If The School Fits, Wear It('s Sweatshirt)

If the school fits, wear it (‘s sweatshirt)

I hope you will all pardon me for a slightly more personal post today.

Today’s theme is about the importance of fit when selecting a school. This one incredibly important factor seems so underrated by many, and I just have to write my personal experience with it.

Today was my first full day back at my university. It was the first day of spring semester, and, as per usual, it was pouring rain. I joked to a friend as we walked from the student center to our dorms, that “[Town my school is located in] is welcoming us back with the song of its people!” He laughed, because he gets my humor, and when you live in a place with weather as inconsistent as [town my school is located in], there’s nothing to do but laugh about it. My joke was dry, sarcastic, and referenced an Internet meme. And I could have said it to pretty much anyone I know at this school, from the nerdiest of the pre-meds to the preppiest of the sorority girls, and they would have gotten the joke too. Because that’s the type of school I go to.

            My school was a total outlier on the list of schools I was applying to. When my college counselor was giving me my original lists, I gave her a short list of what I wanted:

1.     Small in size, no more than 5000 undergrads

2.     Smart students, and great academics, but not “rip up each other’s notes” competitive

3.     A psychology program that wasn’t neuro based

4.     No more than 5 hours of travel door to door

5.     Theatre department that is not a conservatory

6.     About 50/50 male to female split.

And I added in one other thing- “No reach schools.”

This had two reasons; first of all I didn’t want to get my hopes up about a school I might not get into. And secondly, I didn’t want to struggle academically at a school I wasn’t qualified for.

 I narrowed down a list of around 20 options cutting a few because they didn’t meet my requirements (U Michigan was too big, Swarthmore was too small, Smith and Sarah Lawrence had way too many women, Vanderbilt was too far, etc.) and I ended up with about 10 to research and decide on.

There were two schools of that 10 that didn’t meet my requirements exactly (both were too far, one too small and one too big) that stayed on because they interested me.

These schools were Kenyon College (the too small one, which was eventually cut for being way too small and way too hard to travel to) and the University I currently attend.

I loved what I read about the school in books and their website. How the students were quirky and so so so passionate about academics. How they really focus on undergraduate teaching. How the campus is atheistically beautiful.

And then I visited. Spring break of junior year, my family took a flight down to the school (as it turns out, it is about 5 hours door to door if you fly) and toured.

I knew, the second we drove onto the campus, that this school was the one. I don’t know how, but I knew.

And then we toured. And it wasn’t even anything special. The tour guide was an IR major who couldn’t tell me anything about theatre or music. I loved the funny facts and anecdotes, I loved that the library seemed social; I loved the beauty of the freshman dorm we walked through (though in reality I would end up living in a closet sized room in a very ugly dorm hidden away on the far side of campus).

And, most of all, I loved the people.

My school has a bit of a tradition of interrupting the tour guides. If you see your friend giving a tour, you’re (not officially but everyone does it) supposed to run up and try to embarrass them in front of their group. And someone did just that to my guide (his shoes were stolen by a friend, who then said “oh your tour guide is such a mench, he’ll give you the shoes right off his feet” he then continued to give us the tour with the pair of flip flops his friend threw at him as he ran off, cackling into the afternoon). It’s totally in character for my school. We’re friendly, but we don’t take anything too seriously if it can be made into a joke.

I didn’t see anything like that at other schools. They all took themselves so… seriously. This school? Not so much. The info session had the same tone, “We’re old and awesome, but lets make you laugh while we tell you about our application process”

By the end of the tour we stood on the lawn of the school’s oldest building. A beautiful, historic brick monster. A building that, little did I know, would become the place I was initiated into the school by reciting (and not totally botching) the honor code. The place where I discovered my love for religious studies in the oddly shaped attic classrooms. The place where I would be initiated into a sorority I didn’t know I wanted to join until I came to the school. The place I would stand with hundreds of other students before Christmas break and see the president read us “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and laugh so hard I almost wet myself.

I stood in front of that building, a high school junior, and I just held my mother’s hand and cried.

I cried because after so many tours and so many articles and tests and guidebooks, I had found it. I had found the place where I belonged.

Of the 7 colleges that remained on my list come September of senior year, it was the only one with more than 3000 students. The only one not in New York or Pennsylvania. The only public school. The only school with significant greek life (something that, at the time, I didn’t want). And despite all of this, it was perfect for me, and I knew it.

And I applied early decision because I knew that if I didn’t go to that school I would never really be happy.

And I held my tongue when I heard my friends and classmates say, “I’m going to go to whatever the highest ranked school I get into is.”

Because I wanted to say, “No, go to the school that is so perfect you cry. The school that is the only place you want to be. The school where you know you will go.”

And I got in, because it was a match school and I applied early decision.

And I have never, ever regretted my choice. I have never ever said, “Maybe I should have gone to a higher ranked school” because I cant honestly imagine that any place would make me happier than my school.

So, when looking at schools, find the one that makes you cry of joy. Because you found it. You found the school that fit you perfectly.