Thoughts on campus visits
At work I usually walk around campus for my breaks. UC Irvine was built in a giant circle (very post-modern) and there are two walking paths that ring the campus — an inner path circling the center park and an outer path lined with all the university’s buildings. I take the outer path, better known as the Ring Road.
Between classes, students crowd the road as they rush to their next discussion or lecture. In front of the library and student center groups set up booths for fund drives and to attract new members. It’s election time at UCI and the student government candidates have been handing out fliers with mini Snickers and Tootsie Rolls taped to the corners. They also have DJs spinning hip-hop and techno-pop tunes on giant speakers. I don’t get the connection between a massive sound system and voting, but it’s welcoming to see the presidential runners out in the open and campaigning (unlike those at Iowa).
Greenpeace recruiters station themselves at the busiest sections of the Ring Road, trying to get students and staff (whoever walks by) to join. When I pass they ask, “Got a minute for the environment?” Sometimes they add, “Help save a polar bear!” I always shake my head and tell them sorry. It’s not that I don’t agree with Greenpeace’s goals in helping the environment — I just don’t like the idea of funding a giant corporation. (I talked to one of the recruiters once and all she did was pressure me to sign up and give her my credit card number. I’m an old school environmentalist: One person can’t do it alone, but if each of us makes an effort we can change the world.)
Lately, large groups of prospective students and their parents have been lead around the Ring Road and through the spokes and courtyards between buildings. A current student guides them around campus, constantly walking backwards so he/she can speak to the group. Each guide escorts about 10 to 20 people, and two or three more groups follow close behind, like a wagon train of college bound kids. For large groups the guides wear microphones and have small speakers attached to their belts so everyone can hear.
I first saw the campus tour groups last spring, after starting at UCI. It made me realize how competitive universities and colleges are is in this country. The schools in the UC system are famous for their outstanding science programs, yet they still have to fight and jockey to attract the best minds (not to mention the money in their pockets). I’m sure there are committees and boards assigned to plan and strategize recruiting techniques, ways to attract high school seniors across the county to their schools. During college football and basketball games you always see commercials for each university (the ones for Iowa suck, by the way). Higher education is big money.
Each time I pass a group it reminds me that I’ve never been on a campus tour. I only applied to Iowa. Why go on a campus tour when I live in Iowa City? Often, when I walked through the Pentacrest from the English building, I found groups on the west terrace of the Old Capitol. A guide would point out Hillcrest, the engineering building, the library, good ol’ EPB...and so on until they had labeled every building in sight (I was never there for the whole thing — just passing through at different parts of the rehearsed speech). Then they would talk about Kinnick and Carver, which were out of sight, on the other side of the hospital.
My mom said it may have been a good idea if I had taken a campus tour. The first time I really explored and experienced the UI was my first week of class; I never had a reason to walk around, building to building, before. It’s not like there were any surprises, or any chance I would have changed my mind and decided against being a Hawkeye. I wanted to write, so Iowa was the perfect place. I think my parents considered it a rite of passage, a step in assisting me, however embarrassingly, into adulthood, and they wanted to participate in it. Denied.
So, I intended this post to be about my struggles in deciding whether or not to apply to MFA programs for Fall 2009. Once again I’ve gotten off track. I’ve started asking my old teachers and former nonfiction TA’s for advice: Is an MFA in nonfiction writing worth it? The resounding answer has been yes. Screw the critics, forget the possible debt, and embrace the future possibilities. I want to become a better writer and human, be a part of a writing community once again, and pursue a possible career in teaching. I believe grad school will let me accomplish those things.
But first I have to stop daydreaming and get my ass in gear. GREs, letters of recommendation, applications, writing samples. Before all that, though, I have to figure out where I want to apply. Off the top of my head, from the research I’ve done, I’ll be looking closely at Iowa (duh!), Washington, Oregon State, Ohio, Minnesota, Pitt (I really have to thin the list). Once making my picks I have to think about campus visits. Do I do it? Fly cross county just to look at a bunch of old buildings? Listen to their PR propaganda? Iowa I know, but in order to gauge whether or not a school or city is a good fit for me I have to travel there. That means spending money I would otherwise use to fund my master’s, and taking time off from work. Ugh.
