<p>^To respond to the mom’s question about the nerd glasses, you could call it keeping up with the Joneses.</p>
<p>I was at a conference at another terrific university recently (terrific in the way that it has wonderful faculty and resources in my field, terrific in that it is exceptionally selective, terrific in that its students share a similar academic profile to Chicago’s, though probably not a similar applicant pool) and the school gave out STICKERS to every visitor on the tour. And every visitor on the tour was wearing their STICKER proudly.</p>
<p>STICKER? Like you’re visiting Disneyland? I was astonished, and declared right then and there that I felt I saw the beginning of the end of higher education.</p>
<p>Let’s step back and appreciate that most humans like to brushed with the highly selective college pixie dust from time to time, and that even I fall into this trap on occasion. And if Chicago’s competitor schools are doing hokey things to draw attention and loyalty, there’s even more of a compelling reason to enter the game. So nerd glasses it is.</p>
<p>If your daughter likes the school, if you like the school for your daughter, that’s one thing. If you don’t like the school for your daughter or your daughter doesn’t like the school, that’s another. If you don’t like college marketing, move to a different zip code and stop taking standardized exams. (I’m being tongue-in-cheek, but to be a presumably educationally and perhaps financially well-resourced person means college mail no matter what.)</p>
<p>If I ran the circus I’d mail every high school student a faux leatherbound version of Andy Abbott’s Aims of Education address.</p>