01-16-2014, 10:11 PM
(01-16-2014, 04:12 PM)oman link Wrote:[quote author=Papa John link=topic=9412.msg81917#msg81917 date=1389910661]
So I gather that others on this thread (oman?) had to, among other things, describe themselves in one word on their Dean-Fred-era Stanford application? Mine was "hopeful." Anybody else remember theirs?
I think I went with "bollard".
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That's priceless, oman! In the cobwebs of my mind I remember all of the class of '84 frosh being shepherded into Mem Aud for a history-of-Stanford lesson. And I think it was at that plenary meeting that the Admissions/Orientation folks revealed the most popular responses for the one-word self descriptors. I don't remember "bollard" being mentioned, but I do, for some reason, remember that one person described himself as "gaseous." The exercise stuck with me because, as an awkward 17 1/2 year-old neophyte, that was one of my ice-breakers during my first week at Stanford: "What's your name? Where are you from? Where are you living on campus? What was your word?"
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)