I want to go to college. Right now. Let's just go.
I spent last night in a sleeping bag on the floor of a crowded dorm room. It was possibly the most amazing night of my life.
Wait let me explain.
Today was Brandeis's official Accepted Students Day, with a smaller due to limited space overnight event yesterday. Prior to this, I was pretty sure that I fancied Brandeis more than the other suitors I'd been entertaining, but I hadn't yet given my heart away (excuse the cheesy extended metaphor). So yesterday afternoon I departed my home with a duffel bag, high hopes, and more than a little bit of nervousness. And this is what happened:
I spent a single tense, awkward hour making small talk with unfamiliar but friendly girls as we waited for our hosts to come find us. This was the moment when I realized that I would be answering the same few questions (where are you from? what are you interested in? what other colleges did you apply to?) pretty much constantly over the next twenty-four hours. But then Margo came to retrieve me, and things started to get awesome.
We met up with Margo's three friends - her roommate, and the two girls who lived across the hall - who all had their own pre-frosh in tow. At first we were all awkward, and it felt like we had nothing in common...but then we realized that this is Brandeis, and what do all Brandeis students have in common? Harry Potter, apparently. So in between all the srs bsns talking-about-the-school, we referenced Harry Potter and talked about the theme park and the next movie and all that lovely stuff.
(And then one of the pre-frosh, Claire, had a bag with a button on it that said "Do not meddle in the affairs of slashers, for you are cute and go well with other men." Which, oh my god, I want that button. And I was too shy to really strike up a conversation about what fandoms and OTPs we may or may not have in common, but I feel like we had a subliminal connection, Claire and I.)
(Oh god I hope her name was Claire, I might be mixing her up with somebody else's name, and I really should be able to remember names better than this, come on self.)
ANYWAYS. After dinner, which was super yummy (the fact that I can get more-than-decent Mexican food whenever I want is a huge point in Brandeis's favor, just saying) we almost went to the karaoke event, but then we heard that it was kind of lame because nobody wanted to sing. Instead, we went to Chums, which, you guys, it's this super cool coffee shop, and it's in the Castle.
Which brings me to the Castle.
The Castle is GORGEOUS. My iPod camera is really crappy after dark, but I wanted to take pictures so badly and post them up here and tell everybody I'm going to Hogwarts next year. Freshmen can't live in the Castle, but after the first year you can push for it in the housing lottery and hopefully make it in. SOMETIME IN THE NEXT FOUR YEARS I AM DETERMINED TO LIVE IN THE CASTLE.
Anyways, Chums is this painfully cool little place, and you can get coffee (meh) and ice cream (:DDD) and there's a stage where they have music and improv and all sorts of awesome events pretty much every weekend. That night, they had False Advertising, which is one of Brandeis's improv groups.
Did you know that people improvise musicals? And that it's the most amazing and hilarious thing you'll ever see ever? I STILL HAVE "PROM IS THE TIME FOR LOVE" STUCK IN MY HEAD, ahahaha oh god. I wish they had some of their stuff on YouTube so I could link you guys, because it was seriously incredible. (Also, the troupe is all guys plus one girl. And they did an improvised musical about prom. You can imagine how beautiful that was.)
Anyways, after that we hung out a bit, and then went to see A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Which started at ten o'clock at night. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's already hilarious. Now take a funny musical, make sure it lasts at least three hours, show it late at night to a bunch of people who've been up all day, and just imagine what you'll get. I was dying. Also I realized it was the source of "I'm Lovely," which my brother sang years ago with one of his best friends in drag.
The thing about Brandeis, I realized as I sat in a dorm room at 2 AM with seven other girls eating strawberries and challah, is that everybody there is ridiculously awesome. They're all really friendly - which is something I heard a million times on online forums, but I really got to see it in action last night. Everybody you meet is willing to chat and show you around and answer questions. And they're all a little bit nerdy - there's a Quidditch club of course, and a cosplay society, and I saw at least one person wearing a Firefly reference t-shirt. There isn't much partying or drinking or drugs. Most importantly, though, is that everybody seems to be really passionately involved in everything, a capella and theater and the newspaper and service organizations and whatever else you can think of. After years spent in high school, where most people just Do Not Care, it's refreshing and exciting.
I'm so done with high school, you guys. It's lame. And I only spent one night in college, but it was amazing.
After the overnight, when my mom came to meet me and we went around to panels and booths learning facts about the school, I came up with a bunch of good academic and logical reasons why Brandeis is a good fit for me. But those aren't the reasons I fell in love with it. I can't even quite explain what made me fall in love, but there was something in the vibe I was getting off the students and the campus that let me know - I really could spend the next four years here.
