The Frisbee arrived Tuesday.
Tricked out in a white cardboard wrapper covered with clever phrase like “four seasons of fun,” “big brains big hearts” and “dorm sweet dorm,” it was stamped with the name of Carleton College, a small, liberal arts school in Northfield, Minn.
Addressed to my 10th-grader, it stood out from the slew of other mailings from colleges and universities piling up under the mail slot. Just weeks after my daughter took the PSAT at her high school, she started receiving emails from colleges looking to send recruiting brochures. Curious, she clicked “yes” to every offer and days later, the letters started to pile up.
It’s a familiar scene to every parent with a high schooler who’s planning on attending college. My daughter is just half way through her sophomore year and already the pressure is starting to build about where to apply.
Several schools have sent multiple emails and brochures, some arriving within days of each other. Most have ended up in a plastic bag gathering dust in a corner of my daughter’s bedroom.
And then came the Frisbee.
Given all the chatter about the exploding costs of college, it seems Carleton might do better to shave a few bucks off its annual tuition of $56,000 than to spend a bundle mailing nine-inch plastic Frisbees to prospective students. Has market research really shown that getting a Frisbee actually influences where a kid decides to go to college?
The endless marketing hasn’t just targeted my daughter. Nearly every day I’m getting personal missives from my new best friends: the directors of undergraduate admissions.
Here’s my favorite, which arrived this week from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Under the subject line of “No pushing, no shoving,” Director Karen Long urged me to step back and stop “pushing” my child to start thinking about college. Instead, I should let her “take the lead” in exploring available options.
Then, suggesting that I “must feel incredibly proud” that my daughter is considering colleges like Rennselaer, Long wrapped it up by saying she hopes to “be back in touch soon.”
Considering this marks the third correspondence from Rennselaer, who exactly is doing the pushing?
As parents living in the high-stress, high-pressure environs of Montgomery County, it can be difficult to know what to do when it comes to the college admissions process: How soon should we start thinking about it? And how do we guide our children through the process?
If you’re looking for answers, consider attending “College Admissions: It's About the Journey, Not the Destination!” at 7:30 p.m. March 18 in the cafeteria at Bethesda’s Walter Johnson High School. It’s a talk by Marty O'Connell, executive director of Colleges That Change Lives, a nonprofit dedicated to helping families and students understand how to use the college search process to find the best college fit.
O’Connell, who spent 30 years working in college admissions, often speaks to parents about the admissions process. During a talk last March at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, she urged parents not to buy into media hype about college rankings and how hard it is to get into good schools.
“The reality is that the average admissions rate at four-year colleges and universities is close to 70 percent,” she told the crowd. In fact, fewer than 100 schools reject more students than they admit.
Listening to O’Connell might be just what’s needed right about now. The event is free and open to everyone. Maybe I’ll see you there.
