Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

college

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So i found myself sitting across a long table from Mr. David Someone who was at NYU when it was just a little hole in The Village’s wall, and he was telling our counselors how to do things. At first it seemed rather dashing and exciting and fun, but then when the counselors started to ask questions about if NYU does personal interviews and personal tours and handwritten envelopes from counselors suddenly all of the happy smiling applicants turned into sheep either being lead to the slaughter or the shears. And and and, and finally we got around to how financial aid works, and he said that SAT scores and family income have a perfect positive slope on his graph and so selective schools don’t have to worry too much about throwing excessive amounts of aid around. Because, if a student without too much money and merely above average grades manages to get in they will find a way to make up the difference if the school really matters to them.

And then, and then …. his favourite phrase came out. “Remember, you aren’t judged by who you accept, you’re judged by who you reject.” And, yes, i know we were talking about the college admissions process and about how NYU only has to accept 25% of each application pool to fill all of their seats, but it was like he was staring right at me from across the table saying that they are who they are because i got a big fat NO in the mail from them April 4th, 1999.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/08/5119645/

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Today the former director of admissions at New York University was here at Drexel to talk to our admissions staff about our potential for growth in the coming year, and somehow i got myself into the meeting with him because i said i thought it would be “educational” (for all of the obvious reason, and since NYU was one of my top choice schools). So, i volunteered to take minutes and wound up choking down metaphorical bile through the entire chat.

You have to understand that when i say that NYU was one of my top choice schools that i really had no top choice. I was totally unprepared for college. I had no idea what i wanted to be save for that i didn’t really want to take any more calculus, and i thought that i was being savvy and intelligent when i said i had my school search narrowed down to cities that reminded me of Philadelphia. I knew nothing, and had no battle plan, and didn’t know how i was going to pay for college, and i could be accused of being silly and naive but i had honestly been convinced by Masterman that i just had to pick a school and apply and my SAT score and our reputation would step up and do the trick.

Of course, having worked in Admissions for a half a year now, i see how this was both true and false. If i had been told to target smaller sized colleges that were on the upper half of the second tier of acceptance rates, i would’ve done amazingly well. Those schools gobble up SAT scores like mine and are left wanting more. They love AP-inflated GPAs. They love over-involvement in extra-curricular activities. However, no one told me that, and so it was just my mother and i all alone against the admissions process.

My first four choices were Brown, NYU, Penn, BU. No one saw fit to tell me that even our top ten students wouldn’t necessarily be able to make a clean sweep on acceptance letters from those institutions, and one way or another none of those stories ended happily. APs don’t mean too much when over 70% of your entering class has them. Good SAT’s pale in comparison to a perfect 800. A single parent working as a nurse with no savings doesn’t buy you too far into a class of intelligencia and society that you never even met before let alone associated with.

And, so, i didn’t go Ivy, or even “little ivy.” Somehow, almost by coincidence, i came to Drexel. And i love it and the people are perfect and i still regret the fact that i’m here because i didn’t do all of my homework like i should have (on so many different levels).

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/08/5119628/

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So, i’m missing out on my semi-regular saturday night of drinking at Amy’s house for this very special event. Amy and i met at our orientation here at Drexel because i was wearing a Tori Amos t-shirt and she had packed the same one for the next day. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship that has since included insane record-shopping binges, leopard print underwear bought from k-mart, a PJ Harvey concert, a madonna danceathon, and all sorts of drunkeness at Amy’s house. Truth be told, i really don’t drink especially much, but at Amy’s house there’s always time to knock a few back, climb onto the coffee table, and sing Tina Turner in falsetto.

I should just stick to the songs… i’m sounding like a bigger and bigger idiot with every normal post that goes by.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4789063/

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Today was a long day. Sandwiched inbetween our normal visit schedule to admissions and the summer orientation schedule, today was a Sneak Preview event for engineers and design arts students. It was also the hottest day so far this year. These two factors combined made every little bit of the day last longer than it was ever intended to, and produced one too many groucy parents for my taste. They complained about everything… tour wasn’t long enough, tour was too long, not enough water, too much water with other things excluded, not enough information about academics, not enough information about student life…. and these contrasting viewpoints were just from the handful of evaluations i snatched a glance at. I suppose the moral is that you can’t please all of the people all of the time, especially when the mercury gets past the 9-0 mark.


However, my day was even longer than all that would imply for a very special reason: i somehow elected myself to be our Dragon mascot. Now, this wasn’t just something i came up with willy-nilly… the perspective engineers were building catapults, and they wanted something for them to be able to aim their velcro-covered whiffle balls at. So, first my job was getting the suit and finding a volunteer, but it soon became finding a volunteer to replace me in the schedule of events so that i could wear the suite.


Have you ever been a mascot? The feet are giant-sized novelty-slippers that are too big to fit onto stairs. The body is saggy and feels a lot like being wrapped up in terrycloth only, when wrapped in terrycloth, how often do you have a tail that’s over a yard long? But, the most important consideration in how awkward a mascot suit is to maneuver in is the head. Since our mascot is a cartoony dragon, i get topeer out of the maw of the mighty beast… and the maw continues for nearly a foot beyond my eyes before it ends. My eyes and ears and spiny-things extend far enough above the top of my head that i cannot touch my hands together over top of it.

Add all of this together to get me, as the dragon, standing in the middle of the grand court of our Main Building schmoozing with our guests and then having them fire small projectiles at my head. In the process i got to pose with our elusive President Papadakis, pick my dragon-teeth with pieces of catapult Connex, and be pummeled again and again in the crotch by low flying whiffle balls. However, as much as i might complain, please note that 50% + 1 of our attendees dropped off applications, which is better than average for an event so early in the application process for rising Seniors. So, if you’ll excuse me, i’m off to take a well-deserved nap before beginning tonight’s recording. Afterall, i went to bed rather late last night…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4729679/

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I think the mouse is back… oh dear… and i don’t even have a girlfriend who i can sleep over with. Speaking of which, i saw Selina today and we were very civil to each other. She was wearing the same gold sweatery thing she always wears when i see her, but that’s okay, cause i’m always wearing the same shirt on my webcam. She’s dating the other ambiguously straight chapter rep from my fraternity now, and i don’t know what i find more ironic: that she’s dated us both, or that we’re both ambiguously straight. But, anyhow, i just wanted to update you on the distinct lack of angst in my life (and the possible return of something rodent-y). Can you tell that i’m almost done being a teenager?

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4559830/