3-303 A2322 v » 105:no.141 Stowe popularity before puberty bung superstars earn their millions early, make college students wonder if they toil in vain Aaron MEIER .ncesa: aulitary. juggles: earmee ^ jl -y obody omenar: jVI likes you he mil::: p JL when you ot detra e 21.” This line from gtheir.jnk-182’s song ell deliv A/hut’s my Age . perfergaii i?” proves the ho has md is wise beyond :er and 5 years. ig “3 - 0.” s evide: What happened to the good old days ■ more: hen actors had to struggle and work as aiters or bartenders before they had iiishi ieir first big break? Nowadays, a high- vs a ■ :hool diploma and a role in “Bye Bye ierwi irdle” is all the acting credentials movie tary.Hfjcecs and studio heads need to sign mul- ■ than -million dollar contracts. lacked Meanwhile, college students are wast- If Hheir lives away trying to learn things 'hen they are missing out on what might -MrjfBie most lucrative years of their lives, tike Killeen native Jennifer Love He- lt /itt|age 20. Recently, she just pitched a movie to a tudio with no script, just a premise, and hey threw $500,000 at her. ^■he idea of I lewitt having a great idea E movie is as believable as her pitching Jutragena products. Will she ever know le anguish of a pimple? I think not. I ve got a few good ideas for some iioyies. I’d even be willing to settle for a >altrv $100,000 per idea. Sure, I haven’t hade my own music video where the ole visual focus is my breasts as 1 jump ip and down, but I’m sure we could vork something out. Using my summer studying time wise- y, 1 recently hit the Internet to look up the iges of pretty much every star who has een in the news this past year. People uch as Sarah Michelle Cellar, 22; Natalie Portman, 18; and Seth Green, the grand- daddy of the list at 25; have all had their Clearasil taken away and have been shoved into the spotlight. After some painful math — including not only addi tion, but also division — of the 28 people selected, I found the average age was 21.35 years. Pretty sad considering the average age of the entire American population is getting older and is no where near 21. LeeAnne Rimes, 17, had a hit song ti tled, “How Do I Live Without You.” At that age, the only person she shouldn’t be able to live without is her parents not some boy she met at a 4-H meeting. Singer Brandy, 20, had a hit this year with the line, “Have you ever loved somebody so much it could make you cry.” Miss Moesha might have a set of pipes on her, but at such a tender young age, the only song she should be singing is a cover of Jennifer Page’s “Crush.” VH1 has also declared Brandy to be a “diva” alongside the likes of Tina Thrner and Cher. This week, MTV has unveiled an installment of their biographical se ries “Biorhythm” featuring Brandy. How long could the program actually be? She was born, she started singing, and now she’s fighting with Monica about some loser. That’s pretty much all that can be said. What are they going to do with the remaining 20 minutes of the show? Maybe they could start with Brandy’s conception and pictures of her in utero. But not all of the teeny-bopper upstarts rely on perkiness and clean complexions. Some are truly talented individuals making their impact on society. And these people are the ones who truly make the average college student feel like a has-been. Drew Barrymore, whose 17-year ca reer makes her the grand dame of the bunch, is only 24 years old and is one of Hollywood’s top producers. Her produc tion company has yielded three major hit movies {The Wedding Singer, Ever After and Never Been Kissed) in the past year. She isn’t the only producer still sub scribing to YM magazine. Alicia Silver- stone, 22, and Melissa Joan Hart, 23, also have their own production companies. / Singer Lauryn Hill, 24, won seven Grammy’s this year, tying a record set by the legendary Carol King. Hill also has two children, has a truly inspiring faith in God and constant dedication to helping political refugees. She makes an existence where looking forward to the newest episode of “Friends” seem pretty empty. Young actors such as Edward Furlong, 22; Reese Witherspoon, 23; and Kirsten Dunst, 17, have delivered strong performances all before they were old enough to drive. Dunst wasn’t even old enough to see her own performance as the child-vampire Claudia in the R-rated Interview With The Vampire. So while Jennifer Love decides which one of her potential costars has the biggest pecs and Lauryn clears away shelf space for her Grammys, the rest of us will suffer through an early mid-life crisis wondering where we went wrong in junior high. Aaron Meier is a senior political science major. Laws based on age limits can harm presumption of innocence ,the»0LUMBUS, Ohio (U-WIRE) — i a recent speech in New Orleans, mssc JGore advocated outlawing sani and-gun ownership for those be- iicen wrm ISVfe IN TON L«ER OF PLin&NIOm cm the UP OF WILL INCREASE BAN6 A FULL ff= 'fC on TVlE OSCILLATING RCriOR NEAR -THE MortllC ftfECT/l 1V\E Secret Co copound is O negative x 45,000,000,000,090 over m suBOvonENT y. [ th 10 . At ,'601' Websites selling assistance with essays ill-advised, but not illegal s com merce continues to blast into cy berspace, about a dozen Web sites now exist to provide