Eating an Elite Education at McDonald’s
Eating an Elite Education at McDonald’s - Manage Your Career - the Chronicle of Higher Education
I’m at a McDonald’s, having just received two Big Macs and a large fries. The cardboard boxes plug “Another Golden Opportunity” for me to play McDonald’s Monopoly. Each item also has a sticky tab on the front: “1 in 4 Wins.” Better yet, the large fries comes with a second tab, emphasizing “Play Again.”
For better or worse, I have always been prone to observations, numbers, nonlinear thought, and random escapades. It’s been that way since before I remember, so this commentary comes with an apology to leafy, erudite, and politically minded colleagues for my indulgence into blatantly commercial Americana.
My three children and I are sitting down with our burgers for our weekly splurge on a family dinner out. I also have two crumpled letters from the university in my pocket—one praising its ability to maintain faculty salaries, the other asking me to donate to the institution.
I pull the first sticky tab on my burger and obtain “Pennsylvania Avenue.” Intrigued, I lift the next three but get”North Carolina Avenue,” “Illinois Avenue,” and “Baltic Avenue.”
And this is where my personality begins to show. I start to wonder, What are the real odds of winning? The odds are clearly stated in fine print, but are they true? I look around. The restaurant is empty of customers except for my three children and me. Leftovers from other customers lie scattered about. Some trays even have remains with unpulled sticky tabs. There are also the garbage bins, wiped clean on the outside. It seems an acceptable repository to go in search of more tabs, as long as our mining doesn’t go too deep.