Did Leela go to college?

[on:]

We all know when she first met Fry she was a Fate Assignment Officer.  Do any of you believe she had to go to college for that?  Or did her former boss just give her that job?  What's anyone's guess?

My guess is she only went to college for a year or so, then got that Fate Assignment job.

[Reply #1 on:]

She's way to smart to have not been able to get into college. I'm sure she got a scholarship of somekind. She did refer to herself as a Cryogenic Counselor so maybe she has some sort of psychology degree.

[Reply #2 on:]

The FAO Corps looks to be some kind of police-unit (uniformed, able to call for police-backup on the spot, access to police frequencies, authorized run test on people and edit their permanent file, etc), so I think she went to a police-academy.

Ofcourse, depending on her age and the education system of the future, she might have attended college before that.

Edit: maybe the to get the psychology degree Venus talked about.

[Reply #3 on:]

oh hey, i never thought of that, Teral. That makes quite a bit of sense. It would really fit her personality.

Edit to respond to Teral's edit:
  Maybe she did do both. Assuming she graduated high school at 18, and went to college right away and only went for an associates degree she would have graduated at 20 and then she could have done the police academy for another 2 years which puts her out of school for good at 22, giving her plenty of time to find her fate assignment job before she met Fry. Or she could have gone to one of those schools for 4 years in which case she gradutes at 24 still giving her time to find her job before she meets Fry.

[Reply #4 on:]

She'd have to be really focused on her studies (fits her personality and some scenes een in "Leela's Homeworld" ) because she also need 6 or 7 months to "bum around India for a while", plus time to get chummy with her work pals. Sounds like we have a good explanation here.

And the police-academy/police-unit theory lends great credence to my theory on her wrist-thingy as stated in this thread.

I love it when a plan comes together. 

[Reply #5 on:]

she could have bummed around India during her summer break. That gives her anywhere between 2-3 months.

EDIT: oh wait, wasn't the line "This is when i dropped out and bummed around India for a while." So she could have left school a month or so before the year ended did her bumming around and then caught up when she came back after the summer break.

[Reply #6 on:]

I'm going with my knowledge in the Danish educational system on this, where each semester have stop tests and the like, some of which are prerequisites for courses taken the following semester.

Assuming she had semester tests, and none of them were vital for courses the next term, she would at most lose a couple of months. If the opposite is the case, she would lose six months. Whether she dropped out for one semester or just dropped out at the end of one, the worst-case-scenario would be the same. Still time to find a job and get chummy with Lou, Terry and Ipji.

I know, it's a long winded way of saying; I agree.

[Reply #7 on:]

My college had test outs, that if you passed before the start of a class, you didn't have to take that class. So if all she missed was the last month or so of a class but had done really well during the time she was there, she could have been given the option to test out of the classes whose end tests she had missed which would have prevented her from having to retake all of those classes. Or another possibility is summer classes. In america some classes run during the summer so if you take those classes instead of taking your summer break you can graduate earlier, so if she got back before the summer classes had ended she could have taken the end tests that she had missed with the summer classes.

[Reply #8 on:]

Just a little off topic. Remember that Jobs are assigned. So what happens if you do fail college and you were assigned a job that requires a degree?

[Reply #9 on:]

you're assigned the job you are best at. Which probably means you are only assigned jobs you are qualified for. If you decide to go to college job placement may be put off until you graduate. And getting a degree doesn't necessarily mean you get that kind of job, but it probably improves your chances.

[Reply #10 on:]

You get a different job?

[Reply #11 on:]

Doesn't college cost MONEY? Which Leela didn't have, being an orphan and all...

[Reply #12 on:]

scholarships. I managed to get a scholarship that would have fully covered the tuition of a public university. And i'm no genius. Leela was a really good student plus, since she was an orphan there were probably some scholarships that were offered solely to orphans.

[Reply #13 on:]

That's assuming it's completely based on the American system of today. Since this is a united Earth a mix of the various systmes is just as likely.

Take the Danish sytem (again): colleges/universities are free of charge, you don't pay anything to attend them. You have to pay for books and other stuff, but students are entitled to SU (=Statens Uddanelses-støtte (State Educational Support)) totalling about 500$/month right now. Call it a public scholarship, available to all. Apart from that there's the oppurtunity for students to get cheap, government loans. It's nothing that will allow you to get rich or go on shopping sprees, but with a sound fiscal mind it can cover you essentials and book expenses.

And ofcourse working at McDonalds and gas stations.

It all depends on what kind of system the future has.

[Reply #14 on:]

I assume she got all her education (including High School) at the Orphanarium, and the Orphanarium obviously didn't give anyone a good education, yet Leela proved to smarter than most people who DO have a decent education.

[Reply #15 on:]

Leela most likely went to a public school for her elementary and high school education. I mean, it's an orphanarium, not some Dickensian sweat shop.

[Reply #16 on:]

I'm guessing she got some formal education, but I don't know about college. Her job really wasn't one that required anything more than on the job training.

I had always believed she spent some time in the military, to learn how to fly a large ship like that.

[Reply #17 on:]

I always assumed her orphanarium was far too poor to help pay for any kind of post-high school stuff, but Leela also seems like the type to work hard to earn her own money.

[Reply #18 on:]

outside scholarships. She wouldn't have to go through the orphanarium to get one.

[Reply #19 on:]

I think if Leela hadn't been to college, she wouldn't have been so dismissive of Fry's college experience in Mars U.  (go Whitefish!)  Then again, she might have been cynical about it entirely because her college ambitions were foiled.

I like the idea of Leela being in the military, and them paying for college.  It would explain the piloting ability, kung fu skills, etc.

[Reply #20 on:]

the kung-fu skills she aquired in high school. Probably to get the other orphans from bothering her.

[Reply #21 on:]

Do we care that Leela went to college?

[Reply #22 on:]

If you find yourself asking that question, you clearly don't belong here.

I could imagine Leela in the military though...I think you would have to have that kind of training to deal with defrostees who would be confused and most likely violent. I mean, Fry can't be the only one who tried to run away.

[Reply #23 on:]

I myself never understood the role of college higher education or education in general in the Futurama Universive.  Maybe you get several Fate Assignment/Evaluations.  One at the end of high school as who should get chips then or who should go to college and what they should study.  Then at end of college for who should get chips or who should go to graduate school and what they should do.  All these chips and stuff make me think of a very 1984 world.  Remember the poster in Leela office "You gotta do what you gotta do"

[Reply #24 on:]

In 'Leela's Homeworld' Leela points to a photo frame and says "And here's where I dropped out and bummed around India for a while." She may be refering to College.

[Reply #25 on:]

What hummled Out India that could be college...