Sunday 15 April, 2007 at 7:06:10 pm
filed under personal, school
A preface:
In an effort to get my own thoughts in order, but mostly so that every one will stop asking me how my spring break went, I am publishing here all of my notes and observations from the various schools I visited.
A disclaimer:
Obviously, these represent my own opinions and biases and are very much a product of my unique experience at each college. You may have had a different experience. Please share it.
And now, to business:
The first stop on our tour was Yale. It was unique on my tour in being the only school that was exactly what I thought it would be; namely, white, wealthy, and pretentious. I was unable to attend a class or talk to a student (both of which I did at many other schools), so I may not have quite as good an idea of what it’s like, but I was generally put off by the atmosphere.
I saw nine black people during our stay at Yale. Five of them were in another tour group, and one of them was on a television screen. In fact, apart from the remaining three I didn’t see a single student who wasn’t white.
Frank Lloyd Wright was once asked where he would live if he had a choice of any spot in the world. He replied that he would live right on top of Yale’s Harkness Tower, so that he would never have to look at it. Standing under Harkness, at Yale, I sympathized with Mr. Wright. Most of the campus is built in a neo-Gothic style; the Yale campus in particular was designed by a deranged, maniacally egotistical Gothic revivalist architect. He was not merely interested in creating buildings in an old style, but in creating buildings that themselves looked old. To this end, buckets of acid and soil have been liberally applied to various parts of the campus to make it look old. The fact that great pains had been taken to make the college look like Oxford or Cambridge was evidently a source of great pride for our guide (a varsity polo player).
So why not just go to Oxford or Cambridge?
no comments
RSS / trackback