The Burrow

Being a junior in high school is hard work.  PSAT... AP courses... driving a car... so much on the cusp of adulthood yet firmly rooted in childhood, too.  I had a chance to be up close and personal with those living through it last night. I represented Cornell at the Tucson Unified School District's College Night.  For $200, paid through the generosity of the Cornell Club of Southern Arizona, I was given a table, two chairs, a pen and a bottle of water.  The University provided name tags, flyers filled with information, and colorful bookmarks and postcards with contact information on both sides.  There was no list for interested students to complete, no envelope to collect resumes.  In fact, the University made a specific request that we not accept personal information.  We were to direct the students to the Admissions Office's website, where they could input their own deets. I love it when a cost saving measure fits neatly into the actor's lifesty...

It used to be that April 15th was as relevant to high school seniors as it was to their parents.  While the grown-ups were busily putting the final touches on their tax forms before dropping them into the mailbox, the seniors were lined up on the curbstones, waiting for the first glimpse of the mail carrier.  College acceptance letters were received on April 15th.  It was a big day. Now, with the proliferation of rolling and early admissions, the process is more diffuse.  Some students know where they're going before Thanksgiving, adding a touch of Congratulations to their holiday celebrations.  Some find out that they're not going where they wanted to go, that they will be spending their holidays finishing applications to schools that are okay but not  what I wanted.   All that parental encouragement to finish those other applications so they would be ready to slip into the mail if the worst occurred seem oddly prescient all of a sudden. It do...

Bull Durham (20th Anniversary Edition) (Sorry, regular readers. Further notes on newspapers - which was promised on Friday - will have to await another post.) *************** Professional baseball has farm teams. Promising players can be drafted out of high school and sent to the minor leagues to hone their talents and become the emotionally mature adults that living away from home on $23/day while surrounded by tobacco chewing and spitting equally mature young adults will make them. More academically inclined (and, perhaps, less physically talented) high school seniors would go on to Arizona or USC or Stanford or LSU or Texas and graduate before being drafted and sent to the minor leagues where they could continue to hone their talents while being the emotionally mature adults that spending 4 years on a college campus as a pampered National Champion had made them. (If I've gotten this far without your wondering where the Bull Durham link is lurking, then you're probab...

Can someone explain to me why the SAT is advertising on Facebook? I'm really confused. Going to college - you know about the test. Live in a family that pays half an ounce of attention to the world around it - you know about the test. Attend high school - you know about the test. Have older siblings - you know about the test. You really don't need to be reminded. "The one, the only - the SAT". As if it were a fancy car - the Ferrari of tests - something to which everyone would aspire. It's cool. It's hip. It's your friend - "There are scarier things than the SAT - like having your Mom chaperone the prom" . And it's physically attractive. At least the ad is. So, I'm 15 and I'm hooked. Forget the ACT. I'll sign up. I promise. Is ETS using high school kids to pressure colleges to retain the test as an admissions tool? After all, if you've paid to take the thing, and studied for it, and stayed up nights worrying abo...