done with course work and I can't get enough things to write. So make full use of FPs while in school.

Desirider.

Welcome to FPN. Sorry, I'm not a college student now. Last time I was in school as a student was thirty-six years ago. Time flys when you're having fun.

I "recently" graduated from college [May 2005]....does that count?

Junior at Brown here....FP's make note taking much less arduous!

I've only known one other student who used fountain pens, so I guess I should work harder to convert some more!

Libertas,

I completely agree; if it weren't for my FPs, I would probably not take notes in class. So, my addiction is actually a good thing: it prevents me from having to drop out of college. Now if only FPs were smart enough to do multivariable calculus...

THN,

You'll find quite a few students of one sort of another lurking around here - and a few old #$£" s like myself

Welcome to FPN

Regards,
Ruaidhrí

THN,

Hey there! Welcome!

I'm in my late 30's, so I am way past the "student" portion of my life. Thank goodness....

Welcome to FPN!

TMann

Greetings THN and welcome,

We’re all one big family here; a family of “outsiders” you might say, but that is what makes us close. In a world where less than 2% of the population uses a fountain pen we are often lumped into three categories- snobs, retro-philes who are stuck in the past or just general nut-jobs and misfits.

Perhaps we are all a compilation of the three; however, I would prefer to believe most, if not all of us fall into the fourth and least recognized category- the “individualist.” When using a fountain pen in this day and age you are often met with ridicule and jibes such as “oh, you mean you still use one of those things…? I’d never bother with one of those…”

However, consider this: a snob would never subject himself to such critique because he is too concerned about his social position and would buckle under and use a roller-ball. A retro-phile would only use his fountain pen when he was around other retro-philes- just like Star Trek fans only dress like Kirk and Spock when they are around other “Trekkies,” and the misfits and nut-jobs… well, who knows what they’d do. However, the “individualist” uses his fountain pen with equal pride within every social milieu as well as every private moment.

While I am not a girl, have never been cute, (well, maybe I was a long time ago), have penmanship that prompted my third grade teacher to jump out of a window and haven't darkened a college's doorway in a long, long time; I still say... welcome.

Welcome to a unique place. Feel free to speak your mind and rest assured if you ask a question to almost any conceivable or inconceivable pen or ink question- you are sure to get at least one answer- some of them may even be right!

Best wishes,

Sean

Hi thn! I go to college, too, and I seem to be the only one on campus using a FP here.. If you want to see nice writing, you should check out the penmanship forum if you haven't done so already. James Pickering may not be a "cute girl", but he sure writes well! lol Check out Ann Finley, too, she is marvelous!

-Hana

If you attend Cornell, you must be extremely intelligent as only the best and brightest manage to get admitted to, or graduate from, that fine institution. In fact, I bet you are so intelligent that you can probably guess where I went to college.

Welcome to FPN.

Welcome thn!

I'm 0-fer-4 as well (sort of like the Buffalo Bills and Superbowls ).

Not in college any longer (in what feels like my 200th year of grad school -- working on the pesky doctorate -- and I teach college students).

Not a girl.

Definitely not cute.

Handwriting is fair-to-middling at best.

My students are amused and somewhat perplexed that I'm a fountain pen user. They do like the fact that their homework is seldom graded twice in the same color.

Maybe if I give more homework assignments, I'll need to buy more inks!

It's a nice group of people around here. You'll feel welcome.

Don

thn - welcome!
Ruaidhri - lurking eh? Is there any particular outfit required for those who wish to lurk? A dark raincoat maybe?

Heya Thn,

I'm a grad student at Georgia Tech. Finally took the plunge a few months ago and got a Lamy Safari, and nowadays I can usually be found drooling all over the display cases at Art Lite (the local fountain pen store).

Playpen,

This is a recent shot of Ernst lurking - Black Balaclava, snood, undervest and leotard against the black wallpaper in the Meditation Room -




Sometimes he is an example to us all

Regards,
Ruaidhrí

Hey THN-

Welcome! I'm a Grad-student (and a very old one at that)- I get some strange looks- unfortunately I haven't learned not to loan my pen when others wish to write down their e-mail addy's etc., for my work- one mentioned the other day: "Oh, you use an ink pen!"... It was a "51" - so it wasn't obvious immediately to some.

I've noticed the Chinese students (at least the older ones) appear to know how to use it... my good friend used my m400 yesterday to try and explain a few things to me on a piece of paper- he kept going between the normal side and the top-side- so he must have had a double-sided tip. Very cool.

BTW, don't be too concerned that others aren't using FP's- there are a lot of good things that most of these guys won't know about- and won't be doing either. This just tells me you're a bit ahead of your class.

Hope you do well in your undergrad studes, THN! It'll be a strange trip, but keep on pluggin' and you'll make it through!

-Allen

Ruaidhri,
I think I'm in love...

