yay for finally updating
So last week in a nutshell:
Last weekend (well sept 10- sept 12) I spent visiting RPI. They REALLY want me, so badly they'll give me 15,000$ plus a bunch more for being a woman in science. But i wasn't too impressed with them. The dorms were shoddy and reminded me of the military and the basements were moldy and the lounges so small, and the campus kinda smelled too. Plus it was big and on a hill so in the winter it would suck to get around. Plus Troy is not such a great area, and I found that the campus was not very separated. Well, to make a long story short, I wasn't convinced. Tho while we were visiting we did get to see an improv group perform, which was fun.
Speaking of which, it's kinda funny how much improv you do while camping. Cuz you dont have TVs or computers or whatever so you have to make up games and usually they involve improv and they are usually incredibly fun and funny. Like the murder game when you get an occupation, weapon, and place and another person's gotta guess it. Well whatever, that was random.
Anyways, we flew back early sunday, i finished my homework, and then monday was Tiger Woods day. I actually found it ridiculously offensive when we couldn't get to walk through the lobby all because they didn't want to have us there when Tiger Woods arrived. Instead we had to walk around outside. And when I had to go to the bathroom, they made me walk all the way around whilst i thought i was gonna go in my pants. I wanted to pee all over their lawn for that, but I thought better of it. Anywho, the whole thing was ridiculous that we had to watch from the PAC because we were girls and when Tiger Woods did come in to talk to us, he spoke for all of 30 seconds, goody. It was soooo sexist it was ridiculous. But Doc Lovasz cracks me up with her remarks, "just stay home mon, make babies like they want us to." Regardless, he did seem like a nice guy, unlike the rumors i heard of him being a jackass, and he seemed sincere. He talked about his dad, whom he obviously was very close with. It was a nice speech, i will admit. Tho it does seem a bit odd that he arived like 1/2 hour late (cuz his girlfriend had to "Freshen up") in a limo, and he left in a friggin helecopter!!!
Left early tuesday to head down to CA. When we arrived and rented a car and stuff, we drove down to Pasadena to visit CalTech. I absolutely LOVED it! Now it is my #1 choice. Pasadena is a beautiful city and the campus is really nice and they have a terrific honor code, plus I love their dorm system. All in a school that's only 900 some undergrads. We went on a tour and then got to ask the admissions people some questions. Then we drove around a bit. Not a whole lot there, but it was really nice!! We went back to the hotel, and Robin was feeling really sick, so my mom and I got some food, brought it back to her, and we crashed.
Next morning I got up early cuz I had an interview at Harvey Mudd. It went fine, and the interviewer was really impressed with how far I am in math and such. He was like, "after the tour and after you eat lunch on campus, let me get you a professor to talk with!" The tour was nice, and I liked the school, except for its inherant ugliness. But that isn't really a consideration. Their lunch was OK, but they have an ICEE machine :) So it turns out that the admissions representative decided to get me the HEAD of the biology department there, and he spent a good amount of time (maybe a couple of hours) showing me the campus and the labs. They had lizards that could run on 2 or 4 legs. Haha. Anyways, I was very impressed, and all the students seemed really happy (all 700 of them!!) After we left Harvey Mudd, we decided to go to the "village" for dinner (basically a downtown type area with lots of restaurants and stores for the 5 colleges). Then we stopped for an icecream and drove back to the hotel for some sleep.
The next day we woke up and looked at a few brochures for where we wanted to go for our "fun day" (not that the other days weren't fun). We were looking at the amusement parks, and were thinking of going to disney but then we found out a bunch of their rides were closed for maintenance. To make a long story short, we decided on Universal Studios which freaked my mom out cuz she didn't know how to get there. We picked up some maps at AAA, and then I was able to navigate us to Universal (yes, I was proud :P). The park was sooo expensive (like over $40 per person as the cheapest ticket with a AAA discount), but it was soooo fun!! And being the good techie I am O:) I enjoyed all the SFX shows. And it was fairly un-crowded cuz it was a school day for most kids. So it was a lot of fun, and I think Robin enjoyed it a lot too, which I was happy for.
Fri the flight didn't leave till 3 something, and since we had to be out of the hotel by 11 anyway, we decided we would go hiking on a trail right near Harvey Mudd. WOOOHOOO!!! I GOT TO TAKE MY FAMILLY HIKING!!!!! So we checked out, picked up a few things at the drug store, and drove to the nat'l park. We didn't get to hike for too long because Robin got too hot cuz she was stupid enough to bring long pants (jeans) to sunny southern CA, but it was still fun and I got a good sense of some of the fun hiking trails out there! Then we got another ice cream at the store in the village, and drove to the airport for the flight home.
Sat we had a family get-together for Rosh Hashana (sp?) which was, shall we say, boring. But it was really sad cuz a year ago we spent it with Jen, Eric and their dad, and their dad had been struggling with cancer for some time and knew he wouldn't live to see another year. He passed away, so they came with their mom this year, whom I've only met once. It made it very awkward. Anyways, it was very uneventful, infact so much so that everyone started to watch Miss America (see above comments on feminism).
Sun the highlight (?) of the day was going to an MIT info session. Ya, I dont think I really want to go there, but I saw Amrit there and it turns out Wenny and John were also both there. Plus they gave us Cider and donuts (hehe). I think MIT is a bit too big and urban for me, but who knows, Christina is happy there.
So my choices to date:
#1: CalTech - Pasadena
#2: Harvey Mudd - Clairemont
#3: RPI - Troy (Albany)
#4: MIT - boston
#5: U of M - Ann Arbor
#6: Purdue - e. lafayette
But of course it also depends on my funding, cuz even if I got into caltech i dunno if i could afford it even with the work studies loans and such.
But w/e.
