Wednesday, March 31, 2004
April Fool's Day will bring thousands upon thousands of acceptance or rejection letters to the doorsteps of thousands and thousands of prospective college freshman. Shaky hands will hope upon hope that the wispy thin letter doesn't hold dashed dreams while thick 8 1/2 by 11 packets promise a final summer at home envisaging a new reality at a place sheer fate hath picked for thee.
The suggested number of colleges to apply to is six: two safety, two realistic, and two reach schools. The daughter more or less kept to this rule of thumb. She applied to eight, albeit five really tough ones. A fellow student of hers, who just happens to be the son of a Representative at the State House where Anna Bloviation's works, applied to eighteen.... So let's do some math here before I get to my potentially great idea. At $50 an application, the Rep has already forked over $900 for the privilege of even being considered. I happen to know that he also spent some $1500 on an SAT prep course for said son. I also happen to know that the son's college essays were edited and fine-tuned by others. But that is an ethical vs. economical matter for a later discussion. The bottom line is that this kid has already received a number of acceptance letters (he plays football) to some REALLY GOOD COLLEGES that others would kill to go to but which only illicit a yawn from said kid. This kid also happens to be competing for some of the same schools the daughter has applied to.
Are you still with me guys? OK by tomorrow this kid and my own daughter will have in hand a certain number of acceptance/rejection letters from a certain number of colleges. To varying degrees, both of these kids have worked hard to get where they are (some more independently than others but that's not the point). Given the astronomical costs of college tuition, why shouldn't these students be able to auction off their discarded choices to students on the wait list dying to get into the colleges they are passing over? Why should the colleges profit when it is the student who earned the slot? Let's bring on E-BAY for college hopefuls! Do I hear $1,000 for a slot at Tufts University? Time remaining to bid: 28 hours and 52 minutes.... Or I'll trade you UPenn for Stanford...James Madison for the University of San Diego...
The suggested number of colleges to apply to is six: two safety, two realistic, and two reach schools. The daughter more or less kept to this rule of thumb. She applied to eight, albeit five really tough ones. A fellow student of hers, who just happens to be the son of a Representative at the State House where Anna Bloviation's works, applied to eighteen.... So let's do some math here before I get to my potentially great idea. At $50 an application, the Rep has already forked over $900 for the privilege of even being considered. I happen to know that he also spent some $1500 on an SAT prep course for said son. I also happen to know that the son's college essays were edited and fine-tuned by others. But that is an ethical vs. economical matter for a later discussion. The bottom line is that this kid has already received a number of acceptance letters (he plays football) to some REALLY GOOD COLLEGES that others would kill to go to but which only illicit a yawn from said kid. This kid also happens to be competing for some of the same schools the daughter has applied to.
Are you still with me guys? OK by tomorrow this kid and my own daughter will have in hand a certain number of acceptance/rejection letters from a certain number of colleges. To varying degrees, both of these kids have worked hard to get where they are (some more independently than others but that's not the point). Given the astronomical costs of college tuition, why shouldn't these students be able to auction off their discarded choices to students on the wait list dying to get into the colleges they are passing over? Why should the colleges profit when it is the student who earned the slot? Let's bring on E-BAY for college hopefuls! Do I hear $1,000 for a slot at Tufts University? Time remaining to bid: 28 hours and 52 minutes.... Or I'll trade you UPenn for Stanford...James Madison for the University of San Diego...
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