Colleges

Hello folks, J. Cooper Thurlow here. Today my “thought of the day” is about colleges and how applying to them is a racket. Take my grandson Christopher. He's looking at colleges now, and I can't believe how much mail they get from schools, and how they're expected to go visit every one of them and meet with your professors and go to the bookstore and buy a shirt or some such malarkey. I even heard about one school that makes the students take a test while they're there, even before they've been accepted. And it starts when they're in their second year of high school now. It's so much different even from a few years ago when Christopher's sisters, Cassandra and Allison, were looking at colleges. Allison liked hers so much she's even staying and getting another degree. It's the parents, that's who's responsible. Not all parents of course, but you know those parents who want to make sure their kids go to just the right school, take just the right classes. They put pressure on the schools to make it seem like they're all really exclusive. Well I'll tell you something. If every school is exclusive then how does anyone ever get in to any of them?

I remember back when I was in school, you went wherever your friends were going. That way you had a social circle to take with you. Sure you made new friends, based on who was in your classes and what fraternity or sorority you were in, but the decision was much easier. Of course, I had to wait a few years to go to college because of Korea, but I'm glad I did. I gained a lot of valuable life experience and was proud to serve my country. It helped make me a better salesman later on, which helped me provide for my family. Can these kids who go to whatever school they feel like say that?

J. Cooper Thurlow