Thanks Charlotte and Tim for your awesome insights! Here's the current scoop: we learned from our realtor that the house with which we are in love has a pretty fixed price. Someone made an offer just $1,000 below the buyers' minimum, and they did not accept. Their minimum is too much for us, so we are going to watch it for the next couple months without making an offer, and see if it moves. If it's still around in about four months and we've not transferred our adoration elsewhere, we'll make a reasonable offer.
In the meantime, we looked at another house (not good) and have requested that our realtor choose some other places that meet our criteria: outside of town, at least an acre, and within our price range. As she begins to show us places, I'm sure we will get more specific, especially in terms of aesthetics. (Actually, I really don't want to look at anything that resembles a double-wide, which many places around here do. But I'll let her figure that out as we go along.) We prefer a full basement also.
***
OK, I'm changing the subject to something that happened over the weekend that made me a bit angry - probably because it seems to be a fairly common misconception I doubt I'll ever correct. We had the first of two big scholarship competitions on campus last Saturday, and I was speaking with a family at lunch who was asking about the marketablilty of an Alma degree. As I was pointing out the benefits of a liberal arts education (critical thinking skills, flexibilty, the ability to solve complex problems, etc. etc.), the mother looks and me and goes, "Well, you're not using your Alma business degree to its full potential doing this."
Ouch.
Actually, I politely pointed out, I am. My focus was marketing communications and there's an immense amount of strategy involved in college recruitment. I have my finger in so many pies that my project plate is just about overflowing. It's so much more than just "talking about Alma," as so many people imagine. I could elaborate, but then this would turn into a resume, and convicing you, my friends, is not the point, nor do I believe it's necessary.
I guess what kind of gets to me most is that I had the same misconceptions when I entered this. I worried about it being an easy job that might not sit well on my resume, but we were so desperate to get out of Cadillac that I was willing to take the chance and even considered it a bit of a time filler. I know there were people in my life who saw this as just "going back to Alma" and who don't recognize the challenges of this unglamourous and under-appreciated job, but now I do, even though I don't plan to make this a career. And I'm confident that when I'm ready to move on, I can make it pretty clear to prospective employers how involved it can be to work in college admissions.
2 comments:
Ouch is right. That seems like a pretty dipshit thing for a parent to say to someone who might conceivably control her progeny's admission into the college in question. Frankly, I have a hard time believing she could talk to, say, an MSU grad and come away with a better impression than she would talking to you. But some people just aren't always thinking.
FWIW, I've gotten sympathy before as the native son who "never made it out of Midland." People seem to think that if you stay around your birthplace (or in your case, your college-place), it must mean you're subsisting on a patently unglamorous job. But I know for a fact that my job is a lot harder than those of many of my friends who moved on to bigger cities and are essentially doing scut work because those are the available jobs out there, and I know you can say the same about your job too. Just keep your chin up. That kid sounds ripe for LCC. ;)
By the way, nice article in Accents this month! You should have just whipped that out and held it under her nose.
-Ryan
Oh, P.S.: I know business majors are supposed to be fiscally responsible and whatnot, but if you plan on spending the rest of your lives in a house, then I'd say you want the one you're in love with. Perhaps it would help to employ Dave Barry's shrewd negotiating tactic of Going Way Outside Your Price Range. Not that there isn't another place you'll love equally much, as you stated, but... you know... don't let this one slip away.
It's obvious this parent just had a misconception of what admissions reps do--or, she's gotten her impression from admissions employees at large state universities. An admissions rep at a small liberal arts school probably does a hell of a lot more than at a large state school--because there are fewer of you, there's a lot more work (and more of a variety of work) to go around. Your job role isn't well-defined, which gives you the opportunity to work in other areas, like writing for Alma Accents.
Also, something else to add--I find it hilarious now that people think a small college liberal arts degree isn't "marketable." As I've done 3 different job hunts since graduation, I've found that what matters isn't where your degree is from, but if you have one. Basically, a headhunter / interviewer looks at your resume to make sure a college is on there--that's it! The only advantage I've ever seen of going to a big state school is, you have a better chance that your interviewer has some kind of connection to that school--either went there or knows someone who did. The advantages of a small school (unique, small class sizes, opportunity to be involved in more extracurriculars--all stuff you can talk about at an interview) far outweigh the slim possibility of an "Oh, I went there, too!" connection.
Seriously, tell all that to your prospective's parents--tell them it's from an alum who imports product for the 2nd-biggest retailer in the U.S. ; )
~CH
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