Sunday, July 12, 2009

Visiting Bard

Hello!

Today was very informative about Bard College. I think it was really great to have a personal tour of the campus from a student's point of view. I ended up really liking Bard College for it's huge campus (600 acres!) but not liking that it's in the middle of nowhere. There's only about 7 houses in the town of Annandale-on-Hudson according to the tour guide. The surrounding area is completely woodsy and foresty. We have to drive about 15 minutes before we get to the train station. Anywhere before that is mostly flat land and a house every 2 minutes. That's definitely too rustic for me. But the fact that the professors really know the students and that none of the classes are taught by TAs really puts Bard College to the top. But there's no engineering program, so I won't be applying to Bard. As much as I like the school itself, the location and the absence of an engineering program makes it very difficult for me to want to go there for college.




Afterward, we returned to Columbia University until the evening when we went to Columbus Circle for our fancy dinner. It was at a steakhouse and the view was so pretty at the top floor of Columbus Circle. The steak was delicious but it was very out of my element to be eating at such a fancy place. I've never had more than one fork for a meal but for dinner there were two forks. One fork was for the salad and the second was for the steak. Apparently the silverware works in a right to left order that corresponds to each course. This was definitely a very unforgettable experience for me thanks to the sponsors who support the Ivy League connection.



Julie

2 comments:

Charles Tillman Ramsey said...

At least dinner was nice. I am puzzled by the students feel the need to photograph their entrees and desserts. We had students do that last year. The purpose of the dinner is to expose you what you will have to face when you interview for jobs or take clients to dinner. Now is the time to learn the nuances of showing that you can handle being in an environment where you will have to make an impression.

Tomorrow will be the same when you visit with David Buckwald from the Columbia Admissions office. First impressions are lasting and you want to make sure that you give off the right vibes. Your post about Bard was great.

Bard is not your school for all the right reasons. It had nothing to do with location or weather or what the buildings looked like, it actually had to do with the fact that they did not offer Engineering. Well, then Bard is out and Columbia and UPENN, especially UPENN, are in. Glad that you had the chance to see what was a fit.

However, Bard may be a fit for someone back at El Cerrito High School and I hope that you provide your fellow classmates with much information as possible and learn when Bard will be here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bard is a top tier school actually ranked higher than UC Berkeley for the quality of its freshman class. So, we need to get the word out. All of you were our ambassadors for the Class of 2010 ILC students.

Thanks again for your enthusiasm and commitment. I know that it is tiring to get up early, but in the end you will be happy that you did.

Take care and good luck with the remainder of the trip at Columbia University.

Charles T. Ramsey, Esq.
School Board Member
West Contra Costa
Unified School District

Don Gosney said...

Julie,

Did you have fun messing with my head? You changed the title of your blog. I had already logged it in and started the reformatting when I stopped for the night and when I returned it was gone. Being the bright guy that I am, though, I was able to see that you simply changed the name.

After your description of Bard’s remoteness I went to Google Earth and quickly learned that it is only about 2 miles from the thriving metropolis’s of Red Hook, Tivoli and Barrytown—all of which look like they have SEVERAL residences. A Columbia it’s not!

Like you, I tend to eat a simpler fare. I’m a BBQ joint kind of guy although I still require utensils for eating (only barbarians eat with their hands). At least I’ve been schooled on the difference between a salad fork and a fish fork; a steak knife and a butter knife; a soup spoon and a demitasse spoon. I never bought into all of that fancy shmancy stuff, though. Give me a knife, a fork and a spoon and I’m in hog heaven. And I only need one glass, too.

Aside from how it was presented, was the food any good? I was going to comment about how the UPenn gals last year used to tease me with lots of photos of their fancy meals but then I scrolled down and saw that you did a little teasing of your own. In case your wondering, I nuked some leftover KFC that night but I was just fine. One knife, one fork but no spoon.

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