<p>No stickers here. If my kid went to USC, UCLA or another UC, or one of the CalStates, I’d probably put a license plate frame from the school on, as here in SoCal the publics are supreme. Most of the other colleges, even Stanford, don’t get no respect. 
And the east coast Ivies my Dd attended, well… never mind.</p>
<p>It’s obvious I need a more enlightened crowd, but I’m not moving.</p>
<p>If the coy comments are directed at H-- I always thought it was a desire not to be seen as bragging. Or, not to appear to be a nervous, insecure name-dropper, unless it’s a context where it makes a difference to be specific. I’ve noticed a few posters who simply say, eg, “Cambridge” for their user detail location. No big deal.</p>
<p>I guess if you haven’t been around folks from there it might seem odd. Then again, there are plenty of quirky things about New England.</p>
<p>S1 attended DH’s big state university. S2 attended my regional state u. Two decals say it all for us.</p>
<p>Well, I’m willing to accept that I don’t know about every regional quirk. But it’s not bragging or name dropping to tell the truth when asked where you went to school.</p>
<p>absweetmarie-</p>
<p>The bigger problem is not when one is asked directly. It’s during conversations when the name of the school might otherwise be dropped in naturally. “Joe and I met at State U.” becomes “Joe and I met when we were undergrads together”. “I’m hoping my son will apply to my alma mater, Lovely College” becomes “I’m hoping my child will stay in the area.” To many people mentioning that you went to Harvard seems to feel like bragging. Think about it. Someone writes “Hahvahd” and we can all hear a snooty Brahmin accent in our heads. Putting a Harvard bumper sticker on the car sends the message to some (admittedly not most) people that you think you’re the bees knees. Why borrow trouble?</p>
<p>I’ve experienced the phenomenon Sikorsky speaks of. Mention my non-Ivy undergrad and people smile and say, “Great school”. Mention Harvard and people often have weird reactions. DH has had more than one person tell him that when he started working as head of a company in a blue-collar industry people expected him to be a snob because of his Harvard MBA, despite the fact that he grew up without money. </p>
<p>In my DH’s class there was even a name for it, “dropping the H bomb”. It was considered crass.</p>
<p>The comment about college bumper stickers reminds me of this article from Joseph Epstein, who taught my freshman writing seminar at Northwestern.</p>
<p>[“In</a> a Snob-Free Zone” by Joseph Epstein](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0206.epstein.html]"In”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0206.epstein.html)</p>
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<p>I have DS’s school on my rear window and it will be there until he graduates. I had his high school decal but took it off after graduation. </p>
<p>I also have a mug and DH has a cap. </p>
<p>My son has nothing with the name of his school on it. He doesn’t like kind of thing. I am hoping he’ll at least buy a t-shirt before he graduates.</p>
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<p>Absolutely.</p>
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<p>Why let the perceptions of insecure people trouble you? The person who is intimidated by the Harvard sticker - that’s their problem. Dancing around the fact and having to be coy about it signals that you agree with them that it’s a snotty thing to mention. Do you really believe that it’s a snotty thing to mention (in the context where anyone would normally indicate the name of the school, as opposed to a gratuitous name-drop out of nowhere)? I don’t.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, it’s not about Harvard graduates’ sensitivities, or about the sensitivities of people who feel cowed by somebody else’s mention of Harvard. It’s about the fact that such reactions, whether they’re sensible or not (and, of course, they’re not), are incredibly tedious, and the surest way to avoid another round of “Oh, Hahvahd!” is to avoid saying the word.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>
<p>Well, I’ll chalk it up to problems my family and I will never have :-)</p>
<p>Oldest D attended local Community College - I did not display a sticker until she did the Disney College Program.</p>
<p>Middle D also started at a CC - I didnt display a sticker till she transferred to a University. </p>
<p>Nothing wrong with CC’s but I guess I would feel silly displaying the college sticker. I’ll probably do the same with my youngest D. No sticker till she goes to a University.</p>
<p>We don’t put ANY school stickers on any of our vehicles. We are happy and proud of the various schools our kiddos have attended over the years but see no reason to give additional info to stranger, cops, and others about places our family may have loyalties to. Our H and S prefer to be as invisible as possible and we like that. There are other ways of showing loyalty–we’re happy owning and wearing logo gear from those schools when we choose to.</p>
