Today was probably our most important day in class thus far: our 12 page drafts were due! Luckily, I worked incredibly hard last night to get it done so all I had to finish today were my footnotes and bibliography.
In class we had a guest speaker who graduated from Columbia in 2009 and now works for Macys.com. Samy Harmoush gave a great seminar on marketing, advertising and how we shouldn’t fall for all the advertisements when it comes to college. He showed us how important it is to thoroughly consider what colleges have to offer and what we truly want before making a decision. Samy made me realize that getting rejected from some of my top schools shouldn’t be that big of a deal because ultimately, I’m the one who has to make the best of what there is.
I’m glad that we turned in our drafts so that we can have peace of mind while we visit UPENN tomorrow. I’m so excited!
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteThat presentation by Samy may be one of the most valuable yet.
What he was telling you about college recruitment is so right on.
When a college recruiter comes before you, for all intents and purposes he's acting as a salesman and the product he's pushing is his college. Make no mistake about it, MIchelle, these admissions officers are also salesmen. They're selling you a product and it's their school.
Just like when you're in a department store you pick a product off of the shelf, you read the label and based largely by what you saw on that label you decide to make a purchase or put it back on the shelf. How many times, though, do you get home and find that the product inside isn't really what you envisioned when you read the label?
The same goes for a lot of these schools. You need to do just as you're doing right now and paying a visit to the schools for a first hand look at what's inside the package.
Unfortunately, though, you're not really seeing the school the same way you'd see it when it's in full session.
You need to see it when there are thousands of students filling the hallways and classrooms. You need to be there not during the beautiful summer days but also in the dead of winter when it's freezing cold or raining 96 days out of a hundred. You need to be there and see regular classes--especially the larger lectures--to see if you'll get the kind of education you really want.
This all takes work, Michelle. As many of the Brown-I students are writing in their farewell blogs, because of what they've seen and done these past three weeks, they have a much better feel for what to look for and even what questions to ask.
I'm betting that by the time you and the other Columbians head for the airport to come home, you'll all be in the same position as the others and be wiser about the whole college selection process.