Why X? Part II

To continue on from the previous list, with the disclaimer, once again, that this is merely a parody and not to be taken too seriously:

Why Cornell?

Despite many, many failed attempts, I have finally managed to visit your campus (although I did, unfortunately, miss the tour). And I must say, Cornell must have my favorite campus by far. What is not to love about a campus that looks like it copied from architectural styles from all over the continent and dumped them all into one plot of land? Especially when you have Victorian-Gothic (please spare me the Harry Potter references), Neo-Classical, and sheets-of-glass-glued-together-modern all within walking distance.

But my reason for choosing Cornell rests on one simple fact: when I visited the electrical engineering labs, I saw xkcd on one of the doors. Now I know that xkcd is probably the most over-quoted webcomic for any engineering department, but to actually see it on a door? Wow. (We will ignore the fact that the only other engineering buildings I have seen are Princeton's and Penn's, and I have not entered any of these buildings.)

Why Dartmouth?

I have to say, when I first visited the campus I was instantly drawn in by the Green. Or more like I thought, "This grass is kept in pretty good shape considering it's probably covered under snow for half the year." My lawn, in comparison, looks exactly the same except it receives much less snow (and probably more sunlight). I love grass. Grass is so good for rolling around in and getting bugs in your hair to freak out your mother.

The two-story white library with the teahouse by the side was also nice. I mean, there is only one college library in the entire world that looks like the library in Harry Potter, right? Right? What other school could have possibly come up with such an original idea? Impossible! I also really liked the green armchairs. Except I didn't like their color. Oh, wait, that's one of the official colors of Dartmouth. Never mind, I really liked the green armchairs.

Why Duke?

I love all the brochures Duke sends me, especially those with that one picture of the tower during sunrise or sunset or whatever it is. Since I don't really have any other blown-up pictures of campus I will assume that the rest of the campus is just as magnificent, because Duke doesn't have anything to hide, right? They just thought I would enjoy staring at the tower five or ten times, right?

Aside from that I must regrettably say that I have not been on campus, not even once. And that I know relatively little about Duke. As in, I know it is called Duke, and it has a tower, and it offers limited financial assistance to international students, but that is all. I don't even know how many tulips are on campus, although I should know, because that is the other (non-blown-up) picture of campus I have from the brochures and after staring at that for over five times I should probably just start counting the flowers.

Why Harvard?

I am not applying to Harvard, nor does Harvard require a "Why Harvard?" essay, so this is not necessary. I am putting it in here solely because otherwise I would be jumping directly to M and I felt the gap was too wide.

Why McGill?

I have previously mentioned that there is a cute red-head at McGill who is also extremely nice and helpful, but Yuma might not appreciate that as a reason for why I want to go to McGill. So instead I will talk about the over-ten-stories tall buildings on campus that are not dorms but, well, instructional buildings. Nothing like a skyscraper-like chem building to make me feel like I'm in the city. Especially when four or five firetrucks pull up right underneath it, sirens all blaring.

I also love the sheer size of McGill. With over 25,000 undergrads to make you feel your significance. And 8,000 grads. Although honestly that is nothing compared to University of Toronto, which has over 55,000 undergrads and 13,000 grads. Now that is huge.

I saw xkcd at Cornell

This one. We were inside the electric and computer engineering building, which was sort of surprising, because usually these doors are locked and only students and faculty can enter. Anyway, they had these huge TVs (sort of like the ones at Paperclip, except larger), and they also had these really cool devices, such as a semiconductor wafer designed by Cornell students (my dad works for a company that manufactures the devices used to make such wafers, so of course he used this opportunity to brag).

We went upstairs afterwards, where we saw numerous computer labs, actual labs (although I suppose a computer lab is also a lab), and the xkcd strip on one of the doors. Then we went across an indoor bridge with lots of red chairs facing away from the center, and two floors below us, there was a study hall with a few people typing away on their laptops.

I have only been inside one other non-library, non-huge-lecture-hall-for-info-sessions academic building, and that was Huntsman at Penn (which I have written about, in part, but it is still in draft mode because I need to add two more schools to it), so I was still fairly surprised that we were allowed inside. There were lots of cool equipment rooms, and my dad even talked to one of the professors there (while my mom and I were outside, so we didn't get to hear what they talked about), and he got a booklet on Cornell engineering projects.

Some other highlights:

• Really helpful people, or at least the ones I've met. So even though it's a predominantly science and engineering school, it's not in any way unsociable.
• Buildings could use some better planning. There are some gorgeous (I still can't stop thinking about the "Ithaca is Gorges" pun whenever I use "gorgeous") buildings, such as the Baker dorms and the really fancy all-glass building, but they're this awkward mix of Gothic-old to contemporary-new that really doesn't mesh well.
• They sell bubble tea in downtown Ithaca. Taro-flavored bubble tea. Definitely a good point. Plus Ithaca's got a small-town feel but pretty busy, yet it's far away from Cornell (which has many of the pretty gorges) that there's no problem with noise or chaos.
• My tour group people are really, really unprepared. This isn't actually a highlight, but I found it shocking when someone asked, "Does Cornell have its own supplement to the Common App?" I mean, really? Just add the school to your list and you'll see. It's not that hard.
• Lake Caguya is really close by, and it's a pretty neat lake. Not Lake Ontario or Lake Michigan nice (I'm pretty biased in that aspect), but the ducks are friendly and don't run away from you. Neither do the squirrels in Cornell. I suppose that reflects on how nice the people there are towards the animals.

My dad joked that he would try to find a job in Albany if I go to Cornell. It is a bit better than his claim that he'll find a job in Chicago if I go to, well, Chicago, because I am not sure how well I can handle the whole commuting to school from home thing when I'm in college. I guess it's nice that I won't have to pay extra room and boarding fees, but I'll probably lose out on several years' worth of experimenting with living on my own.

Besides, didn't my dad say he was going to move back to China once I get into college, and never, ever come back again?

People are fickle these days.

Also, completely unrelated, but I had a dream that I was driving last night. There was something special to it than just driving, though (and it's not the "I crashed into a wall" kind of special), but I don't remember what it was. I was going to write it down but then I forgot.

So... time to finish up that Penn/Princeton (again)/Swarthmore post.