I was speaking with a good friend of mine at a Holiday party, this weekend. He is the undergraduate advisor for English majors at a prestigious Philadelphia university. The topic of conversation was the freshman turkey drop. The term refers both to high school sweethearts who, feeling the strains of a long-distance relationship, break up over their first collegiate Thanksgiving holiday. In recent years, though, the trend has expanded to students who have fallen out of love with their chosen college. It’s really just a matter of homesickness, my friend maintained. Some students just have a hard time finding their stride. The transition from Big Man on (the high school) Campus to freshman anonymity is difficult for many students. The general consensus, it seems, is that students today lack a certain “sticktoitness” present in previous generations, that students too often look for the path of least resistance and transfer to a more local institution of higher learning.
A recent article in the USA Today outlining the turkey drop phenomenon served as a springboard for this discussion. Colleges and universities across the country are aware of the problem but consistently leave its solution to students who are unprepared for the unprecedented amount of freedom in their newly unstructured lives. I sympathized with his dilemma and explained that we currently countered this academic epidemic with years of summertime transition. Our students are better prepared for the pursuit of higher education because with a gradually augmented level of freedom and responsibility they’ve been studying at Pennsylvania’s premier colleges and universities since 6th grade, I argued. You can spend a summer with us studying at Princeton or the University of Pennsylvania and hone those skills necessary to stake your claim on any American campus. Delving into a collegiate experience slowly but surely lets an incoming freshman hit the ground running. Most university students have eight semesters to leave their mark; it’s always a real shame to throw one of them away.
Much to our chagrin, we haven’t yet developed a formula that sustains the longevity of high school sweethearts. That turkey might be cooked. We can, however, remedy your other problem and stoke the flames of your initial curricular romance. So, make sure there’s an open return policy on your letterman jacket, and throw away your university receipts. Our students will be wearing their new team’s hoodie for at least four more years.
For more information on the Holiday Turkey Drop, please visit USA Today’s website at:
