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<p>[Irv</a> Gordon’s Volvo P1800 closing in on 3 million miles](<a href=“Autoblog Sitemap”>Irv Gordon's Volvo P1800 closing in on 3 million miles - Autoblog)</p>
<p>I’m not big on car stickers, but my kids were both eager to put stickers for their schools on our cars. One of the schools sent a sticker with the acceptance letter, and my son had put it up on the car within half an hour of opening the letter. Now that they’ve both graduated and we’ve replaced the cars, no stickers, but for the years we had stickers, I was happy that my kids were proud of their schools. Not a big deal.</p>
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<p>A car window sticker just means “I have some affiliation with this school,” so what would it have to do with rankings, which are (theoretically) meant to rank quality?</p>
<p>I think (based on your name) you’re kind of unaware of the many, many people who are bursting with pride about their state and / or “unexceptional” schools. Not everyone drools over the Ivy League.</p>
<p>After arriving at college, during my first phone call back home my Dad told me I had two buy two UVM decals, one for his truck, and one for the car and mail them to him! It’s was tradition in VT (and also now in my part of CT) to put the college where your child (ren) is (are) going on the back window of your car. That includes community college, and the armed services. And prior to that, if your high school is big into sports, you put the high school logo in one of the rear windows or bumper.</p>
<p>* - WOW, 15 years? My cars never hold up that long. I put 30,000 miles on a car in a year.*</p>
<p>We have a 1966 Ford 150 pickup, a 1992 Ford Thunderbird Supercoupe, and a 2002 Jeep Liberty.</p>
<p>We also live in the city & walk, carpool, or use public transportation whenever possible.</p>
<p>I like stickers and my vehicle is quite tacky in that respect. I have running stickers, college stickers, etc. When WildChild was finishing 4th grade and had applied to other prep schools for 5th grade, he took a few days to let us know which he was going to choose. He finally went and put the sticker that had been sent by his top choice on our car without telling us, which is how we learned where our money and our kid were going the following fall.</p>
<p>If one of my kids would give me a sticker, I’d put it on. But they haven’t so far. It’s just as well–kid #1 went to a college (other side of country) that happens to have the same name as a local high school.( My kids don’t go there–it is a rival school. If HS kid drove my car with that sticker to his school, my tires might get slashed.) Kid#2 and #3 go to 2 different out-of-state schools, mostly unheard of in our area. The schools have similar names and are usually subtitled “Not to be confused with OTHER SCHOOL.” Having both of those stickers on my car would be puzzling. I imagine someone trying to read them and figure it out–good way to get rear-ended.</p>
<p>My parents–proud grandparents of 23–started putting college stickers on the back of their van. I think they’ve quit now that 9 grandchildren are going to/have gone to 9 different colleges. My (childless) sister is collecting MUGS from all those nieces’ and nephews’ colleges.
I guess I’d rather have a mug or sweatshirt than a sticker (kids haven’t given me any of those, either.)</p>
<p>I do notice and smile if I ever see a sticker or sweatshirt from MY college–rare in this area.</p>
<p>What’s really difficult is when the kid goes to a rival of your alma mater…great school, but so hard to put that sticker on the car, or wear the t-shirt, etc.</p>
<p>I’d rather see a college sticker on a car than a decal from the dealership. I bought my car used and the previous owner had never removed the decal from the dealership (for seven years! That’s a lot of free advertising.) I covered it up with one of those black and white initial stickers signifying my favorite place to vacation. I also have a bumper sticker for my presidential candidate of choice on my car. This thread makes me want to get a sticker from my S’s school–I just never thought of it before.</p>
<p>The back of my 10 year old van is a testament to my demographic. I have a magnet from my D’s high school, my S’s high school, my vacation spot, and my alma mater. S is looking at my alma mater and if he goes there I won’t have to worry about whether to add another identifying magnet. I do like to see the diffferent schools in our town’s parking lots, I don’t feel like it’s bragging or not. If my kid goes to a school, I am going to like it.</p>
<p>When I bought my first car right out of college I put a decal on from my alma mater. I thought the trade-in value would go up instantly, since the cost of that education far exceeded the cost of the car :D</p>
<p>This was an issue in our family–our son went to our alma mater, but we didn’t put a sticker on until our daughter also got in. The one we have is also quite discreet.</p>
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<p>It’s an old joke. Except in the version I heard Man #2 says “the Boston area…” making it even more vague.</p>
<p>As for stickers, I never put any stickers or decals on any of my cars no matter how high or low the school. I just don’t do stickers.</p>
<p>I do have an “alumni” license plate frame on my car, but it’s for the middling state school that I attended, not my daughters’ colleges.</p>
<p>I have little patience for anyone who feels the need to be coy about his or her alma mater, whatever it is. Especially if the person in question is a grown up with a few years of real life under his or her belt.</p>
<p>I, for one, can’t wait until I buy the next, and final, sticker, because that will mean this year of college apps, interviews, essays, visits, stress, butting heads, accepted student days, and overnight visits, and other nosy ‘butt-in-sky’ MOMS will be done.</p>
<p>The car that I used to drive (now being driven by S) has a decal from D’s school (well known and generally hated on CC) as well as a license plate holder from my alma mater (small school generally not known outside of the Midwest). I’m fairly certain that very few if any other cars sport that particular combination!</p>
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<p>Me too. Just say you went to Harvard, already, and move on.</p>
<p>We have decals from each guys’ school on each of our cars, in the tinted part of the glass so they are somewhat hard to see. 
Also had their HS decals in the windows on our old car. We do not have decals from DH’s college and mine.</p>
<p>Decal we should have on our window: Starfleet Academy.</p>
<p>I don’t do bumper stickers. I have bought mugs, though! :D</p>
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<p>The trouble, as I’ve said previously on College Confidential, is that you can practice all you want how to say “Harvard” exactly the same way you’d say “Michigan State,” but you can’t do a damn thing about the way people hear it. Too many people who seem otherwise perfectly sensible do go all weird on you: “Oh, Hahvahd, well pardon me!” as if you’re Thurston Howell III, or something. </p>
<p>That’s why people from Harvard tend to say, “Uh…Boston.”</p>
<p>Me: “So, where is Suzie going to school?”
Friend (from Boston): “A local university that thinks very highly of itself.”
Me: “Congratulations on Harvard!”<br>
Happy conversation.</p>
<p>Oh, for heaven’s sake, Sikorsky. People don’t need to practice saying where they went to school, whether it was Harvard or Bemidji State. The people who react like idiots at the mention of Harvard are not worth worrying about. The same goes for anyone who would scoff at a “lesser” school, whether the name is mentioned at a party or affixed to a windshield. I don’t care where you went to school. If you are hanging with people who react like rubes at the mention of your school name, then you need to find a more interesting crowd.</p>