"“In my day” (I’m old now, my day was the late 80s early 90s), you visited the registrar’s office. A financial aid office. The bursars office. I felt like an ad

"“In my day” (I’m old now, my day was the late 80s early 90s), you visited the registrar’s office. A financial aid office. The bursars office. I felt like an adult, making decisions and finding things out for myself… But now there are counsellors for everything. Counsellors. As if the very act of registering for a class is traumatic event for which the student needs counselling. According to some universities, these counsellors provide “customer support”. That’s Ohio State’s term, not mine." Wow, this feels really out of place. When I was in school from 2006-2011, there was definitively no feelings of being an adult permitted. The university encouraged parents to make any kind of financial aid / money related decisions, and encouraged leaving the students out of it. There were counselors for their use, if they were needed. Definitely agree with the gist of the author. On the other hand, people have been complaining about the weakness of the youth since Socrates, so I'm not sure that this article is signal rather than noise. As far as exams being stressful, I'd say it's fine to give students a break and let them handle the stress however it helps. For most, it's their first exposure to "serious" evaluation of their work, and it is a bit daunting because their decisions are ineffable once made. Of course, the stress-mitigation strategies that the students learn during this time period are essential to their growth-- this isn't focused on enough, IMO. After being in the workforce for a while, exam time seems more like a vacation from stress rather than a stressful time to me. I wish that I had been able to pet a nice puppy during exam time. I also wish that there were a "phase 2" of college to be taken after 5-10 years in the workforce. The education of having to provide for yourself imparts a lot of discipline and enthusiasm that I really could have used as a student. I could probably get eight bachelors' degrees in the time it took me to get two the first time around. College was a step in the maturation process for me-- a step that was a bit too small as a result of some of my mother institution's decisions. In summary, colleges certainly coddle the students, and the students are eager to be coddled. But don't be too bitter: the students deserve their youth, too.