哈佛招生官到Andover夏校“面授机宜”（下）

哈佛招生官到Andover夏校“面授机宜”（上）

The College Fair

Yesterday at the Cage (I think it is also called Case Memorial Hall or something like that), there was a huge college fair (90 schools!). This fair is used to let the students meet the people from college and talk and know more about the schools.

I went there right on time, meeting Christina and Linda along the way. We were each given a “college fair” bag and a whole list of what schools there were.

Linda was really jumpy that day, she was so anxious about her Finance homework (apparently they have to go to the college fair and get certain information from three colleges: one state college, one Ivy League, one whatever), and was busily trying to find the state colleges on the paper (which were Framingham, North Carolina, Pennsylvania).

(I saw Nicole’s dad text her, something about Yale, Stanford, Harvard are the best, another list of the second-best, and yet another for the worst at the fair).

          Yale                  Stanford              Harvard

The three of us got in. The fair had just started. It is usually used as a gym, but it is just enough for the schools to squeeze in. Long rolls of white tables were pulled out, on it the schools spread their information leaflets and school sign. Some other ones even have 4 to 5 different pamphlets, on things like athletics, food and housing such.

The gym has a high ceiling with ropes dangling down from the top and a second story circling the top. Seeing that many schools are free of students, we hurried in.

Harvard is usually the most popular

Harvard is usually the most popular (according to Ms. Hanna), so we rushed there to avoid the crowd. There were 3 old professors at three tables.

One was really old and speckled, wearing some glasses and glancing about in an old-granny sort of way (a bit kind, but his eyes drooped tiredly);

the middle one wears glasses but has another pair dangling from a string on his neck, he had a small mustache and his eyes were strangely magnified by the glasses (and seeing that he really likes to open his eyes wide, it sometimes gets comical);

the last is a friendly looking (a bit Chinese looking as well) guy, his hair was all white, and unlike the first two, he wore a deep blue shirt (not the white Harvard one).

Linda went up and started to “do her homework” (asking questions and making notes essentially), I waited behind her with Christina, reading off the leaflet and listening. At this time, other students were streaming in, in them some people off-campus (mostly parents).

I talked a bit with the two-spectacled old professor, and the person was really interested in Psychology, even recommending a certain book called The Structural Dynamics of the Psyche, and pointing out the fact that undergraduates could do research in their labs with the funds from the school.

Harvard’s graduation rate is 98 per cent

After leaving Harvard, we went about with Linda, while I kept an eye out for Yale and Stanford. We found Yale (and unfortunately I didn’t find Stanford) packed on our way to Framingham. In fact, Linda had just finished her questions when she realized she got two more that she forgot.

Knowing that she feels embarrassed and awkward, I told her I could ask the questions for her. They were: What are some resources the school offer for students to help them on their careers and finding a job? What makes the school unique?

We went back to Framingham, they had a specific office that’s got all the resources needed for students, when talking about uniqueness (I think the person was only babbling, not exactly that unique-looking in fact) the person talked about location (like, 20 minutes from Boston, close to the White Mountains etc.) and the chocolate chip cookie which was invented by one of the students. (Personally, I don’t think that is much of good information).

I mixed up North Carolina and Framingham, but one of them said that they were the first school for teachers and that the first teacher “in space” (using the person’s description) graduated from their school.

And of course we went back to Harvard, to the old-granny professor. I forgot the first part, but at the uniqueness one the professor said that Harvard’s graduation rate is 98 per cent, and the houses and extra-curriculum classes were abundant and the sort.

In the end, we squeezed our way into the Yale throng, listening to the (this time younger) person talking about Yale.