06-19-2013, 12:12 PM
A fun thread that will certainly grow impossibly long...
At some point very early in my junior year of HS, I decided I would need to brush up on my various options. My parents and I shopped for a variety of those USA university summary books. I read up on several of the schools, and then developed my list of desirable attributes.Â
My universe quickly expanded to 20-30 universities that I would try to learn more about. Ultimately, I decided that I would likely apply to 10 that spanned a full range of selectivity. In the summer before my senior HS year, I went out to the SF Bay Area to visit two choices on my shorter application list. The August weather at SFO was spectacular, and I knew this Cali thing had some merit. At the time, I was rather indifferent between UCB as #1 or Stanford as #1. True story. I was from the East Coast, so I was not really aware of any "rivalry" concept.
I went on the campus tour for UCB and Stanford, but (again true story) I realized that Stanford needed to be my #1 choice while I attended the UCB tour. On the UCB tour all the tour guide did was compare UCB to Stanford. UCB was almost as good in baseball as Stanford. UCB had a bigger band than Stanford. On and on, for a whole hour of this UCB relative to Stanford. I really didn't like the endless comparison thing, and worried that it was a very bad sign that the tour guides were that obsessed. I decided then that UCB would drop to my #5 choice, and Stanford would occupy my #1 choice slot. A different public school would move up to #2, followed by two Ivy league schools. It is because of that tour that I have an amazing fondness for UCB. For years, I could go on the UCB campus and point to places on the UCB tour that helped solidified my belief that Stanford must be a very special place.
The Stanford tour was nice enough, I guess. I remember thinking that the time capsule idea was amazing, and that the campus was amazing.
Stanford was my #1 from then on. I remember the day I found my acceptance letter in the mail. Crazy how memorable that day remains to me. Few singular moments in my life were as uncertain and special at the same time.Â
I actually drove across the USA to get to Stanford. It was a solo driver trip that included all of the longest days of driving in my life at that point. Definitely some of the most memorable days of my life filled with expectation about Stanford and wonder about many parts of the USA I had not seen at that point.
My AAA trip book took me up Embarcadero and Galvez. To this day, I am a little disappointed that the cross country journey did not end with a drive up Palm Drive.
At some point very early in my junior year of HS, I decided I would need to brush up on my various options. My parents and I shopped for a variety of those USA university summary books. I read up on several of the schools, and then developed my list of desirable attributes.Â
My universe quickly expanded to 20-30 universities that I would try to learn more about. Ultimately, I decided that I would likely apply to 10 that spanned a full range of selectivity. In the summer before my senior HS year, I went out to the SF Bay Area to visit two choices on my shorter application list. The August weather at SFO was spectacular, and I knew this Cali thing had some merit. At the time, I was rather indifferent between UCB as #1 or Stanford as #1. True story. I was from the East Coast, so I was not really aware of any "rivalry" concept.
I went on the campus tour for UCB and Stanford, but (again true story) I realized that Stanford needed to be my #1 choice while I attended the UCB tour. On the UCB tour all the tour guide did was compare UCB to Stanford. UCB was almost as good in baseball as Stanford. UCB had a bigger band than Stanford. On and on, for a whole hour of this UCB relative to Stanford. I really didn't like the endless comparison thing, and worried that it was a very bad sign that the tour guides were that obsessed. I decided then that UCB would drop to my #5 choice, and Stanford would occupy my #1 choice slot. A different public school would move up to #2, followed by two Ivy league schools. It is because of that tour that I have an amazing fondness for UCB. For years, I could go on the UCB campus and point to places on the UCB tour that helped solidified my belief that Stanford must be a very special place.
The Stanford tour was nice enough, I guess. I remember thinking that the time capsule idea was amazing, and that the campus was amazing.
Stanford was my #1 from then on. I remember the day I found my acceptance letter in the mail. Crazy how memorable that day remains to me. Few singular moments in my life were as uncertain and special at the same time.Â
I actually drove across the USA to get to Stanford. It was a solo driver trip that included all of the longest days of driving in my life at that point. Definitely some of the most memorable days of my life filled with expectation about Stanford and wonder about many parts of the USA I had not seen at that point.
My AAA trip book took me up Embarcadero and Galvez. To this day, I am a little disappointed that the cross country journey did not end with a drive up Palm Drive.