NOTE to Bookworm by Email subscribers. I reformatted this post so that all of Ms. Jone's notes are available here, without downloading a Word document. Hope that makes reading a bit easier! If you want to become a Bookworm by Email subscriber, see the box on the upper left. You will get an email every time there is a new Bookworm post. janet
Now to the topic!
Thanks to friend and colleague Judy Chase who went to hear Marilee Jones, MIT Admissions Director, speak at Overlake School on November 14th. Ms. Jones is also the author of Less Stress, More Success: A new approach to guiding your teen through college admissions and beyond.
The following are Judy's personal notes:
"I was a few minutes late,
so the notes start from when I arrived. It
is amazing to me how many themes she spoke of that echo Alexandra Robbins perspectives.
Generations Defined:
She began talking about characteristics from different
generations and what that means in terms of the lens that we look at when
considering situations.
Matures: Born
prior to 1945. Honor, integrity, hard
work ethic, many first generations who made a way for themselves, loyal and
patriotic.
Baby Boomers: Born
after WWII until 1964. Idealistic and Individualistic. We live vicariously
through our children. We want to protect our kids and take care of them. We
think our kids think and are like us when they are not. We are self centered
and oriented around “us”.
Generation X: This
is a very small subset of the population. Born between 1965-1978. They grew up when times were recessionary;
AIDs became rampant, high divorce rates and left home alone a lot. They are pragmatic, comfortable on the
internet, diversity and entrepreneurial. They don’t like fuss; want to get their work done so they can play. Quality of life is most important. Gen Xer’s are great out of the box thinkers,
value diversity and very resilient.
Millennials: Born
post 1979. Influenced by Columbine,
9/11, WTC. She describes them as neotraditional, ritual, optimistic,
technological, adept, heavy volunteerism, very busy lifestyles, and
multicultural, busy 24/7. These kids are
group centered (having more likely been in daycare) they lead or follow, highly
structured, over scrutinized, can’t breath, very hardworking. They like to make adults (baby boomers) happy
and do a lot of their activities to “please” the adults. She says that the group is very anxious,
sleep deprived, judged and tested (and tested and tested), poorly nourished
(eat on the run). They sustain academic pressure, social pressure, carrying the
family honor. She calls them “Human
Doings vs. Human Beings”. AOL centered, need to be perfect at everything and
huge parental over involvement.
Today’s kids are Millennials.
Here are some of the general characteristics of Millennials. Our kids are social at night, via IM, text
messaging. They can’t sleep before 11:30pm and often go to sleep even later. We hold them up to community inspection by
“honoring high achievers in the paper, and at school”. Because of high parental involvement, they
are over criticized and often feel that their accomplishments are “not good
enough”. They are angry at their parents
for over pushing towards perfection. There is an epidemic impact on girls’ sense of self esteem and body
image.
The kids’ hyper sports involvement has resulted in an
increase in asthma and sports injuries. Stomach aches and headaches are more likely as well. These are all stress related illnesses.
Marilee stresses that the kids/parents should focus on THE
MATCH with a particular college. This is how well they will fit with the
college culture, activities, and academics. The best fit for the student is important. Parents and students should
not try to change the student to fit a school but find the school that fits the
student. Admissions officers want to
know if you know WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT.
Typical Problems Marilee Jones encounters:
Problem #1: We are raising a generation of kids who are
trained to please adults, teachers, parents, coaches, admissions officers. These kids look to the outside for
affirmation and do not look internally. This should be internal; they should be reading their inner voice. Who
am I? What do I think?
Problem #2: Kids are great at working together on
projects but don’t seem to be as individually creative. They do not have downtime to get into their
imaginations. Where are the Edisons? At MIT they value imagination, this is the
paramount characteristic at MIT and unfortunately the characteristic is lost
when kids don’t have time to reflect and think creatively/out of the box.
Problem #3: The collective
pressure makes kids break."
