Just some quick links this morning. I've been denied coffee due to a doctor's appointment and am extremely cranky.
Two higher ed links: Tim Burke explains what a good lecture should look like. It's hard for me to summon up too much energy for rich people who get ripped off, but this story about college admissions counselors has been heavily discussed this week.
Great house porn of the week. Check out the rehab job on this Staten Island house. Love!
Insider reference: The Case of they Dying Roomba.
Henry posts a difference perspective on the Gates incident.
The BlogHer conference is going on right now in Chicago.
Quote o' the Day. Laura at GeekyMom writes,
The other day in the car, I had a moment where I realized that my past
self would be very unhappy with my current self. I used to judge and
criticize women who stepped off the career track. In my mind, success
was about working full time, with or without family obligations. And
maybe it's true that from a purely financial standpoint, women who step
out of careers are giving up a bit of success. But there's more to life
than financial and career success. That's what I'm coming to now. That
moment in the car made me first, have some doubts about what I'm
currently doing, and then second, laugh at my past self. Perfect
balance may indeed be elusive, but I think no one should dismiss those
that are trying to find it.
Apt. 11d 
I’ve been denied coffee due to a doctor’s appointmen
Surely there must be some constitutional amendment which covers this? 🙂
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I’ll see if I can get a medical opinion on the Roomba case from my husband.
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My kids aren’t ready to apply to college yet, but I’m interested in the process, as it seems so all-consuming for families. In the comments to the article, two sides were emerging , both equally convinced of their positions. Either it had no effect on admissions, in which case families who paid extra for the help were fools with too much money. If it does help “get your kid in,” then they’re filthy plutocrats who’re gaming the system.
Mixed feelings on that, as the reports from parents about our local public high school’s guidance department are not inspiring.
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Well I was horrified by the article on paid admissions counselors. Snake oil salesmen always induce my rants. And, it really can’t be dismissed on the grounds it’s only *rich* fools who are being parted with their money. It’ll undoubtedly include someone who scrimps a bit to try to give their kid an edge, and those scrimpers are less likely to be savvy enough to know when they’re being taken.
I also think colleges have to come down harder on this kind of admissions manipulation ploys (both to drive the snake oil salesmen out of business, just for the public good, and to do whatever they can to clean up their admissions processes). I think it really has gotten crazy out there, and that their classes are being skewed by the craziness.
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I’d make a distinction, though, between the counselors who gussy up a kid, and coach him on creating the picture of the perfect candidate–the “manipulators”, and the counselors who provide students and parents with advice about what to look for in a college, the “advisors.”.
My cousin lives in a town in which most graduates attend the state university next door. The guidance counselors don’t know much about the college search process, because they don’t have to. As a consequence, students who want to go anywhere else have to reinvent the wheel–that is, if they have any idea what’s involved in applying to college. It’s a rural district, so the students are not sophisticated.
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You have to be a fool to pay that much for ‘advice’ without seeing an extremely credible track record. In this case, the college admissions process isn’t all that confusing and if you haven’t already built the resume, you’re not going to do anything game-changing in the last 12 months. But rich and poor alike can be suckers.
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You’d be a fool to pay $40,000 for manipulation. However, if your public high school has 2 guidance counselors for 700 kids, and they’re also tasked with psychological counseling for kids in danger of dropping out, etc, then you might find it worthwhile to pay a local counselor with a good reputation a reasonable per-hour fee for a few hours of advice.
For example, in my cousin’s district, the kids know of the local college, and the very famous schools, such as Amherst. They have no idea how to distinguish between the thousands of other colleges in the US. They also don’t know that they don’t need to downplay the fact that they’ve grown up on a farm, for example. Often, the parents are both working, and they don’t have the time to invest hundreds of hours in researching the process and the colleges.
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I’m with stranger on this (though I know better than to get into strangers’ cars). We had one (part-time) guidance counselor who knew nothing about anything out of state (and not that much in general as she was just a teacher given an extra job). I’m not saying help on the scale mentioned in the article is always needed, but if I hadn’t had an uncle who was a professor, I’d have never known what to do. For example, taking the SAT was not common and it was only my own family’s advice that let me know I should take it if I was thinking of going out of the mid-west. I was the only one that took it.
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My child is going to be a h.s. senior in August. I can tell you her guidance counselor is absolutely ZERO help. The college reps who visit the school and fairs have actually been better help. You listen to their spin, ask questions, voice concerns and pretty soon you know the right questions to ask.
As for looking for schools, we rely on some guide books and advice from family and friends. The fact that she wants to stay in the West helps us narrow it down too.
But really, I would pay someone a small fee for a couple of hours advice and guidance. I feel like a deer in headlights sometimes.
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It just occured to me that my first comment on this blog was a question about a Roomba.
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“But really, I would pay someone a small fee for a couple of hours advice and guidance. I feel like a deer in headlights sometimes.”
I’m intrigued to hear the kind of questions you have, and who you think would be able to answer them. Hiring someone for a couple of hours to answer questions implies that they don’t really know your child, though perhaps you would ask them to look over her record? Or are you just confused about the process itself, as I would be, say about how to install a fan in my family room ceiling? I understand how feeling like there’s a mysterious amount of information that you don’t understand can be a real deterrent to making effective choices. I feel pretty strongly that paid consultants don’t solve this confusion, but clearly people feel like they don’t have information they need. I think most colleges schools would like to make this information available, rather than feeding a need by consultants by not providing relevant information.
Is there some reason why you think the information won’t be provided by schools (for example, that a consultant will tell you that you shouldn’t do something that the school suggests you do)?
[And, although scary, I find that the forums at the College Confidential web site provide a lot of relevant information through peer communication: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/%5D
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I never did manage to ask my husband for a full run-down of everything he’s done to keep our Roomba running, but I believe our first Roomba was a lot more low-maintenance. The second one has had more mechanical trouble (trouble keeping a charge, I believe), but my husband used every minute of the manufacturer’s warranty before digging up the credit card transaction and using their warranty extension. So far, so good.
When it becomes financially feasible, we are so getting one of those robot lawn mowers.
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Or are you just confused about the process itself, as I would be, say about how to install a fan in my family room ceiling?
At least for me, that was the main thing. A friend of a friend of a friend who was a counselor at a good private school spent 2-3 hours telling me what to look for, and 2-3 hours helping me evaluate it.
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