How do families pick colleges to tour? Family tradition can be one big reason and is exactly why we started out at Cornell.
My father was a graduate student in the philosophy department there when I was about 5 years old. My parents, my little brother and I lived in a row of duplexes near the campus, in married-student housing, to be exact. I remember much of those days: my father coming home with wet pant legs from the deep snow. My father playing the piano. Building forts with my brother out of sofa cushions. I remember walking around the campus, throwing rocks into the gorges and seeing students sing Christmas carols. Tragically, in his second year there, my father died in a skiing accident while out with his graduate school buddies. After his death, my mom moved us back to Salt Lake City, to be near her family.
I've always wanted to return to Cornell to visit the old spots I vividly remember, but there was never an opportunity to do so. I was accepted into Cornell when it was my turn to go to college, but I decided to go to college closer to home, in California. I always slightly regretted it, although I had a great college experience where I ended up (U.C. Davis). Also, I guess I was afraid that if I went it might bring back sad memories for my mother.
In Rachel's sophomore year of high school, in a required class called College and Careers, she had to write a research paper about one in-state college and one out-of-state college. She chose Cornell for her out-of-state school, simply because her maternal grandfather went there. She could have picked the University of Utah, where her maternal grandmother went; or the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where her paternal grandparents went; or Goddard College in Vermont, where her father went, but no. I think it was because she knew Cornell has a vet school, and she once wanted to be a vet. In other words, it was a bit arbitrary.
Comments