I Choose Gryffindor!

Today was an eventful and exciting day that marked the first real day of touring schools and visiting New York City. The day started with a bit of old fashioned tourism and ended with an informative tour and a fantastic meal. Our first day, in my opinion, was a complete success. 

We all agreed the night before to wake up a little early, at 7:00 AM, so we could have a little extra time to go sightseeing. I was a little worried about waking up at 7, since I was up until 12:30 writing my blog the night before. But I woke up feeling rejuvenated and ready for the day to take off. After everyone was ready and waiting in the lobby of the Beacon at 8, we had a surprisingly fast breakfast and headed down to the subway. Our first stop was Times Square.

Yeah, I met an M&M today.

As we ascended from the sweltering pits of the New York subway in summertime, the 20 story billboards and skyscrapers that made up Times Square seemed to grow and grow. All of us looked in amazement as we wandered through the worlds largest advertisements for common things like Coca Cola, American Eagle, and M & M's. We took an excursion into the M & M store where we were given a standing ovation by the employees. We also stopped by the largest Toys R Us I think I have ever seen. Finally we posed for some group shots outside of Toys R Us. I tried to have some photos taken of myself but I was ambushed by some people in rather scary looking Disney outfits trying to get tips. Since they were not invited into my photograph they did not receive a tip. Finally at 10:30 we headed back into the steaming subway tunnels to take a ride to the famous Grand Central Station. 

The wonderful advertisements that cover the
skyscrapers at Times Square.

Certainly the grandest of train stations I have ever seen, Grand Central had our entire cohort looking up and saying "whoa." The high ceilings and hundreds of people were just asking for photographs to be taken, so Ms. L let us wander around the main concourse for a little while. Sadly the sun was burning brightly through one of the main windows of the concourse making photographs very difficult to expose correctly. Once Ms. L had acquired our train tickets we headed into the food court to buy some lunch. Margaret, Emily, and myself all had some delicious Indian food. Over lunch we reviewed some of our photographs from the day, and I deleted some of the bad ones I had taken. 

Finally it was time for our first college visit and tour: Sarah Lawrence College. I admit I was a bit skeptical about this particular college due to its laid back nature and lack of emphasis on grades. But I was completely blown away by Sarah Lawrence the second we got there. The campus is a beautifully laid out campus with brick buildings combined with modern architectural styles. The info session was given by a woman who just finished her senior year at Sarah Lawrence. She spent most of the time explaining Sarah Lawrence's curriculum. Students only take three classes a semester but the classes are split into two parts. The first part is the sections and discussion groups. These groups are commonly found in most colleges and universities. The second more unique aspect of the curriculum is the concentration. The concentration involves one on one meetings with professors where students essentially design their own unique independent study. The concentration seems to give students so much more flexibility in what they can get out of a class. Another aspect that I really loved about Sarah Lawrence was the interview system. Whenever a student wants to apply to get into a class they are required to "interview" with the professor. This interview is more a time for the student to question the professor about what their class is all about, and to help the student decide if that class is the right place for them. Another aspect of Sarah Lawrence that I really liked was the small class sizes and the grading systems. Classes have a maximum limit of 15 students. This means students (outside of their concentration) get so much more time with their professors. Students receive normal grades at Sarah Lawrence but what they care more about are the written evaluations their professors write about them. These evaluations cover everything from what the professor thinks about their work to what they think about their personality. These evaluations really help a student understand how to improve their educational experience, a lot more than a simple A, B, or C will ever do. SLC is also a division III athletics school, with a unique mascot of a mythical beast known as a Gryffin (yes, like the house in the Harry Potter series: Gryffindor). If I were to ever play any college sports it would have to be at most in division III, because lets face it, I am not very good a sports. All of these features of the Sarah Lawrence curriculum made my ears price up, and immediately increased my interest in this small liberal arts school. 

SLC's beautiful green campus in front of its central iconic building.

The next part of the day was spent on a 2 and a half hour walking tour of the campus. We had a senior give the tour and let me say, she did and AMAZING job. She was funny and interesting and had so many unique anecdotes to tell us about life on campus and professors. She made the campus and the school sound so welcoming to incoming students. I was amazed with her stories about professors. These included professors giving up time in their own outside careers to help a student succeed, and giving EVERY student who applied to a class the opportunity to have it by splitting it up into TEN sections without taking overtime or extra pay. I am very interested in a college or university where I can feel close to the people who are instructing me and today that place sounded a lot like Sarah Lawrence. 

After an hour period of resting (that went by much too quickly) it was time to throw on the suits and head down to another fancy meal. This time, however, the meal would be with four Yale alumni. I will start with the food to get it over with...

The meal was incredible. We started with an appetizer of shrimp cooked with various sauces, a freshly made crab cakes. I ordered the classic New York Strip for my entree which was cooked to perfection. Upon opening up, the meat was slightly pink on the inside and cooked on the outside. After filling myself completely on meat, it was time for dessert. Our table split five desserts of which I tasted four. The two chocolate cake desserts were by far the richest and most delicious things I have ever tasted. 

The real meat of the meal was with the alumni. At first I was sitting between Ms. L and an alumni named My Luu. My Luu was very interested in hearing all about the colleges we would be visiting on the ILC program, and she was also ready to add her own input into the schools as well. Being from Yale, she had lots of great information about the University and really seemed interested in what I had to say. When I asked her about what she did I immediately became amazed and spent the majority of the time listening to her amazing stories. Currently she manages a team helping to improve technologies for the elderly, the disabled, and for others whom technology does not come easy to. Before she did this she was a diplomat working with the State Department. She regaled Ms. L and I with stories of daily life working at a U.S. embassy, and even told some rather grim stories like the time she and the rest of the embassy staff had to evacuate to the basement due to potential bomb threats. After our entree was finished I

The hustle and bustle of Grand Central Station.

switched seats with Elena. I then had a wonderful conversation with an alumni named Max. He currently works with the CEO of a major chemical company. He explained that humans make their permanent impressions on people based on the first five minutes of getting to know that person. He told me to make an impression on him in five minutes. I tried my best, explaining the class I was in, my grade level, and a few of my personal interests. He helped explain what I could have fixed to make my story have more of a flow, but the experience was a unique one to say the least. Finally we talked about the Constitution, and particularly the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Max was so smart and at times it was difficult to keep up in the political discussions, but in the end I found myself getting more confident and willing to say more. The dinner tonight was incredible. The food was amazing and I met some amazing new people who want us to contact them if we ever have any questions for them.

Today was an amazing day. One minute we were in Times Square, the next we were at Sarah Lawrence, and finally we were a couple blocks from Times Square again making new acquaintances. Though today was incredibly busy and I am utterly exhausted right now, I think it was totally worth it because I learned so much. I am excited to head to Philadelphia and UPENN bright and early tomorrow. 

The first day was a complete success!