[CTcard]

I applied to only one college in 1974. Lived in Canada and didn't really know any better. My parents refused to pay for a UCB application. Said it wasn't that good a school. If I had not gotten in, I would have attended the U of Manitoba. On my first paper, 1st quarter at Stanford, I received a 2 out of 5. Intro to Philosophy with Mothershead. Shocked me to the core. Taking that course wasn't a smartly planned move, but in the end it changed the course of my education. My Philosophy TA took a liking to me and coached me through the course. I gradually learned to write a semi-coherent paper. I entered the final with a B-, but aced the final for an A. Same thing happened in Physical Chem. Aced the final after coming in with a B. That TA taught me what was expected of a college student at Stanford. I took a lot of philosophy courses at Stanford, which put a drag on my GPA, but my interviewer from Yale Med was totally impressed that I had taken all of those classes and let me in. Funny how one choice at the beginning of freshman year can change your life.

Well, I topped you by applying to all of two schools because I didn't know any better. Each of those could easily have rejected me. Too bad I didn't have an older brother to sit me down and explain to me how these college admission things really worked.


I am afraid that my odd frosh experience that set me on a decent path was in rather the opposite vein. By the time I arrived at Stanford I had more or less figured out how difficult it was to get into, found out all my classmates had a bunch of something called AP that I had never heard of, and had become convinced that my cohorts would academically crush me beneath their heels. However, circumstances caused me to end up hanging out extensively with, and enrolled in the same classes as, what must have been the two-three ... worst prepared (?) students at Stanford. I then made the opposite (completely incorrect) leap of faith: that they represented the norm at Stanford - and at the least I had better be able to top that. The fact that this bit of hubris was both unseemly and completely unwarranted by reality made it no less important in getting me over the confidence-hurdle I needed to force myself through.

[CTcard]

I applied to only one college in 1974. Lived in Canada and didn't really know any better. My parents refused to pay for a UCB application. Said it wasn't that good a school. If I had not gotten in, I would have attended the U of Manitoba. On my first paper, 1st quarter at Stanford, I received a 2 out of 5. Intro to Philosophy with Mothershead. Shocked me to the core. Taking that course wasn't a smartly planned move, but in the end it changed the course of my education. My Philosophy TA took a liking to me and coached me through the course. I gradually learned to write a semi-coherent paper. I entered the final with a B-, but aced the final for an A. Same thing happened in Physical Chem. Aced the final after coming in with a B. That TA taught me what was expected of a college student at Stanford. I took a lot of philosophy courses at Stanford, which put a drag on my GPA, but my interviewer from Yale Med was totally impressed that I had taken all of those classes and let me in. Funny how one choice at the beginning of freshman year can change your life.

Well, I topped you by applying to all of two schools because I didn't know any better. Each of those could easily have rejected me. Too bad I didn't have an older brother to sit me down and explain to me how these college admission things really worked.


I am afraid that my odd frosh experience that set me on a decent path was in rather the opposite vein. By the time I arrived at Stanford I had more or less figured out how difficult it was to get into, found out all my classmates had a bunch of something called AP that I had never heard of, and had become convinced that my cohorts would academically crush me beneath their heels. However, circumstances caused me to end up hanging out extensively with, and enrolled in the same classes as, what must have been the two-three ... worst prepared (?) students at Stanford. I then made the opposite (completely incorrect) leap of faith: that they represented the norm at Stanford - and at the least I had better be able to top that. The fact that this bit of hubris was both unseemly and completely unwarranted by reality made it no less important in getting me over the confidence-hurdle I needed to force myself through.