Choices, choices, choices.
Between classes, students crowd the road as they rush to their next discussion or lecture. In front of the library and student center groups set up booths for fund drives and to attract new members. It’s election time at UCI and the student government candidates have been handing out fliers with mini Snickers and Tootsie Rolls taped to the corners. They also have DJs spinning hip-hop and techno-pop tunes on giant speakers. I don’t get the connection between a massive sound system and voting, but it’s welcoming to see the presidential runners out in the open and campaigning (unlike those at Iowa).
Greenpeace recruiters station themselves at the busiest sections of the Ring Road, trying to get students and staff (whoever walks by) to join. When I pass they ask, “Got a minute for the environment?” Sometimes they add, “Help save a polar bear!” I always shake my head and tell them sorry. It’s not that I don’t agree with Greenpeace’s goals in helping the environment — I just don’t like the idea of funding a giant corporation. (I talked to one of the recruiters once and all she did was pressure me to sign up and give her my credit card number. I’m an old school environmentalist: One person can’t do it alone, but if each of us makes an effort we can change the world.)
Lately, large groups of prospective students and their parents have been lead around the Ring Road and through the spokes and courtyards between buildings. A current student guides them around campus, constantly walking backwards so he/she can speak to the group. Each guide escorts about 10 to 20 people, and two or three more groups follow close behind, like a wagon train of college bound kids. For large groups the guides wear microphones and have small speakers attached to their belts so everyone can hear.
I first saw the campus tour groups last spring, after starting at UCI. It made me realize how competitive universities and colleges are is in this country. The schools in the UC system are famous for their outstanding science programs, yet they still have to fight and jockey to attract the best minds (not to mention the money in their pockets). I’m sure there are committees and boards assigned to plan and strategize recruiting techniques, ways to attract high school seniors across the county to their schools. During college football and basketball games you always see commercials for each university (the ones for Iowa suck, by the way). Higher education is big money.
Each time I pass a group it reminds me that I’ve never been on a campus tour. I only applied to Iowa. Why go on a campus tour when I live in Iowa City? Often, when I walked through the Pentacrest from the English building, I found groups on the west terrace of the Old Capitol. A guide would point out Hillcrest, the engineering building, the library, good ol’ EPB...and so on until they had labeled every building in sight (I was never there for the whole thing — just passing through at different parts of the rehearsed speech). Then they would talk about Kinnick and Carver, which were out of sight, on the other side of the hospital.
My mom said it may have been a good idea if I had taken a campus tour. The first time I really explored and experienced the UI was my first week of class; I never had a reason to walk around, building to building, before. It’s not like there were any surprises, or any chance I would have changed my mind and decided against being a Hawkeye. I wanted to write, so Iowa was the perfect place. I think my parents considered it a rite of passage, a step in assisting me, however embarrassingly, into adulthood, and they wanted to participate in it. Denied.
So, I intended this post to be about my struggles in deciding whether or not to apply to MFA programs for Fall 2009. Once again I’ve gotten off track. I’ve started asking my old teachers and former nonfiction TA’s for advice: Is an MFA in nonfiction writing worth it? The resounding answer has been yes. Screw the critics, forget the possible debt, and embrace the future possibilities. I want to become a better writer and human, be a part of a writing community once again, and pursue a possible career in teaching. I believe grad school will let me accomplish those things.
But first I have to stop daydreaming and get my ass in gear. GREs, letters of recommendation, applications, writing samples. Before all that, though, I have to figure out where I want to apply. Off the top of my head, from the research I’ve done, I’ll be looking closely at Iowa (duh!), Washington, Oregon State, Ohio, Minnesota, Pitt (I really have to thin the list). Once making my picks I have to think about campus visits. Do I do it? Fly cross county just to look at a bunch of old buildings? Listen to their PR propaganda? Iowa I know, but in order to gauge whether or not a school or city is a good fit for me I have to travel there. That means spending money I would otherwise use to fund my master’s, and taking time off from work. Ugh.
Choices, choices, choices.
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