<p>Police officers are human too & MAY have feelings (good or bad) toward various schools. Prefer not to have anything that might make them annoyed with car’s occupants if they have bad feelings toward any of the schools we are loyal to–our preference.</p>
<p>None of the schools our kids have attended need any additional publicity. All are very well known and have great marketing departments. ;)</p>
<p>“Tedious” reactions are not exclusive to Harvard. Some of the jokes between college rivals can get pretty old. I’m just trying to figure out how where a school someone went to many years ago even keeps coming up so often that it would get to the point that it would get so tedious to answer the question. I can’t even remember the last time anybody asked me where I went to college. Probably the young kids more recently out of school are getting aked this more in the social scene though.</p>
<p>uab blazers sticker on my car, and a little stuffed blazer dragon sits by my computer and drink my coffee out of uab sci/tech honors mug :)</p>
<p>I only have a sticker from my alma mater on my car and only because of sports reasons. Now they are sucking (Wisconsin) and I am ashamed (it’s a cling; I don’t like stickers). I’m not planning on putting my kids’ schools’ stickers on my car. I agree that it’s about the driver, at least for me! </p>
<p>And living in a sports-crazy college town— let’s just say that I highly doubt all of the people here driving all of the cars sporting stickers for the U of O Ducks are alumni, students, or even people who have ever gone to a day of college in their lives, lol.</p>
<p>Hmm… well I’ve had 4 magnets in honor of my sister on my van for 8 years - she’s been fighting ALS and I am thrilled when people ask me what my magnets are all about.</p>
<p>S attends H’s school and D attends my school. We have magnets and window clings. And mugs. And sweatshirts. 
We both loved our colleges/experiences so enjoy having a little school spirit stuff that can be shared with the kids. It will be interesting to see where S2 attends 4 years from now. H and I each still have a school left for him to choose from. lol. (we didn’t encourage our kids to attend our alma maters - S’s choice was because of his major, D’s was because she loved the campus and vast choices of majors as she’s undecided.)</p>
<p>I’m with Sikorsky on the Harvard thing. While there may be some New England reticence involved, the main thing is the reactions of others, and not just a few - most. I would go so far as to say the reactions are a form of prejudice, and may even limit opportunities in the “real world” for grads.</p>
<p>When D1 went off to Harvard I told her not to look for opportunities to drop the name, and certainly not to brag, but when asked a direct question to give a direct answer. But even when she was responding to a direct question I’ve still seen instances where “dropping the H-bomb” instantly derailed the entire conversation.</p>
<p>I liked what D1 said about ir after a few years at school: “I like being on the Harvard campus, because there everybody got into Harvard, which leaves us free to talk about other things.”</p>
<p>The funniest dropping of the H-bomb I saw occurred when she ran into an old friend whom she hadn’t seen since middle school (he had gone to a different high school):</p>
<p>Old Friend; “Oh, hello! So good to see you again. You must be in college now. You were always one of the smart kids. Where are you going to school, Harvard?”
D1: “Yes”
OF: “So which college?”
D1: “Harvard”
OF:" No, really. Where are you going to college"
D1; “Harvard…”</p>
<p>It went back and forth like this several more times before he finally grasped that she really wasn’t kidding.</p>
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<p>As I said earlier, I don’t put any stickers on cars. But if I did I still wouldn’t put on a Harvard sticker for fear that someone would be tempted to vandalize my car when parked somewhere. There are some people out there who take any mention of Harvard as obnoxious bragging and are not afraid to try to teach you a lesson.</p>
<p>Do you see this ,then , in New England, just with Harvard ,or does it extend to other Ivy League schools too? We have a relative currently at Yale as well as the kid of a friend. Both moms are on Facebook , with lots of pictures and references to Yale. They have not hesitated to note the Yale connection so maybe this is just Harvard where this is an issue? Since, Harvard is ,well, Harvard?</p>
<p>I haven’t put stickers on my car. I’ve been on the fence about it - while I am proud of my kids (Brown and Harvard), something about advertising my incredible good fortune involving our particular college acceptances strikes me as unseemly or even begging for trouble. Also, I have tinted windows and most of the stickers seem to go inside the car, so they are not very visible anyway. </p>
<p>On another note, I have observed two distinct reactions when I tell people that my son is going to Harvard - either they offer hearty congratulations or they proceed to tell me that Harvard is terrible, or at least overrated and (insert name of school here) is just as good or even better. Not that I care what these people think, but I can’t imagine slamming someone else’s kid’s college.</p>