Craig
12-23-2002, 06:24 AM
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/356/metr..._seniors+.shtml (http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/356/metro/Colleges_tell_parents_to_go_easy_on_seniors+.shtml )
Colleges tell parents to go easy on seniors
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff, 12/22/2002
For college seniors heading home for Christmas break, there's one tradition more reliable than pumpkin pie and presents: Their parents demanding, ''What are you going to do after graduation?''
At Smith College, the career development office came to the rescue this week, mailing its annual holiday letter to families of 750 seniors. The letter contains both a plea and a warning: Reminding parents of this year's ''volatile economy,'' it asks them not to nag their daughters about finding a job.
''This year's seniors are telling us they hope their families will give them some space from worrying about their futures at holiday time,'' wrote career development director Barbara Reinhold. ''They need your permission to make decisions in their own way and on their own timetable.''
Nationwide, employers plan to hire even fewer college graduates in 2003 than they did this year, according to a study just out from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Crissy Forrestall, a senior at Smith who hopes for a job as a legal assistant, said her mother is understanding. But she'd like to add a few other adults in her hometown of Greenfield to the college's mailing list.
''What I dread going home to is my friends' parents,'' she said. ''I say I'm an English major, and they say, `What are you going to be, a teacher?' It makes me panic.''
Reinhold first penned a letter to parents asking their forbearance in the late 1980s, on behalf of seniors who dreaded winter break because of parental nagging. ''They didn't want to have that conversation,'' she said. Smith's class of 1992 went public with their aversion to the topic, outfitting themselves in ''I don't know, I don't care'' T-shirts.
This year, Reinhold made a point of stressing the troubled economy, which she believes will stretch the hiring season into next summer and fall - meaning that hundreds of thousands of college graduates will be temporarily living at home without a paycheck.
Besides the letter, she helps seniors prepare for holiday pressure by role-playing with them - ''you be you, and I'll be your dad.''
Other colleges also send letters home, and talk to parents when they visit campus about keeping expectations in check. Clark University in Worcester recently added a section for parents to its career services Web site, and Mount Holyoke College scheduled a student workshop earlier this month titled ''Whose Life Is It Anyway?'' to address questions including ''Can I pick my own career when my parents are paying for college?''
''Thanksgiving and Christmas are a double-edged sword - a lot of people don't like to go home, because they know they face the gauntlet,'' said Scott Brown, director of Mount Holyoke's Career Development Center. ''We all see it in our counseling sessions, with the winter holidays looming.''
Just 25 percent of liberal arts majors graduate with a job in hand, Reinhold said, but every jobless senior feels alone: ''They think they're the only one - they're going to be the first Smith bag lady.''
Colleges tell parents to go easy on seniors
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff, 12/22/2002
For college seniors heading home for Christmas break, there's one tradition more reliable than pumpkin pie and presents: Their parents demanding, ''What are you going to do after graduation?''
At Smith College, the career development office came to the rescue this week, mailing its annual holiday letter to families of 750 seniors. The letter contains both a plea and a warning: Reminding parents of this year's ''volatile economy,'' it asks them not to nag their daughters about finding a job.
''This year's seniors are telling us they hope their families will give them some space from worrying about their futures at holiday time,'' wrote career development director Barbara Reinhold. ''They need your permission to make decisions in their own way and on their own timetable.''
Nationwide, employers plan to hire even fewer college graduates in 2003 than they did this year, according to a study just out from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Crissy Forrestall, a senior at Smith who hopes for a job as a legal assistant, said her mother is understanding. But she'd like to add a few other adults in her hometown of Greenfield to the college's mailing list.
''What I dread going home to is my friends' parents,'' she said. ''I say I'm an English major, and they say, `What are you going to be, a teacher?' It makes me panic.''
Reinhold first penned a letter to parents asking their forbearance in the late 1980s, on behalf of seniors who dreaded winter break because of parental nagging. ''They didn't want to have that conversation,'' she said. Smith's class of 1992 went public with their aversion to the topic, outfitting themselves in ''I don't know, I don't care'' T-shirts.
This year, Reinhold made a point of stressing the troubled economy, which she believes will stretch the hiring season into next summer and fall - meaning that hundreds of thousands of college graduates will be temporarily living at home without a paycheck.
Besides the letter, she helps seniors prepare for holiday pressure by role-playing with them - ''you be you, and I'll be your dad.''
Other colleges also send letters home, and talk to parents when they visit campus about keeping expectations in check. Clark University in Worcester recently added a section for parents to its career services Web site, and Mount Holyoke College scheduled a student workshop earlier this month titled ''Whose Life Is It Anyway?'' to address questions including ''Can I pick my own career when my parents are paying for college?''
''Thanksgiving and Christmas are a double-edged sword - a lot of people don't like to go home, because they know they face the gauntlet,'' said Scott Brown, director of Mount Holyoke's Career Development Center. ''We all see it in our counseling sessions, with the winter holidays looming.''
Just 25 percent of liberal arts majors graduate with a job in hand, Reinhold said, but every jobless senior feels alone: ''They think they're the only one - they're going to be the first Smith bag lady.''