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<p>ROFLMAO! Thats hilarious!</p>
<p>PLENTY of college decals in my area. I’m conflicted as to whether I will put one on my car, though! I’m generally more of an understated type.</p>
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Awwwwwwwww, don’t worry parent2009, none of it has gone to my kids’ heads yet…or mine! Would it make it more palatable for you to know that I often park my car in the driveway and in parking spaces BACKWARDS? 'Cause despite my brave front, I do live in fear of vandalism due to the evolution/pro-choice stickers…;)</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>I have wondered if my “Defend America Defeat Bush” bumper sticker has affected the service I get from our repair shop.</p>
<p>I wanted to pose this question to the esteemed CC parents after one long, slow, morning commute to downtown DC when I had burned out on the morning news, music, and so on. The mind needs something to entertain itself while the right leg is getting its exercise stepping on the brake 10,000 times - rather grim picture, isn’t it?. Casting about for any distraction to render the pain of the stop-and-go transparent to me, I decided to pull out my pen (come on, sticklers, we were either stopped or moving at 2 MPH) and write down the colleges displayed on window stickers.</p>
<p>These lone observer results encompass the tiny slice of morning traffic that includes River Road, Clara Barton Parkway, Canal Road, McArthur Blvd, the Whitehurst Freeway, and K Street. For 3/4rds of this journey, the company is entirely from MD, and then we are joined by (though we do not welcome, they get in our way) our road comrades from the VA Route 123 bridge. Without further ado:</p>
<p>Ivies are not equally represented. Several Big H stickers, three Cornell, Three U Penn, one Dartmouth. No Yale, Princeton, Columbia, or Brown. Moving on to other prestigious colleges, I saw two Stanford, two MIT, 4 JHU, 3 Georgetown, one Duke. A number of onesies from other places - U Chicago, Emory, W&M, VPI, etc. - and lots of UVA, GW, AU, GM, and UMD (naturally). Perhaps I will maintain this list, as a little sanity-booster for my OCD tendencies.</p>
<p>Soozievt, Tisch would be on my car. The More-Than-Ivy for future stars of stage and screen - yeah, baby!</p>
<p>Mini, you probably know Oxford doesn’t sell window decals. My son often wears his a cappella group’s tee shirt for busking and their blue logo jumper, and has a college scarf (which students often wear). However, I must confess (under the spell of the Oprah-like atmosphere of CC) that I did get one made up for BNC, in crimson to match the college lettering. It’s not on the car yet, but I think it would be an interesting conversation piece. If I do put it on, I will have to alter my commute down Mass Ave to pass the British Embassy - someone is sure to wave.</p>
<p>We do have the small cling stickers on one car, as we like to spread the word on good schools our children have attended–List College (UG arm of JTS in NYC) and UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.) I’m sure we’ll get a 3rd one when next son decides where he’s going.</p>
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<p>Ummmmmmmmmm…I would beg to differ. Or, perhaps I shall just give you the benefit of the doubt and simply assume that your EQ is somehow lacking. ~berurah</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t care much for honor roll stickers, but I think college stickers are fun… it’s interesting to see where people from my area are going. I’ve seen UVA, James Madison, Colby, Yale, and more… and that’s only counting my immediate neighbors’ cars. As yulsie suggested, it’s also a great distraction when you’re stuck in traffic. :)</p>
<p>Honestly, I can’t see anything wrong with parents and/or students putting decals on their cars. Why should anyone be offended or assume it’s a sign of egotism? My son was so excited to be attending his college, and we were SO thrilled to complete the whole process, that applying the decal just felt like a punctuation mark in our lives. Frankly, my son worked very hard for the last twelve years, and since he’s not likely to announce his school to every new acquaintance, it’s probably the only chance he has to show some school spirit – and that’s all it is. As I said, my H also has a sticker from our lowly UC, and it’s actually displayed more prominantly. How is it any different from all the Red Sox or Patriots stickers we see around?</p>
<p>I see decals from schools across the academic spectrum, from third and fourth tier schools all the way up to the Ivys. I don’t see this as a bragfest, so much as a display of school pride. I personally don’t like the honor roll stickers either. I don’t put the school decals in the same category, though. Some of my favorite college decal sightings are the ones I see on really old cars or in disadvantaged neighborhoods!</p>
<p>parent2009~</p>
<p>Please realize that there is a SIGNIFICANT difference in posting “a strong opinion” and issuing insulting statements. I post strong opinions ALL the time, but I rarely use loaded language or pejorative terms (e.g. “nauseating”), opting instead for a more logical and straightforward approach.</p>
<p>I apologize if you perceived my post as “shooting the messenger,” but as <em>I</em> saw it, my shot was most decidedly in self-defense, as I felt that I (and some others) had been “shot at” first.</p>
<p>Ironically, I am one of those types of people who is, nearly always, able to at least comprehend the other side of an argument, whether or not I agree. It was in the DELIVERY of your message that, IMHO, you failed…not your message itself.</p>
<p>O.K. just for you I went out and looked at my car again…I have one Student of the Month sticker on it, besides the political/college ones. If you find that objectionable, well, so be it.</p>
<p>Do realize, though, that there can be many different motivations for placing stickers such as those…egotism is only ONE of them. We live in a tiny town with, let’s just say, rather “enthusiastic” policemen. ALL of the football players in this town put their numbers on their vehicles in LARGE decals because here, that is a signal for the police to NEVER stop that particular car, no matter if he is speeding, driving while intoxicated, etc. The honor students, though, are stopped regularly…</p>
