News fresh from a brief tour of colleges, which may help you decide whether or not you *want* to go back.
More and more students are "designing their own majors." I asked for examples. Among those I heard, the most common was a combination of international relations and environmental studies.
What are the most popular majors in America? Business and Psychology.What are the most popular perks offered to students on fancy campuses? Free counseling and free massages.
What is the most commonly-repeated sales line? That "our college" has a program that allows you to pay full tuition here, and go live in Botswana--or some place equally cheap--for a semester, or even a year.
Where are you least likely to find a wide and interesting range of books? A college bookstore.
What are the five "modes of thought" required (you have to take at least one course in each "mode") by one quite famous college? Mathematical thinking, scientific thinking, thinking in the humanities, feminist thinking, race.
What is the most common behavioral sign that you are being introduced to a college? Your guide talks, while walking backwards for an hour or so.
What kind of accommodation do you get in return for your thousand and thousand of dollars? Remember all those articles about prison overcrowding...?
"Facts" told to me. "Each dorm has a piano. Yes, they're always all in tune." "We have a retention rate among freshmen of ninety nine percent." And, still my favorite, "Our professors love to get phone calls at two in the morning."
What is the most striking thing about visiting campuses? Students who have nothing to do with the P.R. of the admissions people, come up to you and tell you how much they love the college they are in.
David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
