Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I'm in an alternative universe. College t-shirts and sweatshirts are extremely common where my DC goes to HS. They are worn by kids in all grades. And, yes, plenty of people do get gear when they have visited a school they actually like.

Things change when active applications are out there.

My kid is a senior, still wearing college shirts/sweatshirts and so are their friends. Heck, they wore the heck out of the Pitt free tee and never even applied.

I'm the one whose kid put all his clothes in the closet. I guess different kids handle stress differently. Also, super weird to wear a shirt you have zero connection (even mild interest) in.

Very much so. If you're the type of person to wear just anything, I guess you can buy the swag before being admitted. But to the rest of us, the name has connotations. It's not a blank slate. I didn't buy anything in advance for my kids. They don't need to immediately pop on a college name item the minute they get the acceptance!

Anonymous wrote:When my kids got in ED to UVA, we drove down literally the next morning and raided the bookstore to the tune of $600 (Total for two kids). I think they probably had some UVA attire prior (growing up in VA), but I would not have tempted fate to buy anything prior.

You sound like a fun parent! And this is a great way to celebrate the exciting news!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I'm in an alternative universe. College t-shirts and sweatshirts are extremely common where my DC goes to HS. They are worn by kids in all grades. And, yes, plenty of people do get gear when they have visited a school they actually like.

Same here. I don't understand this thread at all. My DC has bought clothes from some of the schools she has visited and it is not a reflection on which school she hopes to get into. Kids wear all kinds of college gear to school.

Same. This thread is crazy.

Anonymous wrote:I have a t shirt, in case.

But my kid is already pretty well aware there's no sweatshirt wearing til Spring. He even mentioned last year how uncool it was for people to add college to instagram bio in winter.

Wearing it around the house, or taking a picture in the sweatshirt to send to your sister, sure. The rest is not kind, as you say

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This is such a strange take. My DC has a tshirt or sweatshirt from several colleges and universities that we visited over the past two years and wears them on rotation pretty regularly. Don’t really see anything wrong with that.
And if DC gets accepted to ED school, I fully expect that DC will wear buy a few more pieces to wear. And will probably get a car sticker or something like that.
Why is it “unkind” for a student to express excitement at being accepted to their preferred school? We know several recruited student athletes who received their offers and signed as juniors and they immediately started wearing swag from their chosen college. This didn’t result accusatiins that they were being “unkind” to other student athletes who were not given athletic scholarships to those schools. You win some you lose some. But that doesn’t mean you have to suppress your own excitement and enthusiasm about a positive outcome simply because others didn’t experience that same outcome. I’m not suggesting you jump up and yell “yeah yeah in your FACE!!!!”—-but you can express happiness and celebrate your own success and achievement without the need to coddle other people’s hurt feelings.

I don't buy any college merch of any kind unless my kid has been admitted, and has decided to go there.

Why buy into the hype for a school that may not even invite your kid to join their class?

I certainly don't buy anything while on tours.

Anonymous wrote:When my kids got in ED to UVA, we drove down literally the next morning and raided the bookstore to the tune of $600 (Total for two kids). I think they probably had some UVA attire prior (growing up in VA), but I would not have tempted fate to buy anything prior.

Are you for real? How many TShirts do you get for $600. My W&M graduate owned 1 swag hoodie.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I'm in an alternative universe. College t-shirts and sweatshirts are extremely common where my DC goes to HS. They are worn by kids in all grades. And, yes, plenty of people do get gear when they have visited a school they actually like.

Same here. I don't understand this thread at all. My DC has bought clothes from some of the schools she has visited and it is not a reflection on which school she hopes to get into. Kids wear all kinds of college gear to school.

We bought tee shirts and sweatshirts from a number of different universities we visited too. My kid will apply to some and some she won't. She wears them all to the gym, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, but if a kid gets in to their ED, then huge congrats. Wear all the stuff and get excited. Isn't this why we applied ED? We have to hide it to not offend? Stop. Life is life. No thanks.

This! Mine was accepted EA but had some physical hurdles to clear before it was a sure thing, so we kept it quiet for two months. It was HARD. Let them wear the clothes and get excited!

You both have horrific reading comprehension skills. Hopefully your kids are better readers. Literally no one has said not to wear the clothes AFTER the admit comes.

Don’t jinx it!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP..You can decide what works for you. Jinxes aren't real and if you want to run upstairs and grab a sweatshirt "if" he's accepted, then do it. These responses are ridiculous. Good grief.

This. DD’s school is a plane ride away so I had a UPS package with sweatshirt hidden - ready to open if she was accepted, ready to put in the goodwill pile if rejected. Turns out her wearing the new swag was a very cute and fun pic for her to send to older sibs and grandparents to share her happy news.

we've been the recipient of some of these pics. Fun for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:My kid has no swag from his ED school--it was one of many we toured that we didn't buy anything from (we do have a random selection from others).
Per college counseling (based on past data), he has a good shot at ED. Yes, he (and we) realize that everything these days is a lottery.
He mentioned wanting to wear college gear as soon as possible. I'm not sure this is even kind if most of his friends are waiting although i know the recruited athletes are already wearing gear. I'm sure my son has not through through any of this.
So buy a tee shirt to have on hand (and then maybe advise him not to wear it out?) Buy for Christmas?
what are you doing?

We bought swag, from the sale rack, at each college we visited (except the one our child said, "I'm not applying here," 10 minutes after we stepped foot on campus).

Once child was accepted ED (which came w/ 15% off at the campus bookstore), we dropped a bunch of money on sweat shirts, t-shirts and sweatpants. But they already had the one item we had bought months before

The only college gear my kid has is from the MIT museum and then family schools.
We bought nothing on tours , they had zero interest in doing so. I think they are secretly superstitious. To each their own!

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I'm in an alternative universe. College t-shirts and sweatshirts are extremely common where my DC goes to HS. They are worn by kids in all grades. And, yes, plenty of people do get gear when they have visited a school they actually like.

Same here. I don't understand this thread at all. My DC has bought clothes from some of the schools she has visited and it is not a reflection on which school she hopes to get into. Kids wear all kinds of college gear to school.

Big fat nope for reasons both superstitious and practical.

We told DC there would be no swag purchases during tours, but promised to go all in once they had their matriculation plans locked down. That made perfect sense to them.

When my kids got in ED to UVA, we drove down literally the next morning and raided the bookstore to the tune of $600 (Total for two kids). I think they probably had some UVA attire prior (growing up in VA), but I would not have tempted fate to buy anything prior.