BY ROSA PRESTON

Some of you reading this may be thinking about applying to college after high school. And if you’re not, that’s fine too. If you want to join the military, or you want to have a job that doesn’t require a fancy piece of paper, that’s great! But for A+ students or anyone in an Honors class, you may be eyed by certain universities and colleges. And FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS ANNOYING, IT NEVER STOPS!

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s an honor to be the target student for multiple colleges, especially if you want to go to a university or college after school, or if you’re not sure about which college you want to attend. It seemed to help an anonymous junior, who said, “I’m thinking about a university, but I haven’t really thought about a specific college yet. I’ve had cards in the mail with pamphlets of the college, and it’s made me consider going to that college.”

But after a while, the digital and real world mailboxes end up filled with emails and personally, it’s a bit annoying. Plus, it isn’t 100% convincing when you just send an email or questionnaire about the LIVING in the college, or what classes it has to offer. Okay maybe that last one is a selling quality, but not really when none of your aspiring careers or interests are listed.

Not to mention Truman is also trying to encourage us to go to college. And personally, I think they’re selling it a bit more. Take counselor Rebbeca Lyle for example, who said, “I speak with all students about their interests and career goals. Any student that expresses an interest in a career that requires a college degree, I discuss different options with them on colleges they can attend. Any student that is unsure, I discuss different opportunities with them for their post-secondary plans.” This seems to work better for a variety of reasons we’ll get to later. And if you don’t even plan on going to college, like an anonymous senior, dealing with the constant mail and emails gets to be a pain. “It does become a bit of a bother dealing with counselors and colleges themselves constantly trying to get me to apply for scholarships and college in general. I’m simply not interested,” they said when interviewed.

I definitely think Ms. Lyle’s “advertising colleges” style works better because she takes into consideration the student’s interests and goals. Most colleges say something along the lines of, “Here at (insert college name), we make sure our students feel safe and equal in the environment. The environment is friendly, we have sports teams that have made it to state finals, and we have a tiger for a mascot.” Yes, I agree that the environment should be friendly, but it’s more than just what it’s like at the college that matters. If the college doesn’t offer any education that’ll suit a student’s aspiring careers or goals, they won’t want to go there.

But I will admit, it could work. At least Ms. Lyle agrees, kind of,, “I think there are pros and cons to this form of advertising. I think students become more aware of the college and have the name recognition. However, I do think if it’s somewhere they aren’t interested in that continuously emails them, they become less interested in that school.” So like she said, the constant emails may make them more aware of other college options, but if they’re not interested, it’ll make them consider it even less. It’s sort of a “no means no” situation, and colleges need to understand if we’re not emailing back or responding, we’re most likely not interested.