On Campus Blog

Rejecting campuses: Pickiness or sound judgment?

I've driven four hours to have my son refuse to get out of the car because he didn't like the look of the campus; I've flown halfway across the country to have my daughter bail out before the tour because she didn't like the looks of the other prospective students ("too intense") and because the campus was "too flat." (What did she expect in Chicago anyway?)

-- Taking the Kids columnist and family-topic author Eileen Ogintz in a Huffington Post piece on taking her kids on college tours.

She has some good advice about visiting campuses, as I've just posted.

But there has been a lot of talk these days about a sense of entitlement among college students. I wonder whether this quote is a reflection of that. Makes me wonder just who's running the show here.

Bail out after a long, expensive trip just because the campus isn't pretty at first glance, or because you don't like the look of the students?

Wouldn't have happened in my house.

What do you think? How picky should parents allow their high school children to be when it comes to choosing colleges?