So. I'm going to Brandeis.
Wait let me explain.
Today was Brandeis's official Accepted Students Day, with a smaller due to limited space overnight event yesterday. Prior to this, I was pretty sure that I fancied Brandeis more than the other suitors I'd been entertaining, but I hadn't yet given my heart away (excuse the cheesy extended metaphor). So yesterday afternoon I departed my home with a duffel bag, high hopes, and more than a little bit of nervousness. And this is what happened:
I spent a single tense, awkward hour making small talk with unfamiliar but friendly girls as we waited for our hosts to come find us. This was the moment when I realized that I would be answering the same few questions (where are you from? what are you interested in? what other colleges did you apply to?) pretty much constantly over the next twenty-four hours. But then Margo came to retrieve me, and things started to get awesome.
We met up with Margo's three friends - her roommate, and the two girls who lived across the hall - who all had their own pre-frosh in tow. At first we were all awkward, and it felt like we had nothing in common...but then we realized that this is Brandeis, and what do all Brandeis students have in common? Harry Potter, apparently. So in between all the srs bsns talking-about-the-school, we referenced Harry Potter and talked about the theme park and the next movie and all that lovely stuff.
(And then one of the pre-frosh, Claire, had a bag with a button on it that said "Do not meddle in the affairs of slashers, for you are cute and go well with other men." Which, oh my god, I want that button. And I was too shy to really strike up a conversation about what fandoms and OTPs we may or may not have in common, but I feel like we had a subliminal connection, Claire and I.)
(Oh god I hope her name was Claire, I might be mixing her up with somebody else's name, and I really should be able to remember names better than this, come on self.)
ANYWAYS. After dinner, which was super yummy (the fact that I can get more-than-decent Mexican food whenever I want is a huge point in Brandeis's favor, just saying) we almost went to the karaoke event, but then we heard that it was kind of lame because nobody wanted to sing. Instead, we went to Chums, which, you guys, it's this super cool coffee shop, and it's in the Castle.
Which brings me to the Castle.
The Castle is GORGEOUS. My iPod camera is really crappy after dark, but I wanted to take pictures so badly and post them up here and tell everybody I'm going to Hogwarts next year. Freshmen can't live in the Castle, but after the first year you can push for it in the housing lottery and hopefully make it in. SOMETIME IN THE NEXT FOUR YEARS I AM DETERMINED TO LIVE IN THE CASTLE.
Anyways, Chums is this painfully cool little place, and you can get coffee (meh) and ice cream (:DDD) and there's a stage where they have music and improv and all sorts of awesome events pretty much every weekend. That night, they had False Advertising, which is one of Brandeis's improv groups.
Did you know that people improvise musicals? And that it's the most amazing and hilarious thing you'll ever see ever? I STILL HAVE "PROM IS THE TIME FOR LOVE" STUCK IN MY HEAD, ahahaha oh god. I wish they had some of their stuff on YouTube so I could link you guys, because it was seriously incredible. (Also, the troupe is all guys plus one girl. And they did an improvised musical about prom. You can imagine how beautiful that was.)
Anyways, after that we hung out a bit, and then went to see A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Which started at ten o'clock at night. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's already hilarious. Now take a funny musical, make sure it lasts at least three hours, show it late at night to a bunch of people who've been up all day, and just imagine what you'll get. I was dying. Also I realized it was the source of "I'm Lovely," which my brother sang years ago with one of his best friends in drag.
The thing about Brandeis, I realized as I sat in a dorm room at 2 AM with seven other girls eating strawberries and challah, is that everybody there is ridiculously awesome. They're all really friendly - which is something I heard a million times on online forums, but I really got to see it in action last night. Everybody you meet is willing to chat and show you around and answer questions. And they're all a little bit nerdy - there's a Quidditch club of course, and a cosplay society, and I saw at least one person wearing a Firefly reference t-shirt. There isn't much partying or drinking or drugs. Most importantly, though, is that everybody seems to be really passionately involved in everything, a capella and theater and the newspaper and service organizations and whatever else you can think of. After years spent in high school, where most people just Do Not Care, it's refreshing and exciting.
I'm so done with high school, you guys. It's lame. And I only spent one night in college, but it was amazing.
After the overnight, when my mom came to meet me and we went around to panels and booths learning facts about the school, I came up with a bunch of good academic and logical reasons why Brandeis is a good fit for me. But those aren't the reasons I fell in love with it. I can't even quite explain what made me fall in love, but there was something in the vibe I was getting off the students and the campus that let me know - I really could spend the next four years here.
So. I'm going to Brandeis.