Hi, I'm Earl. Product Manager at Choosing a college
Today, I decided where my home will be for the next four years of my life. In reality, I came across the decision gradually, during the past few days while exploring Yale University for a pre-freshmen visiting weekend.
After toiling hours and hours over essays and quadruple checking to make sure all parts of the application are completed correctly, you might believe that accepting a college’s offer may seem easy, but it is not. In fact, the task can be even more frightening than applying itself. Thoughts flicker across one’s mind: What opportunities am I turning down by not picking X or Y college? What if Z college does not have the specific classes I want? Do I really fit in at the school?
Even so, I know I made the right decision in choosing Yale. During the past few days, I met—or at least saw in-person—a host of diverse, friendly, and exciting people—nationally competitive athletes, YouTube sensations, and published researchers. As I stayed on campus hungrily devouring food in the Commons, idling on the Saybrook courtyard, or sprinting across Old Campus in misty rain, I knew that Yale was the place I wanted to call home.
I learned about cutting-edge research done by students, heard from the staff of the Yale Daily News about their experiences, danced to the command of Dance Dance Revolution, listened to over seven different a cappella groups, sat in on a talk by politician Howard Dean, heard a cellist perform cello while beatboxing, listened to beautiful classical music, ate samgyupsal, and so much more.
Still, the slew of events was not why I chose Yale, it was the vibrant culture and unified yet variegated students. Maybe the delicately sculptured, Gothic buildings and the picturesque lawns had cast a spell on me, but at Yale, things just felt right, and I cannot wait until I return to New Haven in the fall.P.S. Because I am obliged to tie every post on this website back to food, Yale’s dining hall foods have earned my seal of approval! For example, the Commons—Yale’s main dining hall—features a wide variety of foods for breakfasts. Choices range from fruit salad, halved grapefruits, eight different kinds of cereal, oatmeal, bagels, scrambled eggs (with or without yolk), hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, and more. What’s more surprising than the range of selections is the fact that the eggs are organic, cage-free and that most other offerings are organic too.
