In My Own Backyard

Often, college view books include a list of the attractions their school's area has to offer. Schools in New York coo over tourist destinations Broadway or the Empire States Building. Chicago colleges suggest that visitors see a Sox game, or try their famous deep dish pizza. Even schools in small towns can tout their local charm and quaint shops. These pages are useful, since they give student who can't visit a feel for what their city's like, and helps students who do visit get to know the place better. However, when you live near the school, these pages just feel odd.

Instead of enticing me with a world famous cultural center, I see the place I went on my last birthday. When the book offers up an ordinarily impressive museum, instead it's the place I went to on a field trip. If any of these had been in another state, or in a far off city, they would be exciting and even exotic, but because they are all old hat, the college seems behind the times.

I propose that colleges create a veiw book specially for people who live within 200 miles of the school. It would be identical to the ordinary book except for the page about local attractions would be missing. In it's place, there would be a blank page that simply reads "We know you know the area, please come here anyway."