That's Some High Quality Stupid

My wife and I, and our two daughters, are entering into a new phase of life.

In little more than a year and a half our oldest will be going to college.

I'll spare you all the sentimental "life goes so fast" and "I still remember changing her diapers" cliches. That ground has been covered over and over again. Not here, but on the thousands of mommy blogs that have much higher web traffic than I'll ever see.

I once asked a friend, familiar with the media landscape, why there is no mommy blogosphere counterpart? You know, a specialized niche for white, semi-affluent American males. He looked at me and said there is, it's called: Life.

Point taken.

In any case, we're ankle deep into SAT prep classes, glossy college brochures and the rapid, emergency funding of the 529 accounts.

Naturally, my daughter is interested in schools in Boston, NY, even my beloved Syracuse. The kind of schools that will cost me a fortune in airfares. I'd like to keep her closer to home. Mostly for selfish reasons. Like the inevitable 3 AM call about a boyfriend dumping her and the "can you come get me I want to come home?"

I suggested UCLA, about six miles north or an hour away on the 405.

My wife looked at me as if I were crazy. She said that while our daughter was a solid A- student and would do sufficiently well on her SAT's, there is no way in hell she could get accepted at such a prestigious school.

Then I saw this:

If this is the state of higher education in America, I'm thinking maybe I should just save myself half a million dollars and encourage my daughters to pursue a career that doesn't require much in the way of intellectual rigor.

Something in advertising, perhaps.