Welcome!! I am a grad student - I carry both an AARP card and my student ID card. I take notes with a fp and use the Noodlers highlighter ink in a pen with an italic cursive nib for highlighting/underlining. Works great!

Hi this is an old thread but it is a pitty to let it die.

I have a degree but I am getting a second in 2 years. Add me to your MSN/Yahoo if you like: xerxes1358@gmail.com (MSN nickname). Oh btw I am not a cute girl but my gf is I might swap her for your Etruia. No just kidding ha ha

Also a Georgia Tech student here. (undergrad though)

I haven't see any students writing with FPs, but I do know of a professor that does.

Also, If it weren't for fountain pens, I'd only take a tenth of the notes that I do.

I'm an ordinary-aged college junior, mediocre handwriting, not quite supermodel material...

I have yet to see anyone at my school (though it is small) use an FP. There are many international students from India, Nepal, and Pakistan here who know how to use them. I would be thrilled to find another user here but I'm not holding my breath. My friends know a bit about them, though, from my excited ramblings when I get a new pen or (much more often) when I see some beauty while screen-shopping.

But at any rate, you're not the only college student using FPs!

Greetings, THN,

I r kollidge st00dent!!

So no, you're not alone. There are people of a younger age-group which do use fountain pens on a regular basis.

Hello. I'm a sophmore at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo Michigan.

Nice to meet you. It's nice to know I'm not the only university student out there who uses a FP, albeit I'm probably the only one at my university.

I'm 31 and am back in college these days. (I'm an undergrad.) I'm one of three women in my entire degree program -- I'm a computer networking major -- and so I'm already thought of as strange and alien by my fellow students. I could take notes in crayon and nobody would notice...

Some of us are perpetual students and never quite stop sneaking in for classes no matter how many degrees we have.

I suspect I'll be in school in one way or another until I'm around seventy for the same reason. Although right now I just really want my degree.

What pens do you guys and girls use?

Finally some younger people here among the vintagers...

Technically I am a college student still but hopefully not for very long. I am in my late 20's getting my doctorate degree. Just started using fountain pens again. I have a Pelikan M200 and another Pelikan is on its way to me

I am a senior at Mississippi State University. My only pen right now is a Lamy Safari, but I ordered two Hero 237-1 Accountants. If I don't like them, I'm only out $20, and they can become testers for ink.

I have not seen anyone else here using fountain pens, but with 16,000 people, surely there is at least one more who does!

Tracy

Carenes with cartridges hold me for classes. The really fancy pens stay at home. Tonight I was using a Xezo Maestro [mother of pearl] filled with PR Black Cherry to line edit a friend's manuscript. One of the few M nib pens I've kept, just because it's so darn gorgeous. Normally I fling ink with B nibs so I can write fast enough to take extensive notes.

Partway through my 14th year of university training, after completing 4 degrees now. Supposed end-date in 1.5 years, but I think I'm going to get another degree just for kicks (instead of working). Wife is working on her third degree and 9th year of training. I just have to get her to start using fountain pens.

freshman at hillsdale college, in very southern michigan. i've seen one other fp user, and i might have just converted another one. the news is spreading...

I've spent a few years at Florida State University, and am soon to transfer to University of South Florida. I never see anyone use a FP, or anything nicer than a G2 to tell you the truth.

Should've gone to U of F. There's a couple of us post on here, like Caligatia.

Oh by the way I am going to take a handwriting improvement course. Anyone else experience with these courses? How much did it improve your writing

Don't know if this counts, but I've been taking classes at the local community college, aiming to get another degree - This time in photography. I take one class a semester (or, more accurately, did - it's been about a year and a half since I took a class), so at this rate, I'll probably graduate along with my 3-year old son.

I've also taught a few college classes on Copyright Law for the Visual Artist. Boy, are you students a P.I.T.A.!

James

Unfortunately (for you), I'm neither a girl, nor do I have really cute handwriting (although I have tried my paw at calligraphy, and sometimes use monograms to accent paragraphs).

However, I am a college student - if you don't consider a 2-year college to be beneath you.

I guess I fit into the non-traditional college student category. I'm 24 and a freshman(I think) at one of Kent State University's side campuses. Not a girl.....sorry. Only a recent FP user too. How about I just found out about Cornell note-taking method lol.

matthew

I am a freshman at the University of Denver in Denver,CO, I discovered fountain pens when I got one as a back to school gift last year and now have more than ten. When I shared my Esterbrook SJ with my first year seminar they all thought it was cool but I believe that my professor was the only one who has ever written in fountain pen. I reinterduced my mom to fountain pens this summer, she currently has a blue Bic Easy Clic and two boxes of Pelikan cartridges, Royal Blue and Blue Black. Until this summer the last time she had used a fountain pen was a cartridge filler in the 60s or 70s I can tell that because there is royal blue fountain pen ink in the old Asterix and Tintin books she gave me.