HIGH LIFE A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : The Big Chill : Tips for Students Straying Far Afield to College--and These Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Dear Class of ‘89:
When some of us in last year’s senior class applied to out-of-state schools a couple of Decembers ago, it seemed like the start of a great adventure.
Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., for instance, sent us glossy pictures of the campus in spring. Lake Michigan was UCLA-blue and the Chicago skyline glittered in the background. The Midwest did not look so different from California.
But after we signed our letters of intent, the bomb dropped. The admissions office forewarned us by sending out piles of material, picturing snow.
When we left home in September, there were a few things no one told us. For instance, students from the West Coast make up the lowest geographic percentage of students on any campus east of the Rockies. At Northwestern, just 9.1% of the 10,000 undergraduates are from the land of surf and sand.
And we’re easy enough to spot. Real Midwesterners say “Chi-CAH-go” and wear shorts in 40-degree weather. Californians waddle in coats that make them look like the Michelin Man when the temperature drops below 60. Anyone with a tan who lasts past New Student Week is subject to ridicule.
Just ask three of Those Who Dared.
Roger Chou’s first choice was UC Berkeley. The 18-year-old graduate of Irvine High School likes the Bay Area and has an older sister who already attended Berkeley. But Chou wants to be a doctor, and Northwestern offers something Berkeley does not: an honors program in medical education, under which students can graduate with a medical degree in 7 years.
However, Chou had a small problem. “I’d never heard of Northwestern,” he said. “I think my father knew about the honors program or something. When I told my friends I was going there, they all thought Northwestern was somewhere in Boston.”
Chou’s father flew back with him in September, helped him move into the dormitory and left. All of a sudden, Chou found himself climbing mountains of laundry and holding a checkbook he had no idea how to balance.
“I’m really bad with money,” he said. “Originally, I put myself on a budget, but it hasn’t worked out that way at all.”
He had not figured on paying upwards of $200 for books or making late-night runs to Burger King, one of the few 24-hour places in Evanston. And then, there was Chicago.
“I go (to Chicago) a lot,” Chou said. “We go down to eat, like to Chinatown. There’s a lot of different things to do in the city. It’s kind of hard to describe. And then the people here--they’re really nice and everything, but they’re a little more reserved.”
Chou also had not counted on encountering the California Complex.
“Everyone in the Midwest jokes about the weather,” he said. “They tell you how bad it’s going to be. I remember my first snowfall. I thought it was kind of cool, but then the snow got really dirty really fast.”
College Tip No. 1 for those attending school east of the Rockies: Get the bulkiest coat possible once you get on campus. Besides the snow, you’ll have to deal with the wind - chill factor. Chicago didn’t get its nickname for nothing.
Even though this winter has been mild by Midwestern standards, as Chou put it, “Everything’s cold to me.” To beat the freeze, he scheduled as much of his time as possible indoors, including a fencing class.
“It just seemed like a collegiate thing to do,” Chou said. “It’s something you can’t do in high school.”
Ian Johnson, on the other hand, wanted more than just something he could not do in high school. “I wanted to get out of California,” the theater major said.
Johnson also knew exactly what kind of college he wanted to attend after graduating from Laguna Beach High School: a medium-size school that offered theater, radio, TV and film classes and that was near a big city outside of California.
“I’d heard of the Northwestern drama program,” Johnson said. “I just didn’t know how good it was supposed to be.”
Northwestern’s theater department is considered one of the finest in the country, but being a student of it did not prevent Johnson from getting bombarded with California cracks.
“People would say, ‘Wait until it gets cold, ha-ha-ha’ or ‘Oh, duuuuuude--hey, California ,’ ” Johnson said. “Everyone asked me if I surfed. No, no, can’t say that I do.”
He found no sympathy among his friends from the West Coast.
“When the weather got all rainy and dreary, I’d get postcards with these voluptuous girls on the beach, and on the back my friends would have written, ‘Ha-ha, wish you were here, huh?’ ” Johnson said.
He has managed to stay busy enough not to think about it too much. Besides classes, Johnson has worked at sound, lighting and assistant stage managing for campus productions and has tried to adjust to his new-found independence.
“My laundry,” he said, “just tends to pile up.”
College Tip No. 2: Don’t throw dark and white clothes into the same washing load to save money, unless you want pink underwear and blue-gray socks.
If responsibility has taken some getting used to, losing a full-time, live-in son has been tough on Johnson’s parents.
“I call home once a week,” he said, “but they send letters about every other day. They send newspaper clippings and ‘Far Sides’ and all sorts of parental stuff.”
Sunil Daluvoy also left California to try a new scene, but the 19-year-old graduate of Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada-Flintridge took a more roundabout route. He spent his freshman year at UCLA.
“UCLA was a very good school, but it was too big,” Daluvoy said. “I wanted to see people I recognized every day. Northwestern was a really good school that had more to offer, it seemed.”
Daluvoy had applied to Northwestern as a high school senior, but after being put on the waiting list, he decided to “go to UCLA and see what it was like.”
Since he arrived in Evanston in the fall, comparisons have kept cropping up.
“Academically, it’s a lot different,” he said. “It’s very competitive here. Not that it isn’t at UCLA, but you notice it much more here. Maybe it’s that you see people you know every day, and they’re all at the library studying. You don’t study as much at UCLA.”
But students are more involved in recreational activities at UCLA, he said.
At Northwestern, “everyone’s either at the library studying or at parties,” Daluvoy said. “It’s an easy way to gain weight.”
College Tip No. 3: The largest selection at the cafeteria will always be the desserts.
The biggest culture shock for Daluvoy was going from Los Angeles to Evanston, where Burger King patrons have to bag their own food because of a law that forbids fast-food restaurants from doing so.
“Evanston’s kind of a quiet town. I wish it had a more prolific college life,” said Daluvoy, who, like most students here, either goes to fraternity row or to Chicago for night life. “The fraternities are really good here. It’s a little more easy and relaxed (than UCLA). The whole school is much more bound together.”
As for Chicago, which offers Rush Street, Greek Town and Michigan Avenue, there’s just one drawback: “I don’t have a car, so I’ve got to take the El (elevated train),” Daluvoy said. “It takes so long and the buildings look so close” to the train.
But the trip is worth it, especially during the winter holidays. Marshall Field’s on State Street has mechanized window displays, every tree is draped with lights and roasted chestnuts are sold on street corners.
“They really get into the seasons, especially if you go downtown,” Daluvoy said. “They really know how to celebrate.”
College Tip No. 4: Once you get on campus, don’t look back. Don’t dwell on high school accomplishments or where you might have gone to college.
Chances are, if you go East, you’ll be at a campus where you’re the sole representative from your high school. If you were homecoming queen or the school nerd, nobody knows or even cares. You start at zero, and where you go from there is entirely your responsibility.
College Tips No. 5, 6 and 7: Bring lots of quarters for laundry and soft drink machines. Buy an alarm clock (Mom isn’t there to wake you up anymore) and don’t schedule classes before 9 a.m.
If you think tramping through the snow is hard, try it at 8 in the morning.
Good luck,
Member of the Class of ’88
