Washington-area high school junior Malia Obama, 16, probably will be visiting college campuses this summer, like thousands of other teens in this education-obsessed region. I suspect, like many such students, she will be getting more advice about this than she thinks she needs, but let me add one more friendly suggestion.
Living in the White House with two hard-working parents, she is accustomed to schedules, to-do lists and serious conversations, particularly about college. In that respect, she is not very different from ambitious 11th-graders all over the country. They and their families often see campus visits as unique opportunities to get to the core of what distinguishes each school. Guidebooks suggest going far beyond the standard tour and information session. The experts recommend that potential applicants audit a class, interview faculty, eat at the cafeteria, attend a concert, investigate allocation of student funds, check the certification level of campus doctors and anything else they can think of.
Most of that is not only boring but a waste of a lovely summer day. Thirty years of interviews with teenagers, their parents and admissions officers about this process — plus my experience with my own three children — lead me to conclude that campus visits are taken too seriously and generate too much stress. Many families, maybe even the Obamas, will be making these trips while on vacation. Should family fun time be treated like you’re studying for a big exam?
When we were vacationing, my children liked ballfields, ice cream shops, hamburger joints and even the occasional museum. Colleges and their surrounding neighborhoods have many of those pleasant distractions, so why not think of the campus visit as a stroll through a theme park? Soak up the ambiance without thinking you have to have your clipboard out and your pencils sharpened.
Malia Obama appears to share her parents’ sense of the ridiculous. That was what I read in the bemused expressions of her and her sister as they watched their father pardon two Thanksgiving turkeys. She will appreciate the low comedy inherent in any college visit. A mortified applicant will hear his father ask at the public information session if someone with his child’s exact scores and grades has a chance. Undergraduate tour guides will tell stories of midnight dorm life too raunchy even for Comedy Central’s “Tosh.0” (which I see only accidentally when looking for Jon Stewart.)
President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, right, and their daughter Malia Obama, walk on the South Lawn as they arrive at the White House. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
College tours work best if the potential applicant has her own agenda, the less serious the better.Reportedly, Malia is a tennis player and is interested in filmmaking. She could use that to drag the first lady out on a few campus courts. She could slip into showings at the local indie theater, often wildly inappropriate in college towns.
My son Peter turned his college visits into excuses to try out new golf courses. My daughter Katie announced at the beginning of her search that she would be checking for fresh beefcake that rose to the level of her favorite star on the TV show “Dawson’s Creek.” “If I don’t see anyone on campus who looks like James Van Der Beek,” she said, “I’m not going there.” Such offbeat criteria help teenagers banish worries about SAT averages and application essays.
Why spend time compiling minuscule data at every college visit when in the end you are only going to attend one of those schools? You can find online most of the relevant background information, without making yourself look lame beyond belief with questions at the information session about average dorm room temperatures.
The college you love most is the most likely to reject you anyway, so why not save your energy for April of your senior year, when you can do serious research on the ones that accepted you? For those first visits this summer, just sniff the air and enjoy the scenery. Maybe you will even spot some celebrities. Hey, isn’t that Malia Obama?
No comments:
Post a Comment