<p>Yulsie, I may just take you up on that, eventually. My friend’s BC was a rescue…he is absolutely the coolest most amazing dog I’ve ever seen. I swear he’s human sometimes. He understands English, honestly. Compound sentences…</p>
<p>Raises Hand…Two of them. Terps and Frostburg State plus one for the high school where I teach.</p>
<p>Wow, I missed the posts in the last few hours. Wow, wow, speechless. Before I give my opinion, let me say I am really laughing on some posts and particularly the stork sign with the name of future college :D. </p>
<p>Parent2009…well you came back even though you said you wouldn’t, but that’s fine. But you don’t seem to really understand that this is not an issue of a differing opinion…I, for one, have no problem that some are into college decals and some are not…that was the essence of the original posted question…your opinion is welcomed on this all important topic 
but what I find to be offensive and what stirs up some frenzy making…is how you are assigning motivation to those who opt to put decals on their cars. I explained why we did and it had nothing to do with what you assigned in terms of motivation. </p>
<p>I already explained that if my children had opted to attend Community College of Vermont, I STILL would put the college decal on my car. I didn’t opt to put the sticker on as a form of bragging or designer labels. These are SCHOOLS we are talking about. Schools involve school spirit. It is pride in the school, allegiance and identity to the school, more so than about one’s kid per se. If my kid dons her college sweatshirt after her sporting event, it is to align herself with her school, but not to brag to other teams that she is at some “better school” type of thing. It is a sense of belonging, a sense of spirit. I think if YOU see it as bragging, then that is YOUR take on what you feel when looking at such stickers on others’ cars. When I see a sticker, it is more like an interesting thing to meet someone who goes to such and such college. It is not like we are putting stickers on our car that say, “guess what? I make $200,000 a year!” (if only, lol) or “Guess what? I won the X prize in a competition!” The college is not a prize, but is part of the child’s school spirit and allegiance and pride in his school. </p>
<p>And let me guess…do you drive an expensive car? If you do, is that advertising something about yourself? That could be one person’s take. But another might say, they love that car and that’s that. </p>
<p>Again, maybe in your neck of the woods, people like to compete and brag and one up one another…I am guessing this because in one of your first posts you mention the status consciousness of those in your area and thus, perhaps their decals scream that out at you. But please don’t assume that that is the motivation for all who choose to wear a college sweatshirt or put a college decal on the car. Some of us don’t view which college their kid got into as a competition with others but merely a personal goal or accomplishment and are happy for their kids who love their schools and take pride in their schools and want to align themselves with their schools for those pure reasons. It is not a contest. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Bravo, Susan. That captures it. It is more a display of community than an attempt to brag. I have actually left notes on people’s cars in my employee parking lot when I saw certain stickers.</p>
<p>
Ditto, MoWC. I’ve done that too. Little notes like “Amherst bites the big one”…stuff like that. Double, triple smiley faces!! (i.e. just kidding!)</p>
<p>Try getting the lyrics to “The dirty golden bear” song on a bumper sticker.</p>
<p>Ever the diplomat, driver.</p>
<p>I think they’d charge you extra to run that sign in Times Square, though.</p>
<p>“the stork sign with the name of future college”</p>
<p>There’s an old joke about a formerly Jewish (now Asian) mother, who is asked about her children. She says, “The doctor is 9, the lawyer is 7.”</p>
<p>
susan~</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, I can even beat MYSELF!! When I was four months preggo with the above-referenced babe, I traveled to Austin where, while shopping on the drag, I came across a preggo shirt in burnt orange with a construction sign on it that said, “Longorn Under Construction.” And yes, I bought it and wore it…Guess Max is now committed to UT!!! <em>lol</em> ~b.</p>
<p>Why is it that sports achievement can be celebrated, even flaunted, along with arts achievement, financial success (not in all cases the result of any kind of achievement), and celebrity in general, but academic and educational achievers must be humble? I would like to think it is because everyone knows that their achievement is the only truely important one, but I fear that is not the explanation.</p>
<p>My dog is a rescue reject-he was not pure lab.
Last yr I thought $12 was too much for son’s school decal for rear window. Bought one this yr. I also have alumni license plate holder from my school-but it is about 7 yrs old and can barely be read. Never put up the honor roll ones.</p>
<p>We didn’t put on the bumper stickers that read “My kid is an honor student at xx school” because I felt uncomfortable with that… but our cars are ADORNED with xxcollege mom and xxx college dad, along with Kinky Friedman for governer, free tibet, =, and “vote no for proposition 2” (which was the constitutional ammendment to make marriage illegal for gay folk - which unfortunately passed in Texas.) I’ll be plastering more college stickers on when HS DS, now a junior, chooses a college next year. (We’re thinking the bumpersticker may say, “My money and my son go to UT”, but who knows what will be?)</p>
<p>Bumper sticker market test:</p>
<p>My Harvard student is smarter than your Border Collie</p>
<p>a) Is there a market for it?
b) Would anyone believe it?</p>
<p>Edit: No offense to Harvard families intended.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>… do you watch sports?</p>
<p>I problem with admitting you went to Harvard is that, for the rest of your life, every time you screw up someone will say, “And you went to Harvard?”</p>
<p>soozie…that was one of your more golden posts…</p>
<p>I can understand how people would interpret bumperstickers as some sort of prideful thing, but honestly in our town, virtually EVERYONE at the public middle school gets honor roll and/or student of the month honors, and the school actually mails out the bumperstickers. So you have a choice: you choose not to put it on your car, and are in the minority, and possibly send a message to your children that you are not proud of them; or you just be good-natured about it, and put it on because it makes your child beam, and shows that you support the local public school. I keep my cars for 10 years, so the stickers have accumulated now to span that many years. Then, two children go to a different middle school, so you add that one for balance. And then your son goes off to college, and by that time, well really who cares, there isn’t enough time to read them all anyway 
My daughters think they are a work of art (really! they said that!)</p>
<p>We live in a college town and Lord knows there are more cars with decals than without. The undergrads have them all over their cars more often than not, the grad students have undergrad and grad school both; the parents, the grandparents, the alums, the pure sports fans…Parent2009, you really need to chill!</p>
<p>my daughter, just to be contrary ( I think) has no logo gear from Grinnell, but she sure loves her Kenyon sweatshirt!! And yes, we do have an oval-euro style sticker on the back window.</p>
<p>If your family name is Smith, Brown, Williams, Mills, Cornell, Hamilton, Bates, Duke, Wellesley, Rice, Clark, etc., do you get to wear the gear without grief?</p>
<p>If you have terrible long-term memory and your name is Tim, an MIT sweatshirt might help you out.</p>
<p>D refused any stickers from jr. high or hs, but both our cars are adorned with college stickers. Interestingly, when I picked D up from the airport at Thanksgiving, she was wearing her college sweatshirt and while waiting for her luggage, an elderly gentleman came up and asked if she really went there. When we responded yes, he told us he was an alum from many years ago when the school was all male. He asked if it was still hard to get into, etc. We had a nice conversation. When we left the parking lot, and were in the line to pay, we were behind a late model car with the school sticker, as well. It was the gentlean and his wife. This is TX, and school is in NE.</p>