PPS: Perhaps This Is The (Perfect) One

[The much awaited "proof post" about my immense, often irrational love for Penn.]

Continuing on my analogy on love: I think I've mentioned this before plenty of times, but I can't say it enough. Penn is my first love. I come from a college-conscious family; my parents come from an era in China where college graduates were considered "the only future," and the government fully funded all such education. My second aunt on my dad's side bought books on the Chinese "Harvard Girl," hoping my cousin would follow in those footsteps. If you asked any of my family's friends about which colleges were "good," they would answer, in a similar order, "MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Caltech, Cornell." Harvard. Yale. Big names. I knew about the prestige, but not much about where I really wanted to attend.

Falling in love with Penn is much similar to the usual way I fall in love. Something catches my curiosity, and slowly, I become so entangled in its mysteries that I find myself irrevocably in love. Maybe it's not love, but rather an enormous interest, bordering on obsession, but I like to compare it to love.

(Ironically, Owen's going to Penn.)

The first time I'd heard of Penn was in a newspaper crossword. The clue was, "How do University of Pennsylvania students usually refer to their school?" The word was five letters long, so I guessed, "UPenn."

It was the answer, but it wasn't true, although I did not learn that until much later.

Sometime after that, I had the notion that I wanted to learn more about this school. It was in Philadelphia, one of my favorite cities (aside from Toronto, obviously, and Boston, and Chicago), and I was definitely a city girl. My parents talked with me about business, about a math career, and they brought up Wharton. It was like Penn was the perfect, perfect school.

Well, my parents and I went on a one-day trip to Philadelphia some Saturday prior (more like, an eternity ago), and our main destination was, of course, Penn. My first impression of Penn (physically) and of University City was the huge metal bridge with Penn's crest printed upon it. That, and it was raining. It was raining so hard that when I got out of the car, there was a small, gushing river between the edge of the car and the curb.

The actual information session I did not remember much. I do remember it was in a huge room, and there were many, many people, from all sorts of places. Some aspects of the admissions process was talked about, mostly on what Penn was looking for, and I remember lots of mention on the dual-degree programs.

The tour, on the other hand, was quite a spectacular event. It was still raining, and we went around with umbrellas, but I could catch glimpses of lush green leaves and beautiful, castle-like buildings. It was not as exquisite as Princeton, but it had its own charm. And when I walked into Huntsman Hall, I think I really stopped breathing for a moment.

I think, at that moment, I decided that I would start wooing Penn with my love letters (i.e. application material).

We went to downtown Philadelphia next, where my mom said I would have no problem finding adequate Chinese food in case I craved some, and we saw the Liberty Bell. We also saw numerous Chinese school-kids (elementary to middle school) who were here as part of a summer camp program.

The rain had cleared up by now, and we set out for Swarthmore, as suggested by Reese. I do not understand why Reese is so excited by the possibility (which, by the way, is very unlikely, if anything) that I may be attending Swat. We drove behind a trolley car for half an hour, into what was definitely a small town, and there was Swarthmore, tucked away.

I realize most of my readers have never been to Swarthmore. If I had only two words to describe it, I would use "botanical paradise." Literally, the campus is a huge garden, from Parrish Beach to all the labeled plants (and there are a lot of them) to the outdoor amphitheater that's cloaked in an ambient green. It's amazing. I understand why Reese likes it so much.

Now if they only were less stingy about their financial aid to foreign students. I guess that's the price I've got to pay for an outdoor wonderland like Swat (come to think of it, Stanford, which is also gorgeous, is also not need-blind toward foreign students).

When the mosquitoes started biting, we left. My parents wanted to see Princeton anyway, so we went there next. I've talked about Princeton before, in which I said Princeton was absolutely stunning and perfect. It still is. I love Penn, but I've got to be honest. Princeton is amazing. Its buildings, its campus, everything. There is a sense of wholeness at Princeton, a majestic entity bestowed upon this world.

Well. Anyway. Time for my summaries of the three schools, then.

Penn:

Despite the rain, we got to see a lot, including above decent architecture (better than Dartmouth, Cornell, and Columbia, on par with inner-Brown and parts of Yale, which I will need to talk about later), great Locust Walk, and a small enough campus that I won't worry too much about transportation (although if you're talking small you can't beat Columbia). Close to downtown, which by the way is gorgeous—even NYC's got nothing on Philly. Also close to not-so-decent areas (run-down houses), and of course my parents are concerned about campus safety.

Swarthmore:

Half an hour away from Philly, it's relaxing and has a soothing beauty to it. Buildings—average. Admissions office is the only great building. Decent size, lots of cool plants, and bunnies! Always a plus. When you leave campus, there's a plaza right outside, so it's not too inconvenient. Not for me, though. I hate isolated places, and although Swat's not as bad as, say, Middlebury, it's still too quiet for me.

Princeton:

I've done this before, so I won't do it again, except to say that we also went to this fountain place (on the engineering and more science/tech side of campus) and it's really nice. The buildings are more modern, not as nice as the main part of campus, but it's integrated nicely, unlike Cornell (that place is a planning disaster).

As for my perfect school?

I think you know already.

