College Search Process......Then and Now

mackinaw
Tue, 26 Mar 2013 02:23:37 +0000

Early 1960’s. All the advice about colleges that I ever got came from an uncle who was a college professor. I don’t recall getting any advice from my high school counselor or any teachers. Going with my uncle’s list, and finding the names of some other colleges that I had heard of, I went to the public library to find some college catalogues so I could get the addresses of the admissions offices. Then I wrote to about a half dozen colleges to request a catalogue and “application and forms.” I never visited any college prior to applying, or, for that matter, prior to attending the one that I ended up going to. (I had been on the campuses of a couple of universities to attend sporting events, but these weren’t visits related to making applications.)

Tests? I took the SAT’s and (iirc) two Achievement Tests: Advanced Math and Spanish. I didn’t study for the exams. It never occurred to me that I could study for them, or how I might learn about them. So I went into the exams cold. I did OK but decided I could do better, and after repeating a month or so later (still without any studying or study guide) I improved my combined score by about 150 points.

The first time I saw my college was when I got off the train after I arrived for orientation. Orientation, however, did not occur on campus but instead at a retreat or camp on the coast, which we traveled to by bus after first checking into our dormitories. At the retreat the freshman students, guided by several upper class students and a few counselors from the school, received an introduction to the culture and curriculum of the college. There was lots of folk music to be heard and sung. And we had one common reading for our small-group discussions: John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty.”

I’m sure this approach to signing in and orienting students was unique. This was Reed College. I remember the orientation fondly. The next week we really got down to business, with our first paper due in our Hum 110 course on Saturday at noon, just 5 days after the semester started. Assignment: “What does one learn about Odysseus in the first four books of the Odyssey?” (500 words)

I had set off to college with my peggar pants (and stretchers to dry them on), a small travel trunk, a travel iron, a radio, and a brand new piece of fancy electronic equipment: a Smith-Corona electric typewriter that my parents paid something like $125 dollars for. In today’s dollars – inflation adjusted – this typewriter would have cost $970.

This college was worth every dollar of the $1,240 annual tuition (freshman year), and the room and board charge of $600 (though I rarely got up in time for breakfast). My parents paid these costs, though I did have summer jobs to help pay for my casual expenses. For any special cash needs, my mother had given me a half-dozen personal checks that she had pre-signed. I would take one of those, write in the amount of $20, and turn this into cash at the college bursar’s office.

I graduated in 4 years, and the rest is history. Ready to retire now.