<p>What? You’re supposed to put your kid’s school on your car? My kid can mess up his own car when he gets one. Our car has OUR college on the back window. Go Blue! (Michigan trumps our Ivy grad schools, no grad school stickers.)</p>
<p>Ah, Catria, I see. Well, we do it because of pride, basically. We’re proud of where our kids go to college, and we want random strangers on the freeway to know. Or, in my case, I’m proud of where I went to college, and I want random strangers on the freeway to know. Now the question is why we care what random strangers think, and I’m not sure I have an answer for that. :)</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the most common stickers are for local schools.</p>
<p>You don’t have to ruin the car. You can do what my kid did. She purchased the license plate holder with her school department. Much cleaner I think.</p>
<p>I don’t care what random strangers think. I need that sticker (and license plate holder) to find my car in the parking lot.</p>
<p>We don’t do stickers (with about the same vehemence as Edna’s “NO CAPES” rule in The Incredibles), but my observation here on our suburban privilege farm is that well placed college stickers can help hide the rust holes on that tuitionmobile you’re keeping on the road while the kids are still in school. </p>
<p>I was a “no bumper stickers” person for decades. Then I got rear ended and learned that the cost to fix the marks would be in the hundreds. Now I have two bumper stickers on the back of my car. They are cheap, decorative band-aids. </p>
<p>Catria, I thought you were Canadian? </p>
<p>I don’t do bumper stickers, but Catria, what’s not to understand? People like to show affiliation with things that are important to them. Surely you understand why someone might wear a sports team jersey or a t-shirt about a cause of importance to them. Well, this is the same concept, except they are decorating their car instead of themselves. </p>
<p>Do you understand t-shirts that bear the name of the school? </p>
<p>As far as T-shirts are concerned, I understand by now…</p>
<p>That said, do you have more pride vis-à-vis your undergrad or your grad school?</p>
<p>Most schools sell those nice removable window decals. They are sort of like color forms. You press them on, but there is no sticky stuff. When you don’t want them anymore, you peel them off. Easy peasy. </p>
<p>Yes, window clings. I have one still on my car from a not well known small college my oldest son graduated from. It’s fading and I should remove it. The school is far away, but I smile when someone “beeps” their horn and waves at me as I know it is because they “know” that college and I willl miss those friendly sporadic exchanges out on the highway. No clings for #2 or #3 only a burgee cling.</p>
<p>Catria - that’s up to the person, no? That’s like asking - do you have more loyalty to your city’s baseball team or football team? Well, some people like baseball and some people like football. It’s an individual answer. </p>
<p>My undergrad and grad were at the same school. My H feels very little “loyalty” to his med school compared to his undergrad - for him, med school was more functional, a thing to get to on the way to a goal. But that’s him, and other people may feel differently. </p>
<p>Highly unlikely PhD program will give out a bumper/window sticker…until AFTER you graduate when they ask you for a donation!! </p>
<p>I don’t really see traditional ‘bumper stickers’ anymore - they are all removable easily with a hair dryer. I have them on my car for all 3 kids’ colleges. They have started a few conversations in parking lots. I took the oldest one’s off to put her younger sister’s school up, and she was upset so I put one from her school back on, only lower down. Higher priority for current students. I don’t care about my college, and H went to 3. He does feel a little affinity to his 1st undergrad, which is a big football school. We also have a sticker for our public radio station. For several years I had a girl sports figure magnet on the car too, but that is no longer there.</p>
<p>I think it’s definitely an undergrad thing–at least, my husband and I feel more loyalty to our undergrad than grad schools, and we certainly give more money to undergrad than grad, at least in part because grad treats you like slave labor (I’m looking at you, UVA!). I think window clings are fairly harmless expressions of pride, easily ignored if one likes, rather than showing off. FWIW, I also have clings for the National Zoo, for the Audubon Society, and for the Native Plant Society, because those are as self-defining, to me, as my Smith sticker. If someone sees my car, they will know a little about who drives it!</p>
<p>Most people use window decals, and the only bumper stickers I see nowadays are really used as bandaids. </p>
<p>My S received a window decal from Harvard when he was accepted…we put it on my car for a few weeks, but it made me uncomfortable, so I took it off (we never used the Brown decal my D received). I just knew that “some” people would see it as boastful and I don’t like to draw attention to myself in that way. That said, I love see other people’s car flair. I think people prefer to see elite school stickers on rusted out Volvos…</p>
<p>I have my kids’ sticker on my car, luckily they both went to the same school. When I look at the rear view mirror and see the decal, it reminds me of them, and I smile.</p>
<p>A window sticker does make it easier to find the car in a large parking lot. I see less of them where I live now. I would not put my own schools stickers on my car but I do wear their sweatshirts.</p>
<p>Our kids gave us license plate holders from their joint U, so we all have them on our cars. We rarely have bumpter stickers of any kind–they tend to be used as “band aids” for us too. ;)</p>