Karen Owen and Her “Unofficial Senior Thesis”

All I can say is wow when I read about the story of Karen Owen.

In short, the story goes that Owen, a 2010 graduate of Duke University, kept some pretty detailed notes about her numerous sexual adventures with members of the school’s lacrosse, baseball and tennis teams.

These escapades took place over a four year time frame.

UPDATE: MSNBC did a story on this and the video can be found here.

Now…I can see some people keeping this for their own pleasure (although I’m not one of those people), but she then turned this information into her “unofficial” senior thesis which she entitled “An education beyond the classroom: excelling in the realm of horizontal academics”.

Nice title!

 

Karen Owen (Credit: Deadspin.com)

 

Once completed, the “project” was distributed to a couple of her friends and, of course, Owen did not expect for it to go further than that. Oh….Karen! How naive we can be 🙂 Did you not expect it to get out? Or…did you plan all along for this to get out? Hmmm…

Follow the link below for the full story, if I’ve peaked your interest. But be prepared, the details about each of the encounters is pretty graphic so if you are offended by sexually explicit content, I don’t recommend continuing!

Oh…and I want to know what you think about this story so please be sure to leave a comment!

From Jezebel:

Duke is in an uproar about a highly detailed “fuck list” that a recent female graduate made — in PowerPoint, complete with penis-size evaluations and dirty talk transcripts. We’ve got that document, and spoke exclusively to the now-contrite author.

Upon graduating, the author decided to pass on the wisdom she had learned, in thesis format. The subject: “An education beyond the classroom: excelling in the realm of horizontal academics.” The thirteen subjects are each preceded by a tableau of photos of the men, most of which seem to be pulled from Facebook and athletic action shots.

From Spreadit.org:

What was meant to be a mock thesis which used pseudo-academic language soon turned out to be a horror story for Owen, when her friends ended up publishing the list online. The list contained all the men that Owen was sexually involved with and a rating out of ten. Owen put this forward in what was meant to be a humorous powerpoint presentation that ended up making many males angry, along with Duke University.

Apparently, making these lists is a regular occurrence for University students involved in fraternities. The lists aren’t meant to go public, however.

From The News Chronicle:

The list contained photos and names of the 13 members of Duke’s baseball, lacrosse and tennis teams who she had slept with. She ranked them based on several criteria, such as physical attractiveness, size, talent, creativity, aggressiveness, entertainment and athletic ability.

Since the list went viral, Owen has deleted all her social network accounts. In an interview with Jezebel, she said, “I regret it with all my heart. I would never intentionally hurt the people that are mentioned on that.”

From Bleacher Report:

Owen details a specific encounter where she and an athlete had to get a bit creative considering his roommates had visiting family members staying at his house. Not one to let a tiny roadblock get in the way of research, Owen and said athlete decided to hook up in his car. She said it reminded her of high school.

Considering that it will be near impossible for Karen Owen to get a real job after all of this, I smell a book/movie deal.

Best Values For Public Colleges

I remember reading these guides when I was looking for an affordable college. Thank god I found Sonoma State University (which was just 5 minutes from my home).

Here’s a quick look at the Top 20:

1 – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2 – University of Florida
3 – University of Virginia
4 – University of Georgia
5 – College of William and Mary
6 – SUNY Geneseo
7 – SUNY Binghamton
8 – New College of Florida
9 – University of Maryland, College Park
10 – University of California, San Diego
11 – University of Washington
12 – University of California, Berkeley
13 – University of California, Los Angeles
14 – University of Wisconsin – Madison
15 – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ.
16 – Georgia Institute of Technology
17 – Florida State University
18 – North Carolina State University
19 – University of Texas at Austin
20 – Truman State University

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine:

Of our 100 top schools, led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, fewer than two dozen cost more than $20,000 a year for in-state students; the University of Florida, ranked number two, keeps total in-state costs below $12,000. In contrast, private colleges have lately averaged about $33,000 a year, and some have reached a heart-stopping $50,000.

But the deals on our list aren’t restricted to in-state students. At Binghamton University (SUNY), which takes the top spot in value for out-of-state students, non-New Yorkers pay $22,260, only about one-third more than in-state students, to enjoy the can-do culture of this young research institution. UNC-Chapel Hill charges $30,629 a year to out-of-state Tar Heels. That’s not chump change, but it’s cheap compared with the $50,000-plus sticker price at Duke University, a top-tier private school (and UNC competitor) in nearby Durham.

These schools have established a consistently firm footing at the top of our rankings. But you should also admire the up-and-comers, such as the University of Maryland-College Park, which catapulted to number nine from number 28 last year, thanks to a lower student-faculty ratio and a big jump in graduation rates. West Chester University of Pennsylvania wins the “Most Improved” award: It leaped a whopping 40 slots, from 93 to 53, after boosting graduation rates and offering more need-based aid. George Mason University, in Virginia, climbed from 77 to 46 as a result of improving its test scores and moving more graduates across the stage in four and six years.

Here’s a link to the full Top 100.