Well well well.

I'm back in Colorado after four days spent touring 50% of the Ivy League and Swarthmore. Twas a good time. At some point perhaps I'll talk more about each school, but for now, seeing as it is 10:30 at night and I still have homework left to do, some random stuffs and photos.

Okay.
Onward!

So one thing I noticed this this weekend is that the Ivy League has some peculiar obsessions. For instance, all of the ones I visited (Penn, Princeton, Yale, and Brown) are ridiculously proud of their wide assortment of a capella groups. They all tell you about them on their tours. Brown even notes that it has more a capella groups per capita than any other school in the country. If that's not useful when it comes to making a college decision, I don't know what is.

The other thing they're all big on (and when I say all of them, that's what made it funny- not a one of these schools was an exception) is the OMG GUYS DONT WALK THROUGH THIS GATE OR YOUR FIRST BORN CHILD WILL BE EATEN BY WOLVES gate. Seriously, on every tour the guides stopped to point out some ornate gateway that you're not allowed to pass through until your graduate or else bad luck forever more. I thought it was kind of absurd, but hey, I'm not taking my chances.

Of the five schools I visited, I only stayed overnight at one (I have a friend who goes to Penn), so I'm a little worried I didn't see much to any of the social comings and goings at the others. But such is life.

My favorite by far is YALE. Guys, tell me something. why oh why does that school have to be
a) SO AWESOME
b) so absurdly hard to get into?

a mystery modern science may never solve. but seriously, they have this awesome residential college set up that is so incredibly TASPy. That definitely sold me. Mina, I can definitely see why you're head over heels in love with this place. Now I am too.

I also liked Swarthmore quite a bit. It's absolutely gorgeous, and the kids I talked to all seemed very down to earth. My tour guide is taking a class this year on "Women in the Civil Rights Movement," which is unbearably Dr. Brown-esque and entirely cool. The only thing is, it's TINY. 1300 kids. But that means all the classes are very small too. So I'm kind of up in the air about what I think on that one.

Brown and Princeton and Penn are all of course gorgeous and far too wealthy and imposing not to be impressive. But for a number of reasons I've ruled them all out.

That means I basically have a final college list (YAY).

*drumroll*
Yale (early action)
Cornell
Columbia
Georgetown
Swarthmore
Fordham
U of Maryland
(maybe UMich)

Anyway, enough yammering about colleges. Onto the best part.

PHOTOS


I'm not sure if you can see that road sign, but it says brown st. I'd liked to dedicate this to my roommate, one Kathryn Brown. and Professor Brown. And the Warren Brown School of Social Work. and myself, of course. God bless us browns, every one.


Yale is hot


But they stuffed their mascot. a little creepy.


That's my lovely friend Abby who let me crash in her dorm at Penn.


This is for all the Sufjan Stevens fans among you. My dad and I visited Valley Forge just for kicks, and they had a list of all the generals who had their troops stationed there. Casimir Pulaski was one of them. Hooray!


It is the great tragedy of my young life that I didn't get a better picture of this. It's basically the BEST ROAD SIGN EVER. It's between my house and the Denver Airport and it says, "NOTICE- Correctional Facility: Do Not Stop for Hitchhikers" hehe


Okay, so this isn't really from my trip, but I couldn't resist. In the creative writing room at my school we have a little mini-scream. So, in the spirit of the washu TASP, my best friend Asya and I posed for this lovely picture. (i'm putting a couple other ones on my booko de face in the next couple of days)


Well, that's about all from me, folks.
Enjoy your week.
And not to freak everyone out, but according to my counts, about 35 kids are applying to CBTA.
heh, yeah.

Love from the state of Nunn,
Ryan