Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Ivy League Aura

Ivy League schools have a different presence that can be felt after one step onto their campuses. Whereas Bard, Cal, Vassar, Stanford and other top institutions all provide their students with exceptional schooling and opportunity, they lack the vibe that can be immediately felt at Yale and the other Ivy League schools. But before I get to the story of the tour, I should clarify any confusion surrounding our controversial lunch order.








It was delicious.

Now to the tour, Yale has a tranquil courtyard with an overabundance of history inside.

According to our guide, The College of Connecticut changed its name to Yale to sap more contributions from an already generous donor. Before the donor got word of the name change, he died on a ship. Unfortunately, he left 500 pounds, an incredible amount of money in the early 1700’s to The College of Connecticut and Yale never saw the money. (They have weathered the storm nonetheless; today Yale has the world’s second largest endowment to Harvard.)



The tour guide also to us took us to a statue of Nathan Hill, our nation’s first and worst spy. Hill drank too much and confessed to a British Officer that he was a spy on his first night on the job. Hill then authored the quote “My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country.” Allegedly, after being denied permission to have a copy of Yale’s statue, they snuck in at night and copied it without Yale’s knowledge. Yale got the last laugh however, because the statue was not actually of Hill. There was no record of what he looked like so Yale just based the statue off of their “most patriotic student” in the class of 1914.

Then we made our way to an artificially aged dorm, erected in the 1920's but made to look centuries older. Yale also has programs where students can sign up to see a variety of shows in New York City for free. They have the 2nd largest library of an academic institution, 2nd to Harvard. As a whole, touring Yale was a fantastic experience and I look forward to learning more and ultimately applying to this fine university.

1 comment:

  1. Absolute loved this blog. Lunch photo and comment: minimal verbiage, maximum meaning. Loved the multiple references as "second to Harvard". You are your mother's son. It is very interesting to me that instead of the college admissions officers or CEOs or other high profile people you meet, you post pictures of yourself with the bellhop and the pizza guys. To me it shows you appreciate the people who are working hard to serve you and who also happen to have cool personalities. Yale and Harvard have a lot in common. Beside offering top notch college educations and being at the richest universities, both atop the Ivy League, the statue of John Harvard in Harvard yard, also is a depiction of someone else. I am glad you are setting your sights high.

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