So ya, that was my week!
Last weekend (well sept 10- sept 12) I spent visiting RPI. They REALLY want me, so badly they'll give me 15,000$ plus a bunch more for being a woman in science. But i wasn't too impressed with them. The dorms were shoddy and reminded me of the military and the basements were moldy and the lounges so small, and the campus kinda smelled too. Plus it was big and on a hill so in the winter it would suck to get around. Plus Troy is not such a great area, and I found that the campus was not very separated. Well, to make a long story short, I wasn't convinced. Tho while we were visiting we did get to see an improv group perform, which was fun.
Speaking of which, it's kinda funny how much improv you do while camping. Cuz you dont have TVs or computers or whatever so you have to make up games and usually they involve improv and they are usually incredibly fun and funny. Like the murder game when you get an occupation, weapon, and place and another person's gotta guess it. Well whatever, that was random.
Anyways, we flew back early sunday, i finished my homework, and then monday was Tiger Woods day. I actually found it ridiculously offensive when we couldn't get to walk through the lobby all because they didn't want to have us there when Tiger Woods arrived. Instead we had to walk around outside. And when I had to go to the bathroom, they made me walk all the way around whilst i thought i was gonna go in my pants. I wanted to pee all over their lawn for that, but I thought better of it. Anywho, the whole thing was ridiculous that we had to watch from the PAC because we were girls and when Tiger Woods did come in to talk to us, he spoke for all of 30 seconds, goody. It was soooo sexist it was ridiculous. But Doc Lovasz cracks me up with her remarks, "just stay home mon, make babies like they want us to." Regardless, he did seem like a nice guy, unlike the rumors i heard of him being a jackass, and he seemed sincere. He talked about his dad, whom he obviously was very close with. It was a nice speech, i will admit. Tho it does seem a bit odd that he arived like 1/2 hour late (cuz his girlfriend had to "Freshen up") in a limo, and he left in a friggin helecopter!!!
Left early tuesday to head down to CA. When we arrived and rented a car and stuff, we drove down to Pasadena to visit CalTech. I absolutely LOVED it! Now it is my #1 choice. Pasadena is a beautiful city and the campus is really nice and they have a terrific honor code, plus I love their dorm system. All in a school that's only 900 some undergrads. We went on a tour and then got to ask the admissions people some questions. Then we drove around a bit. Not a whole lot there, but it was really nice!! We went back to the hotel, and Robin was feeling really sick, so my mom and I got some food, brought it back to her, and we crashed.
Next morning I got up early cuz I had an interview at Harvey Mudd. It went fine, and the interviewer was really impressed with how far I am in math and such. He was like, "after the tour and after you eat lunch on campus, let me get you a professor to talk with!" The tour was nice, and I liked the school, except for its inherant ugliness. But that isn't really a consideration. Their lunch was OK, but they have an ICEE machine :) So it turns out that the admissions representative decided to get me the HEAD of the biology department there, and he spent a good amount of time (maybe a couple of hours) showing me the campus and the labs. They had lizards that could run on 2 or 4 legs. Haha. Anyways, I was very impressed, and all the students seemed really happy (all 700 of them!!) After we left Harvey Mudd, we decided to go to the "village" for dinner (basically a downtown type area with lots of restaurants and stores for the 5 colleges). Then we stopped for an icecream and drove back to the hotel for some sleep.
The next day we woke up and looked at a few brochures for where we wanted to go for our "fun day" (not that the other days weren't fun). We were looking at the amusement parks, and were thinking of going to disney but then we found out a bunch of their rides were closed for maintenance. To make a long story short, we decided on Universal Studios which freaked my mom out cuz she didn't know how to get there. We picked up some maps at AAA, and then I was able to navigate us to Universal (yes, I was proud :P). The park was sooo expensive (like over $40 per person as the cheapest ticket with a AAA discount), but it was soooo fun!! And being the good techie I am O:) I enjoyed all the SFX shows. And it was fairly un-crowded cuz it was a school day for most kids. So it was a lot of fun, and I think Robin enjoyed it a lot too, which I was happy for.
Fri the flight didn't leave till 3 something, and since we had to be out of the hotel by 11 anyway, we decided we would go hiking on a trail right near Harvey Mudd. WOOOHOOO!!! I GOT TO TAKE MY FAMILLY HIKING!!!!! So we checked out, picked up a few things at the drug store, and drove to the nat'l park. We didn't get to hike for too long because Robin got too hot cuz she was stupid enough to bring long pants (jeans) to sunny southern CA, but it was still fun and I got a good sense of some of the fun hiking trails out there! Then we got another ice cream at the store in the village, and drove to the airport for the flight home.
Sat we had a family get-together for Rosh Hashana (sp?) which was, shall we say, boring. But it was really sad cuz a year ago we spent it with Jen, Eric and their dad, and their dad had been struggling with cancer for some time and knew he wouldn't live to see another year. He passed away, so they came with their mom this year, whom I've only met once. It made it very awkward. Anyways, it was very uneventful, infact so much so that everyone started to watch Miss America (see above comments on feminism).
Sun the highlight (?) of the day was going to an MIT info session. Ya, I dont think I really want to go there, but I saw Amrit there and it turns out Wenny and John were also both there. Plus they gave us Cider and donuts (hehe). I think MIT is a bit too big and urban for me, but who knows, Christina is happy there.
So my choices to date:
#1: CalTech - Pasadena
#2: Harvey Mudd - Clairemont
#3: RPI - Troy (Albany)
#4: MIT - boston
#5: U of M - Ann Arbor
#6: Purdue - e. lafayette
But of course it also depends on my funding, cuz even if I got into caltech i dunno if i could afford it even with the work studies loans and such.
But w/e.
So ya, that was my week!