Rethinking Car Stickers
Dad: “How many colleges are in the U.S.?”
Us: “Nearly 4000.”
Unsurprisingly, this dad had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that while there are 4000 different possibilities, he sees the same college stickers on the cars around town: Harvard (sometimes); UMass Amherst (a lot); assorted familiar locals (everywhere)...
So where are the stickers for the rest of those 3,980 schools? Are they less good? Is there something wrong with them?
The short answer: Nope. Not a thing. The real problem is a lack of exposure, and ultimately, a failure of imagination.
Over the last couple of decades, college mania has exploded. Ranking agencies have grown in scope and influence, rewarding colleges that invest in the things the rankings care about. This, in turn, makes colleges more concerned with rankings. Of course this then drives families’ desires to send their kids to schools that generate buzz and promise a future of elite networks and professional success. And all this keeps driving the rankings… it’s a never-ending cycle in which so many schools seem impossible to get into and nearly impossible to afford. It’s more than enough to make your head spin.
But is all this competition among colleges really that important? A lot of smart people are happy to tell you the answer is no.
A growing body of evidence shows that ultimately, it’s not where you go but what you do there that matters. (Frank Bruni’s book Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania is a great place to read more about this.) It’s why we talk so much about best-fit in our work with clients and families. A top-ranked school may be your best-fit but don’t be seduced into thinking it’s because of its ranking.
If a college is your best-fit, it will be because it offers small classes that are taught by professors who are rewarded for teaching and who engage students in lively discussions that inspire and excite them. Or it will be a medium-sized school a little farther away from home with internships that encourage students to explore which career paths feel right. Or it will be a school where 90% of its students participate in study abroad and bring their globe-spanning experiences to enrich the experiences of everyone on campus.
If you limit your ideas of what college should be to the experiences being offered by a handful of schools, you will miss out on innovation and creativity and the opportunity for personal growth.
But we get it: it’s easy for us to encourage you to explore exciting and lesser-known options; it’s a little harder to be the car in the parking lot with a sticker from a college no one’s ever heard of.
Our advice is to embrace a healthy perspective: focus on what’s best for your kid and on the process-- it should be exciting and exploratory, not panicky and ulcer-inducing. Start by asking the right questions. Read about LOTS of different schools, not just the ten or twenty you’ve heard of. Learn more about the rankings and what they actually measure (hint: it’s really a measure of a college’s power, not the quality of education or the experience it provides).
In our work with students and families, we ask lots of questions. We work really hard to get to know our students and to think about what their experiences might be in different environments. We create best-fit lists of schools to explore that include variety. Sometimes we even throw in a few schools that we know aren’t going to be best-fits but will be really helpful for comparison. And we don’t worry about car stickers. They can be fun. But they shouldn’t get a vote in such an important --and potentially life-changing-- decision.
If you’d like to talk about how we look at schools and build our best-fit lists, give us a call (617.447.0186) or email us at info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat. We’d love to help.