Sunday’s Post includes a rant by local high-school senior Sarah Ball about her unsatisfying experience as a prospective freshman (“pro fro”) at Stanford’s Admit Weekend (“This Pro-Fro’s a No-Go: How Not To Woo Me to Your University”). When I was a senior, I didn’t attend the full weekend at Stanford; I visited just for a day. (If I remember correctly, my high-school musical had a rehearsal or performance that Saturday night, and anyway Stanford was close enough to Daly City that I had visited other times for me to feel sufficiently familiar with the place.) But back to the Post piece, I’m not rushing to defend my alma mater here for its own sake, ‘cause if she had a bad experience, then of course she has a right to complain; it just seems she was set against it from the very beginning.
I guess it’s all about expectations. Granted, Admit Weekend is a sales pitch at root, but I took the cheesy activities in stride, knowing that this was only one part of the whole, “a brief opportunity to get a glimpse into a few of the things any campus had to offer,” as fellow alum Ben writes on Beaverhausen. Maybe my view is different from Sarah’s partly because I had less at stake? Once I had my admittance letters I was mostly sure I was going to pick Stanford, whereas I can understand if you’re flying across the country to visit a university that you’re not sure about, one that you “applied to on a whim,” you’re bound to be more critical or dismissive, or both. (She eventually chose Duke.)
[Update (14 May): The Stanford Daily has since published two responses, one from Robin Mamlet, dean of admission and financial aid, and the other from freshman Yamanda Wright, who was Sarah’s host.]
It sounds as though she did not have the maturity to look past the cheesy sales pitch (which all of the top universities seem to do). That or she just was not interested in giving the school a chance. I hope she is happy at Duke (a fine school but strikes me as having a much more … oppressive student culture).
I’m glad we’re in agreement, Jeff. It’s not that either of us is rushing to defend Stanford, it’s that cheesy sales pitches are the core of *any* prospective freshman weekend.