The calendar flips over to August and students begin to embark on a new school year. Heading back to school causes a multitude of circumstances including useless spending on back to school clothes shopping, getting back into a “normal” sleep schedule, and a shift in mental health. Summer does not last forever, but it feels like it does until the ten week break nears its ending; the last few weeks are spent in specific ways (but vary from family to family).
Typically, supplies shopping happens two weeks before school; ordering and going to stores to purchase fancy pencil sharpeners that will be touched once and collect dust in a junk drawer. Most importantly, school clothes shopping is the next task that happens — gradually over summer — but primarily the week before school starts. Flooding social media, back to school clothes hauls are the big thing. But the issue with this resides in the culture around shipping during this time of year. An expectation of new and updated belongings remains an ideal ingrained in the minds of many Americans who are victims of consumerism culture. The need to purchase, purchase, purchase is possible for some economic classes, but for the majority, it proves an unrealistic standard that, Americans especially, continuously “stumble” into, trapped in the vicious cycle of continuously spending money. It does not aid the desire to spend when virtually, most every store finds a home online in the twenty first century. Whether the purchase is impulsive or an item that is beneficial that has been considered for a while, Oberlo points out that 70 percent of the American population online shops, with most Americans spending on average $5,500 six months into 2023. Ever since Covid-19, a steep rise in the online shopping presence became encouraged after businesses faced life or death when deciding to join the online shopping world. Back to school culture weighs heavily on lower economic classes due to the amount that students are expected to spend. Ways around such a massive bill are shopping at local stores or thrift stores such as GoodWill.
With the school year picking back up, stress levels rise in students as they settle back into their “normal.” The culture around course rigor — especially in the Bay Area — has reached an all time high. Colleges have become increasingly more difficult to get into due to the competitiveness. Without living in the Bay Area, or reaching the new “California” education and course rigor standard, out of state student acceptances have reached an all time low. Although the UC and CSU schools were originally designed for students who grew up in the area and culture of California, the new academic pressure put on students today continuously battles a fine line between rigorous and down right horrible for mental health. Colleges, since Covid-19, have taken an interesting path with their applications. Oddly enough, college’s think they are helping by taking away the “challenging” part such as SAT’s etc, but colleges like CSU’s are completely removing the personality behind the applicant. The applications for CSU’s require zero test scores, and zero personal essays. These colleges blindly assume that they are aiding applicants, when in reality the application only looks at a students GPA and their extracurriculars — ultimately taking the student out of their application. While I plan on applying to two CSUs myself, and think very highly of them, it is a matter of the direction applications are taking and the type of immaturity colleges are installing into the children of tomorrow.
Back to school culture can be overwhelming, but with the right mindset, a wardrobe that suits the student, and an openness about the new unexpected of college applications, getting back into the groove of school may not be as difficult as it was before.