It’s College Application Time

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/opinion/letters/college-applications.html

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To the Editor:

Re “After a College Applicant Hits ‘Send’” (Family, nytimes.com, Oct. 22):

My son just submitted his last early action application. We almost didn’t survive. What’s the big deal? Write a few essays, complete the Common App online and pay the fee; it shouldn’t be that hard.

But as many parents (and students) can attest, it was a true test of wills. I realized that my husband and I, both in higher ed, were projecting our hopes onto our children. Attaining a degree means that they have a chance to live a future with promise. Today, Gen-Zers often believe otherwise. They have a voice and aren’t afraid to use it in dissent. We should listen, even if we agree to disagree.

Our son finally acquiesced and grudgingly finished his applications. I can hope that the torturous application process will fade in time and that he’ll channel his voice in his own way, with or without a degree.

Laura Chu StokesBoone, N.C.

To the Editor:

Re “A New Home for My Dead Husband’s Clothes,” by Fernanda Santos (Sunday Review, Nov. 3):

This is a sad and beautiful tale, and it serves as a stark reminder of our connections.

While Ms. Santos’s world has been deeply shaken by her husband’s sudden death, there is a larger universe that is battered each day by man’s inhumanity to man, with lives upended because of the cruelties needlessly inflicted.

These garments worn in the tomorrows to come can serve as a reminder of what has been lost and as a statement of what we gain when we understand that we all wear the same clothes, whoever we are and wherever we may be, and that all our hearts are broken as one.

Robert S. NussbaumFort Lee, N.J.

To the Editor:

Re “Are the Suburbs Turning Democratic? It Depends Which Ones” (front page, Oct. 26):

For three years, I have been reading quotes like that of the Michigan woman in your article who says: “It’s not that I agree with Donald Trump on issues. It’s that Donald Trump agrees with my values.”

What values are those? That his opponents are “human scum”? That asylum seekers are “animals” whose children should be ripped from their families and caged? That there are “good people” among American neo-Nazi demonstrators, one of whom killed a counterprotester?

That it’s acceptable to lie constantly about everything from crowd size to hurricane forecasts?That it’s O.K. to abandon vulnerable allies to the tender mercies of their more powerful enemies? That it’s a good idea to extort personal political favors from other vulnerable allies?

That global warming and its disastrous consequences for our descendants is a small price to pay for driving gas guzzlers?

William T. KoltekLouisville, Ohio