(The ticket to higher education.)
Forget about the Hunger Games, tis the season for the waiting game.
Millions of high school seniors are anxiously waiting for colleges to either welcome them with open arms or send a skinny envelope dashing their dreams of pursuing higher education at the campus of their choice.
Do you remember the day you received your first college acceptance letter?
I was fortunate to get into my top three picks, and like the majority of my teenage peers, I broke into a happy dance and eagerly shared the news with family and friends.
Boy, have times changed.
According to The New York Post, in this modern era of political correctness, it seems sharing the good news of being accepted into an institute of higher learning is something you need to keep to yourself.
Or at least not shout from the roof of your high school… or in the hallways.
Translation: Even if you scored a free ride to Harvard, Yale or Stanford you better keep your mouth shut, especially if you are a student at select New York prep schools.
The Post recently broke the story about local high schools instituting dress codes and Facebook guidelines barring crazy-excited seniors from broadcasting their acceptance to Ivy League colleges because of the potential hurt it may cause their classmates.
For example, at the insanely competitive Horace Mann School in New York City, students are not permitted to wear apparel with college emblems, logos or names until after May 1st. By then, most seniors have sent back letters of intent and know where they will be headed in the fall.
Meanwhile, the paper reports that at the Packer Collegiate Institute, seniors are not allowed to update their Facebook pages with news of their college acceptance until after school lets out.
How the school intends to enforce that rule is beyond me.
By the way, whatever happened to free speech?
I completely agree that choice of delivery is an issue. After all, running through high school halls yelling, “I got in! I got in!” may be a bit obnoxious. However, I think there are better ways to minimize the disappointment associated with college admissions than banning college-themed apparel and Facebook updates.
I tend to side with parents who are lashing out at schools instituting the aforementioned rules. Several moms and dads bring up a valid point about coddling kids and trying to shield them from disappointment. I highly doubt think barring 17 and 18 year olds from wearing particular clothing or updating their private social media accounts is going to soften the blow of not getting into a first-choice college.
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