A true story I’ve posted before, now with more details and a hopefully new audience :)
For a few years I have run my departments contribution to the university Open Days. Three times a year, prospective students and their parents/friends/siblings pile onto campus to check us out and see if they want to study here. The university puts on a big show of it all, trying to attract the best students possible.
Each year I give a general talk – an introduction to the field and a few canned jokes that I know go over well – and when that’s all done (circa 30mins) people have a chance to shuffle up to the lectern and ask the same three questions (What are the entry requirements? What should I put in my personal statement? Why should I come here rather than X university?).
Normally the kids are, well kids. Disengaged, embarrassed, on their phone, etc. Their parents run the gamut from pushy a-hole know-it-alls to totally-overawed-omg-university first timers. The dads are typically the worst, trying to impress you what they’ve done or how they’ve ‘achieved so much and never even went to uni’.