College concierge service: A sign of society’s demise?

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editor@themanfaq.com

editor@themanfaq.com

The kids who grew up playing rec league games with no winners or losers are now off to college.

In a recent Wall Street Journal report, Melissa Korn writes about a new trend among the wealthier college kids these days — keeping a concierge on retainer.

Seriously: Someone to do all the mess you had to do in college just to survive.

Need to throw a party? Call your assistant. Need to wake up early to register for classes? Screw that; call your assistant. Don’t want to pick out the couch for your first apartment? Well, you get the idea.

It’s just a continuation of the “softening” of our society. It started with youth athletic games being played without keeping score, and it continues with this.

The Journal writes of the Boston Collegiate Consulting Group, which will “find and decorate apartments, get academic tutoring, snag coveted restaurant reservations and handle a litany of other bothersome chores.”

You mean, living?

As the article also rightly points out, college should be about being on a level playing field. It’s a place where, just as importantly, you learn how to be a self-sufficient adult in addition to learning all you can about your chosen field of study.

I love the way the BCCG founder A.J. Rich (a man the ripe old age of 30, by the way) describes his company, as offering a “seamless transition” and “not looked at as an indulgence, but a need.”

Well thankfully Mr. Rich (seriously, what a name) has come to save future generations. How, oh how, did we make it before him?

By growing the f*ck up, that’s how.

And the thing that irritates me the most is that it is aimed at “rich” college kids (does that even exist) who are still SPENDING THEIR PARENTS’ MONEY. What happens when mom and dad cut them off? Post graduation, are these little snots going to be able to afford a personal concierge? I certainly hope so, for their sakes.

As a hiring manager, I look for self sufficiency. As a father, I’m hoping for the same thing.

If I find out you had personal concierge in college, I’m throwing your resume in the trash.

And to my offspring, sorry kiddo … your mother and I will be there for you whenever you need us. But you’re going to have to throw your own keggers*.

* Don’t even think about it.

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John Swartz

The site’s editor in chief. A career journalist, he graduated from East Carolina University with a degree in communication with a focus in media studies; other areas of education include English and philosophy. Born and raised in the southeastern United States, his career has taken him as far as northern California. With interests that range from a night in a suite in French Quarter New Orleans to pitching a tent in a remote corner of the Sierra Nevada, spending an evening watching an MMA Pay-Per-View or a Saturday morning soaking in a trifecta of English Premier League matches, Swartz strives to offer a variety of content.
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