Very Funny Book - "Accept My Kid, Please!"

Parents Forum
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<p>I had to kill some time while waiting for my child to take the ACT on Saturday, so I went to Borders, got a cup of coffee, and read this entire (small, big print, 129 pages) book by Westport, CT writer/dad Hank Herman. Someone else on the board suggested it- I am sorry I’ve forgotten who, because it was hysterical!</p>

<p>The intro was called, “No Way Will I Be Suckered Into This Process!” where he describes a spring guidance/college planning meeting he attended at the high school. He and his wife thought, very smugly, that the warnings about overinvolved parents did not apply to them. Fast forward to the fall, when the dad now has a 2 X 3 foot “War Board” with 36 colleges on it, rated according to everything possible! </p>

<p>He describes his son’s application process at various “disguised” top schools, such as his Ivy alma mater, “The University of Transylvania” where his son - given the chance to ask his interviewer a question - says, “Do you think it’ll look bad if I drop AP Calc?” Not to mention Corncobb, with its school of Hotel Management, and top LACS like Fiddlebury and the ever-diverse Thespian, in Connecticut! I believe they even ventured south to Memory, and looked closely at that great LAC in Hartford, Infinity!</p>

<p>AT one point, Dad put a thousand hours (or so!) into making sports scrapbooks in different colors, personalized with the coaches’ names - only to try to hand one to a coach who recoiled and said, “Never touch 'em! I only look at videos!”</p>

<p>The chapters are interspersed with “Duh!” moments, such as:</p>

<p>“DUH! Don’t get too caught up in USNWR rankings. The only people in the entire world who know or care that Middle-of-Nowhere College in upstate NY is #25 while East Jabypp State U in southwestern Montana is #28 are alumni of MNC and EJSU, and parents of high school seniors.”</p>

<p>“DUH! Don’t lose track of your daughter’s APGAR score…at this printing there are no existing courses to improve APGAR scores, but it’s common knowledge that they are being developed.”</p>

<p>Anyway, I don’t know the author, but I sure had a fun four hours til the ACT was over - I even laughed out loud a few times, and I am normally very subdued in public places!</p>

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<p>I forgot something - the wife was in marketing, and when she decided to get involved, they found themselves referring to their son as “The Brand!”</p>

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<p>I was the one who recommended the book. I absolutely love it. It provides some much needed comic relief. I’m glad you enjoyed it.</p>

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<p>I liked the exchange where the boy is asleep in the back seat as they drove to visit a college. The father wakes him up 1/2 hour ahead of time so the boy will have time to look over the college literature. “I thought you’d want to take a little time to read the college brochure. You know, get a little idea of what you’re going to see.”</p>

<p>The son replies, “You woke me, and we still have a half hour to go?..And why would I need to get a little idea of what I’m going to see if I’m going to see it?” He curls back up and goes to sleep!</p>

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<p>I read that book too and found it hilarious! I handed it to my husband, and he read it in one late night sitting, laughing out loud. We often refer to things in it as we have gone through this crazy odyssey. On a disturbing note, I also recently read My Name is Charlotte Simmonds, by Tom Wolfe. The story is really scary for a mom sending her first born off to school in the fall!</p>

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<p>I enjoyed the book as well. Too many episodes that were just like what I suffered. That AP Calc episode is classic as my boys (though not my senior) tend to be that way–when they have some issue or unresolved (meaning no on is agreeing with their take on the matter) question, that is the only thing on their minds, and it would come right our regardless of who they are asking. And the sudden senioritus that sets in right before the ED letters come, is so right on. Why should they be pounding salt if they are in already? My senior son pushed that one too far and is sitting with a “D” on his Midyear report. Thank goodnes his early school does not ask for those grades, and we are working on bringing it up. The poetic justice in this is that he now can’t drop the course which he would probably be whining to do had he gotten a decent grade, and the course is AP calc. </p>

<p>There are some descriptions of campus life that ring true in “Charlotte Simmons” but that is just one take on a an unlimited number of experiences in college. I just read “Prep” by Curtis Sittenfeld which upset me more, and because the author is a young woman, I felt that she had a better handle on kids in that situation which could also have been a LAC. Strange, how both books had the same type for the female protagonist. </p>

<p>I may have mentioned this before, but I just want to point out that in the “Prep” book, I thought that the counselor’s choice of UMichigan to be unrealistic for a midwest scholarship girl who is not from Michigan. UMich is not generous with out of staters at all even needy ones, and Lee, the girl is certainly not going to get merit awards.</p>

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<p>lol can’t wait to read the book. We had the same backseat conversation!! My D never prepared for interviews, she just said questions come to me as we start talking and she always does fine in her interviews.</p>

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<p>Okay, I’m ordering it, thanks for the tip. I may donate it to our college center library, too. Have you seen the Citibank commercial with the dad trying to get the son up for his SATs? It is just a 30 second blurb but is priceless too (squirrel on the back…)</p>

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<p>at the end of my summer college visitation trip where my dad and I had visited an insane amount of colleges in a week, that was the same feeling we had. They all just seemed to blend together. luckily, my parents have been somewhat hands off about the whole process allowing me to choose which schools I have applied to. Of course they did help with proofreeding and other things but I was able to choose which schools I want to apply to. hmm, I just wish that it was already june and I knew what college I would be going to in the spring. </p>

<p>and yes, I as well have been struck by the plague of seniorities, though I will endeavor to keep my grades b-level</p>

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<p>The father was interviewed in the paper the other day. The son - who completely supported his father’s decision to write the book - graduated from “Infinity” (Trinity in CT, a LAC in the top 25) and went on to a masters program at BU. He said he was VERY grateful, looking back, on all his father did for him, and realized that if left to his own devices, without his parents’ help, he wouldn’t have gotten in anywhere, given the slacker he was at the time!</p>

<p>And slacker he was - he refused to consider “Thespian” (Wesleyan) because students did classwork on Thursday nights. He only wanted schools where Thursday was considered the first day of the weekend!</p>

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<p>Well, I guess that tells us something about “Infinity”, doesn’t it? ;)</p>

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<p>I think Colgate doesn’t have school on Fridays either- at least my niece never has had class on Fridays-.</p>

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<p>Who knows what school “Redhot” and "Artsy------something are? I could identify the rest of them, but those two puzzled me.</p>

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<p>EK: Colgate definitely has classes on Fridays. My daughter has two of them.</p>

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<p>Jamimom, I don’t know about Redhot, but I think Artsy-something may have been Skidmore.</p>

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<p>Just got this book yesterday from Amazon. Reaction to reading: LOL, (ouch), LOL, (ouch), LOL. LOL because it’s so funny, (ouch) because it’s a little too close to the truth. DH is still laughing at the resemblance. </p>

<p>Had a bit of trouble figuring out which one was Edelweiss until I got out my map of US colleges and universities (not yet mounted, not yet with color-coded pushpins).</p>

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<p>Maybe Redhot is Colgate, and Artsy is Swarthmore?</p>

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<p>Which school is Emily? I thought it might be Emory, but turned out to be Memory></p>

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<p>I had the same thoughts re Emily, so still wondering. Could Artsy be Bard?</p>

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<p>I think Emily is Dickinson. I thought Artsy was Skidmore. Redhot could be ANYWHERE! Figured Elite was either Amherst or Williams.</p>