Admissions Marketing Photography

The New York Times Magazine today announced that it will conduct an essay contest among college students.. Students are asked to write an essay in response to an article written by Rick Perlstein about the contrasts of College Culture today with that of the 1960's and 1970's.. Mr Perlstein's article entitled "College as America used to understand it is coming to an end."

Mr. Perlstein argues that college campuses today have lost their central role in society, and that “college as America used to understand it is coming to an end.” Unlike campus culture in the 1960s and 1970s, he maintains, college life now is a reflection of the larger society’s competitive, market-driven approach to life, rather than a refuge from it. Mr. Perlstein maintains that “going to college” doesn’t offer the distinct break from a young person’s past that it used to, with all the freedom and creativity that a fresh start implies. Instead, he says, the experience of college has become uninspiring, offering students more of what they’ve grown up with rather than startling them with new ideas and belief systems. Because they are no longer incubators for cultural innovation, he asserts, colleges and universities don’t influence the rest of society as they once did.

Why am I writing about this you ask? And how does it relate to Admissions Photography?

It obviously doesn't relate to admissions photography at all.. It does however relate to the overall marketing of Higher Education...

The thing that bothers me about the piece is that it is going to get a ton of press and people are going to use the piece as a benchmark for all kids in this generation.

Do you really think that most kids in America have enjoyed the same luxuries and experiences prior to College that most students at The University of Chicago have experienced, thus rendering college as uninspiring??

I would love to get everyone's take on this one..