Going, Going, Gone

I am leaving for Toronto tomorrow (a sufficiently large place that I feel, despite my general paranoia, confident in divulging this information to potential internet lurkers, which there are none anyway, but nonetheless). My mom and I are resolving passport issues (mainly hers). I will be resolving this issue in the future, right when I'm in the middle of my freshman year at college (which, according to the book I just read, is not a matter of if, but a matter of where), so it will be highly problematic and if I am not careful and/or lucky, I may have to resolve the impending illegal-status-problem during some oddly-timed exam.

Which will not be good. But I digress.

(Also, if I go to McGill, there will be no such problem, which is another plus, I suppose.)

I will probably be coming back a week later, if at all (well, I do hope to come back, but if I don't, someone tell Paperclip that I still owe them four textbooks, three of which are not under my name, plus an assortment of paperback books that are also not associated with me for some reason). This time will most likely be spent pseudo-prepping for bio/college/English/whatever else, and I will most likely be spending the pseudo-prepping time reacquainting with old friends.

I'm skeptical on internet access for the next week (or, for that matter, my amount of "free" time), so I won't be able to tell you in detail about my Penn-Swat-Princeton visit (or revisit, for Princeton), and how much I absolutely fell in love with Penn despite the rainstorm (walking into the Wharton building is rather awe-inspiring and breath-taking all at once, although the two often complement each other). Nor will I, for that matter, be able to keep up with blogs and comments (I'm sorry, Julie, I've been meaning to comment on your blog for a while now and I haven't found the chance yet), or my daily comic binge, which is rather sad, but I will deal with that (hopefully).

(I will also not be able to converse at length with Reese over his convictions that I should go to Swat, although he prefers Penn over Swat himself. That may or may not be a loss. I'm not sure.)

Most depressingly, I will probably miss the AP scores letter (I know I can call, but I'd rather not do that since it's way too suspenseful), delay my story until unknown times and depths, and not be able to vote on a senior girl shirt slogan/design. I will have to leave that to my (mostly) trustworthy fellow classmates.

Princeton: Just Another "Perfect"

Tea and Avon and I visited Princeton yesterday, as part of Tea's fourth (fifth?) college visit, and Avon's and my first. Tea's mom drove us, and on the way there, we were confused by the GPS directions, which stubbornly refused to comply with our wishes, so we spent quite some time on the road.

Nevertheless, we got there successfully (albeit after the info session had already started). Avon had brought a notebook with her ("This is going to be my college visit notebook from now on!"), and among some of the first things she had jotted down was "pretty town." This was absolutely true. Princeton (the town) was gorgeous to look at, especially since we visited in the spring and on a beautifully sunny day. The town wasn't too large, but there were plenty of small shops and parks.

We spent a while trying to find a parking lot, when Tea said, "Hey, look, a student!"

We all stared at the student, who looked fairly normal. "They're not aliens," Avon said. "Just normal people."

After our first spotted student, we saw several more who looked just as normal. They seemed really sociable as well, which was something Avon liked. We found our parking lot and rode the shuttle bus to Clio Hall, where the tour was supposed to start.

Inside Clio Hall, there were two floors (that we could see), one for graduate students, and one for undergrads. We went upstairs to the undergrad area, signed our names on the sheet, took a booklet that introduced the school, and sat down on the couches. The booklet gave us some basic information, such as academics, admissions, and room and board (including a very fancy flowchart to explain the junior/senior boarding/eating plans). Tea had also taken a diversity booklet, but there weren't any specific numbers or percentages, just general comments on how Princeton is a very, very diverse place.

Soon, a bunch of other people entered the room, so we figured that the info session that we had missed was over. We followed everyone downstairs, where our tour guides were already waiting. Thus began our tour of Princeton, which, judging from what we had seen already, was bound to be breath-taking.

Our tour guide was a freshman, planning to major in French, and believed walking backwards was a form of exercise (which, according to Crabtree, is much easier than jogging forwards, but I haven't experienced that myself), so she didn't talk much about the science departments (which was what we were most interested in, since all of us are science-oriented people) or the athletic facilities (not much of a loss here for us). However, she did mention lots of interesting bits about the history of the school, such as how the Yale architect carved his face into the chapel on campus or the numerous Woodrow Wilson residencies while he was at Princeton. She also did a splendid job pointing out the gardens and buildings, including the campus library, which is mostly underground and resembles an iceberg.

We finished the tour around noon, so we decided to eat at one of the dining areas on campus to see what the food was like. The cafeteria was pretty much similar to our school's cafeteria (except with a few more selections and bigger), but the main difference was portion size. People in Princeton must eat A LOT (is this proof that they're aliens in disguise after all?), because the meals we bought were humongous.

So, my opinion of the school overall?

It's in a pretty town (as Avon noted), decent size and not too isolated, and it's not too far north or too far south, so the location is nice. Buildings looks gorgeous (stone walls and copper roofs). Academics are definitely great, but there's also a lot to do around campus, and there are plenty of choices in general. I am not looking forward to the 80+ pages senior thesis (but I suppose it isn't that bad, if countless Princeton alums have survived it thus far), but I definitely wouldn't mind spending a lot of time in that library.

And, of course, the most important factor.

Can I get in?