<p>Please do not jump to the erroneous conclusion that EVERYONE is motivated by excessive pride when they place a bumper sticker/decal on their car. It is simply not true.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>Always a mistake to broadly impute motive, parent2009, particularly when said imputation implies an insult. Are there bumpersticker braggarts out there? I have no doubt that there are. But, as Roshke points out, there are other motives (I loved kathiep’s—she can only read her sticker herself, in the rearview mirror). Penn State is–hands down–the most common college sticker where I live, even during the humiliating football drought of the last few years. Some of us are just boosters, some of us just like being reminded each morning of the child who no longer lives with us. It’s also fun the way conversations start up with strangers who happen to alumni, in parking lots, on vacation, even in traffic. It’s just fun, if you want it to be. Much better than feeling nauseated.</p>
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I agree with Berurah. I haven’t read a lot of your posts, Parent2009, so maybe post #46 was just a fluke. But your next post does seem rather aggressive and insulting. As many have mentioned, people have decals from a variety of schools, both prestigious and other. Why should you jump to the conclusion that people with decals are snobs? In fact, most of the people I’ve met who’ve either attended or have kids at elite schools do not behave in an elitist fashion. But I have encountered people who seem to have a chip on their shoulder because my son attends an Ivy. I can’t do anything about how they feel about that, but I’m not going to apologize or hide the fact that my son achieved an important goal. His success doesn’t minimize the success of anyone else.</p>
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<p>sjmom~</p>
<p>This was beautifully stated, and I am in total agreement. There is actually an astounding amount of “reverse snobbery” where we live. Many look down on my son for choosing to attend Duke even as they stand in staunch support of the local colleges. In a short time, I will most likely have a child at EACH of these types of schools, and my pride will be no greater for one than for the other. My pride is for the PEOPLE who my children ARE, not for the THINGS they have accomplished. If anyone has any doubt, s/he can take a brief peek on the FAFSA thread on the Parents’ Forum where I have issued strong praise for my daughter for nothing other than her being a fabulous person. :)</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>Ummm. Anyway.</p>
<p>If S were to get into his 1st choice school, I doubt most people around here would even know what it is, even though it is an Ivy. :rolleyes:
If he gets into second choice school, most people around the country would know about the school b/c of their basketball team. </p>
<p>Either way, I don’t think he’d put them on his car as he will barely tell his friends where he’s applying!</p>
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<p>parent2009~</p>
<p>This just may be where you went wrong. See, as I read it, the OP was not initiating a debate but rather simply asking a question. Now, of course it is not at all unusual for ANY and ALL threads in this forum to end up in a debate ;), but I certainly didn’t read that as the major purpose of this thread.</p>
<p>All of that notwithstanding, I stand by what I said in post #54…it was the DELIVERY that was problematic, not the message itself.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>"Mini, you probably know Oxford doesn’t sell window decals. My son often wears his a cappella group’s tee shirt for busking and their blue logo jumper, and has a college scarf (which students often wear). However, I must confess (under the spell of the Oprah-like atmosphere of CC) that I did get one made up for BNC, in crimson to match the college lettering. It’s not on the car yet, but I think it would be an interesting conversation piece. If I do put it on, I will have to alter my commute down Mass Ave to pass the British Embassy - someone is sure to wave. "</p>
<p>Actually, you can buy some on High Street in one of the tourist shops, if you really wanted. Worcester was one of the earliest colleges, but, being a Benedictine formation (as Gloucester College), was closed by Henry VIII, only to be reformed as Worcester in 1714. The result was that all the “real” colors were already taken - and so I have a scarf and rugby shirt in harlequin pink and black. We are very distinctive! ;)</p>
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This is one of the nicest things about wearing school logo apparel, or for applying bumper stickers. It’s just fun.</p>
<p>my windows are really too dark to see anything- but on the front windshield I have an old school Apple sticker- and my gym parking pass
the back windshield has a Kerry edwards sticker ;), a Pearl Jam sticker and one of those oval stickers like the international countries but it has a big paw print on it instead.
The college window cling is there but you can’t see it unless you stick your eyeball on the window ( I do like tinted windows though- keeps the car alot cooler)
Oh and my license plate holder is for my younger Ds high school- Go Bulldogs!
I also wear sweatshirts from both my Ds schools, the college and the high school. It often is a topic of conversation, and I like sweatshirts.
I see some cars with two or three college stickers- I always wonder if it is for more than one kid- or if they transferred .</p>
<p>( you wanna know what stickers my cargo box has on it?)</p>
<p>No, we don’t have any bumper stickers…not for colleges, or honor roll, or the boys football numbers, or the nascar numbers!!!</p>
<p>It must go back to to my dad, (again), crusty retired military, only decal my car needs is the one you need to get on base (his words). Seems like I have never gotten past that, heck thinking about it, I think it really spilled over on my kiddos. They never liked posters up, no stickers on their notebooks, binders or lockers…</p>
<p>It’s all my DAD’S fault. I knew it!!! I can just hear him…if I showed up at his place with a BUMPER STICKER on my 12-year-old 250,000+ mileage truck (american made)…How I had junked up, spoiled, ruined, desecrated, disrespected a perfectly good piece of American-made machinery!!! And on and on and on…</p>
<p>So no, no college decals here. He does however sport hats with all the kiddos college names…don’t even get me started!!!</p>
<p>You should hear the lectures if his granddaughters show up with LIPSTICK on, the horror of it, or heaven forbid, NAILPOLISH!</p>
<p>bumper stickers, oh sure!!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>