Getting in Without Freaking Out by Arlene Matthews

Author:Arlene Matthews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780307420794
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

Secret #43

Don’t Call It Camp

More and more high schoolers are being solicited to spend part of their junior year summer at institutions of higher learning that host college-admissions prep “camps.” There, over a two-week period (costing roughly $3,000!), “campers” engage in practice application and essay writing and in SAT prep. They receive guidance on school selection and take numerous field trips to college campuses.

Good idea?

Sure, if you want another profit-driven scheme to pander to the fears of parents who want to give their child a perceived edge.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s not a bad idea to get started with college planning and applications over the summer. It’s great to have the luxury of time to focus without the pressures of school interfering. Kids who start their senior year with a firm idea of where they’re applying, with some of their paperwork accomplished, and with an essay or two under their belts will have a much calmer and better-organized fall. Schoolwork, social life, and family life will be all the better for it.

But it’s possible to get a jump start on one’s own without going to an expensive prep program. A kid who is willing to devote summer days to such efforts at a “camp” can do just as well at home with your help and, if you like, even the help of a private college-admissions counselor. (The summer is when the latter have more free time and less pressure themselves.)

Besides, I’m as suspicious of something called college camp as I am of any enterprise that can sell itself only via the use of blatant euphemisms. As George Orwell and George Carlin have shown us, euphemisms are often used by those who market ideas to make unpleasant concepts more palatable (“plus sizes” versus “clothes for the overweight”). Those who contrive euphemisms tend to hold the opinion that those at whom they are aimed are credulous. No, make that gullible. No, make that stupid. (Ah, that’s better, isn’t it?) Don’t validate their belief.

Camp is about canoeing and sailing, making lanyards and bad pottery, toasting s’mores, scratching mosquito bites, short-sheeting your best friend’s bunk, and finally managing to swim the entire distance across the lake. Any kid about to go to college is smart enough to know the difference between a summer camp and a wearisome desk-bound curriculum that happens to take place in the summertime. They know this the same way they will know that being denied admission means being rejected. Forget college camp and forget warping reality by sugarcoating it in euphemisms. Give your kids their summer back and give them the facts straight up. They’ll appreciate your good sense and candor while they’re young and impressionable, and they’ll remember it until they’re senior citizens. Make that elderly. Make that old.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.