I think this falls into the category of first world problems, but I didn’t see a header for that.
I bought a t-shirt and a decal from my kid’s Early Decision application school, thinking that it might be nice to have those on hand if things went well. We have not been the kind of family to collect t-shirts from every school visited.
Anyway, kid was deferred from ED to regular, but was now rejected in regular round. Don’t worry, there were several nice acceptances to ease the pain, but now the greatest dilemma is what to do with the swag. Apparently no one else at kid’s school was accepted to the rejective institution in question either.
Is there some kind of national exchange for college merchandise that can be called on in this situation? Do rejective colleges hold clothing drives so that their admitted students can represent? Or does one avenge one’s feelings towards the rejective school by using the t-shirt as a dishrag?
I volunteer at a local charity thrift store. We regularly get unused swag (mugs, caps, t shirts, and hoodies) from colleges. We just price them and put them out. You never know whose friend or relative might see this and be thrilled to buy it at a significantly reduced price!
I’d find a local charity thrift shop…and donate it.
Both my kids got pennants from a couple schools that they were accepted to, but didn’t attend. We passed the pennants on to the guidance counselors at the school my kids attended and I work at. They put them up in their office. My nephew got a blanket from a school he was accepted at and ultimately didn’t attend. They donated the blanket to a home/shelter for runaway teens, that’s always in need of stuff like that.
We have a thrift store near us that caters to the younger crowd and they always take college swag, they even have a whole section for it! We also have a charity thrift store that puts out used college swag too…
We get a lot of mugs from colleges. We put those out…but they are hard sells. Although…I did get a really nice new one for DH from his Alma mater for $1!
Our high school counsellor hangs college pennants in their office as well. I like the idea of donating to a more local-based thrift store; we have charitable resale shops for hospice, community programs, shelters, and they serve targeted needs to the local community.
Our counselors even let the students and parents know that if they have any pennants they don’t want, they can always give them to the counselors and they’ll hang them up.
We didn’t get any clothing when our kids were accepted at colleges, but if we had, we would’ve donated it or just used it.
Our kids mostly just got a couple of pennants and some pens. We kept the pens…we have so many pens from all sorts of places.
Another idea for a place to donate mugs: see if there is a shelter for abused women, runaway teens, etc. A lot of those places need housewares. Same if you get blankets, etc…
I have one t-shirt that I like from a university that a daughter decided not to attend. I just wear it from time to time. I also have a t-shirt for each of their undergraduate schools that I wear from time to time (I am still waiting for a t-shirt from the university where older daughter is getting her DVM – it might be time to give her another hint).
For t-shirts from places that I am less fond of, which would include any schools that they did not get accepted to, I tend to use them when doing things like painting, digging in the garden, or cutting down trees. The t-shirts suffer. It serves them right.
Goodwill or many other charitable organizations will gladly take it. All of our unused stuff that is in good condition goes to Pittsburgh - Pickup Please
Back when I was in school in the early 90s you couldn’t easily get college swag off the internet or even mail order. You had to visit the school or at least be in the area of the school. In my family we thought it was cool to have college swag from schools that weren’t around us. We would pick it up on trips or have have friends/relatives send us stuff.
So when I showed up to college I bought stuff from my school, but always had some apparel from other schools. I wore both. I guess I was trying to be ironic or different.
I will say these days I refuse to purchase professional or college apparel because I really don’t like giving money to those organizations.
I do not like giving money to any college. The top 25-50 of them in the country have more money than they know what to do with. In fact I am extremely picky when it comes to any charity I support. See my Goodwill comment up thread. Many are bloated and aren’t really helping. Many NGOs end up doing more harm than good in the long run.
The goal in society should be to eliminate the need for any charity. I want to directly help people. Like the old saying about teach a man to fish.
