Kris Berggren’s description on page 6 of the college application process of yore -whipping off an application to the U in April – was not exactly my experience. My peers and I applied to a handful of schools each and visited a couple. We may have sweated the SATs the first time around, but I don’t know anyone who took them twice.
But I do remember, even as the application deadlines loomed and the paperwork piled up, a general feeling that I was pretty much going to be okay, academically at least, wherever I ended up. The adults around me gave me that message as well: Find a place where you’ll be a happy person for four years, because you can get a good education at a big state school or a small private one.
That attitude seems to have disappeared, along with the idea that the student is choosing the college as much as the college is choosing the student. As more and more high school students do go to college – and the social and economic penalties for not going become more and more grim – the stakes have been raised to a point that is hard for older generations to understand.
So, if you know a junior or senior in high school, treat them to a little break. Give them some time off. Spend time talking about something other than the great weight of the future sitting on their shoulders. Give them a hug.