stu dents with as- Caijlb sistance on es- MCDANIEL says for their college applications. Assistance, that is, at a price. According to an article in yes terday’s New York Times, some admissions officials are upset by the explosion of these Internet services, which include business es like MyEssay.com. They fear the expensive fees and marketing strategies of the sites only intensify the nervous trepidation with which most stu dents approach their applications. But it does not take a 2,000- word essay to show these fears are ultimately unfounded. Really, concerns about the sites are surprising because their ser vices are nothing new. For in stance, MyEssay.com allows stu dents to submit a final draft of their admissions essays to a board of reviewers. After shelling out $99.95 for the service, students receive criticisms and suggestions from the panel. But the only things original about this package are its elec tronic medium and its outrageous price tag. Students who are really serious about getting admitted into com petitive colleges have always so licited the advice of others — if they are smart, that is. Besides, many companies outside of cyber space already offer help with writ ing skills. And universities must surely be aware that parents, teachers and peers are frequently enlisted for their comments on applica tions. Why cry foul when private companies are enlisted as well? In the Times article, one ad missions official tries to explain the supposed difference between free advice and Internet writing coaches. “What bothers me is a lot of these services are, in essence, capitalizing on anxiety about the application process,” said Karl M. Furstenberg, director of admis sions and financial aid at Dart mouth College. Furstenberg should face the facts. The anxiety of the applica tion process is real, and it is not created by the sites. It is created by a simple mathematical prob lem — there are more applicants than openings at most top-ranked schools. Getting in is not easy, and it will inevitably be stressful. So the fears of officials like Furstenberg simply do not add up. But the bills students might pay for the services do add up, and quickly, and it is questionable whether a few comments on an essay is worth the money, no mat ter who they are from. For instance, MyEssay.com can charge upwards of $100 for its work. CollegeGate, a similar ser vice, offers packages costing up to $500. It certainly does seem silly to spend so much moolah on a few essay mark-ups. Dr. Ed Funkhouser, associate director of the Office of Honors Programs and Academic Scholar ships at Texas A&M, agrees. “For the majority of students, [the service] would not be any better than talking with a high- school English teacher,” he said. “There is a sense that if you pay more for the criticisms, they will be worth more. ” But this perception is certainly far from true. In truth, students could probably get critiques of the same caliber from parents and teachers for free. The sites might be faulted for over-pricing its largely unnecessary product. But in the free market, this fault is a company prerogative. Whether or not they should be, consumers are willing to pay for their service, and the companies cannot be accused of stealing can dy from babies when the babies are eagerly forking the candy over to the tune of 100 smackaroos. Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. However, despite this econom ic fact of life, some admissions of ficials go on to insist that the prices are unfairly high. “Not all students can afford to pay these fees, and we think the process should be as fair as it can be,” Furstenberg said . Interesting, coming from an admissions officer for an Ivy League school. Students who can afford Dart mouth will probably barely blink at the price range at MyEssay.com, and one should more quickly wonder whether making the best universities be yond the financial reach of many qualified students is fair. Besides, services hoping to get a slice of the college admissions market have been around for years. Companies like Kaplan and the Princeton Review have sold academic assistance — and quite successfully — for some time. If Kaplan and Princeton Review are not unfair, then neither are essay- aid websites. In reality, the perception of un fairness voiced by Furstenberg and others should turn its focus from the Websites to the college admissions process itself. Perhaps colleges should reeval uate an application procedure which puts so much emphasis on one standardized test or one two- page essay that students are will ing to spend hundreds of dollars to perform well on them. But as things stand, the com plaints being shouted about these Websites do not stick. TYue, most students would be better off saving their money for the washing machines in the dorm than burning it on some es say edits. Nevertheless, while us ing the sites may be unwise, it is not unethical or illegal. Unless, of course, one dares to ask whether the capitalist’s pen chant for poor consumer spend ing habits is morally questionable. And while that thesis may be a good topic to tackle in an applica tion essay, it is beyond the ability of college admissions offices to answer. Caleb McDaniel is a junior history major.