My Love For Northwestern

This morning ,the alarm sounded at 7:30. Breakfast started at 7:30.We decided to skip breakfast and get an extra 30 minutes of rest. When we met up with the rest of the group it was time to head towards Northwestern, which was actually in a suburban city outside of Chicago. I thought this was nice because the college is in a quiet ,slow neighborhood compared to a big noisy city that could at times be relatively distracting. On the other hand when your looking for some fun, fun is not to far away as the city is less than 30 minutes away.

The campus was very nice , especially with the weather being cooler than the day before, well drastically cooler.(Hmmmm I wonder why?) When we entered the admissions office , I felt a warm comforting feeling. Everyone there made me feel so welcome. The information session was unlike any of the other we had attended before. There was a projector screen with all the information that was being stated which made it somewhat of an interactive session.Everything said about this school appealed to me and the only things left for me to finally decide whether I really liked the school, was the tour.

From the start of the tour I told myself , Okay , this is somewhere that I could see myself at for four years. The tour continued , and you remember when I mentioned that substantial change in the weather, well this is were that comes into to play. The skies got darker and darker and finally drops started to come down. Remember just yesterday it was 100 degrees, so I am dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. This is that wonderful east coast weather that I was told about.Luckily the tour just about came to and end when the rain started. After that we were off to eat lunch with a few students and the admissions officer that we would later enjoy wonderful steaks with that night.

After lunch we decided to catch the L , which is like the BART system in the bay area, back to downtown or the loop. from there we enjoyed the wonderful sites of  millennium park such as Pritzker Pavilion , Crown Fountain , Lurie Garden , and the Cloud gate etc.From there we headed back to the hotel on was and information walk , were I learned more about and whats is like to be in fast pace big city type of life. When we arrived at the hotel we had a couple hours to rest up for dinner at Mastro's. My favorite part of dinner aside from the wonder New York pepper steak , was my talk with the admissions officer. We talked about all of my interest and I found out that everything that I am interested in is held there at Northwestern. I had a wonderful day and overall a wonderful night viewing what was my favorite college yet-Northwestern

                                   At Mastro's

                                 Food!

                                                                 

Watch Out For Those Sprinklers

After yet another lovely breakfast here at the hotel, we headed off to Northwestern University. Compared to the 100 degree weather of the day before, it was a rather cool morning in Evanston. Northwestern University isn't in the city, it is actually about two miles from Chicago. Upon arriving at the university we located to admissions building, and checked in the ILC group of eight.

The information session was pretty brief, and to the point. Immediately after it had ended we started our tour. Our tour guide was Kristina, a rising senior at NU. All throughout the campus they had the sprinklers turned on. Whenever we would walk past one we would quickly move away from it, nobody wanted to get wet. That is really ironic, because towards the end of our tour it actually started raining. Oh, and did I mention there was also thunder? The thunder and the rain sure did make the sprinklers seem like harmless butterflies. Maybe the sprinklers' persistance to get us wet was actually a harbinger of the storm that was yet to arrive! Thanks to that storm, when we made it back to the admissions building we were all soaking wet. After a much needed lunch in one of the university's dining halls, we left the campus for some sight seeing.

We took "The L" to our destination. It may not sound familiar to some and it really did not ring a bell when I heard it, and that's because in California we call it "Bart". After a couple of minutes and a few stops later, we left The L and walked on over to Millenium Park. We had been told by numerous people to go take a look at what they call "The Bean". So pur first stop was the famous bean. It's a sculpture that is covered in mirrors, and it is in the shape of a bean

Taking a picture of our reflection.

The Bean.

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After spending some time at The Bean and relaxing in the ampitheater, we made our way over to Crowne Plaza Fountain. By this time there was no evidence whatsoever of the earlier storm. The sun was back up high in the air, embracing us in its rays. This gave us girls the idea of getting wet in the fountain. The water was very refreshing, I was immediately cooled down. They boys on the other hand, refused to join us. Once we were done playing with the water, we made the journey back to our hotel.

At 6:45 PM we all met in the lobby. Mastro's Steakhouse was the restaurant for tonight. I had heard of this restaurant once before this trip. It was on a TV show where they were eating at the restaurant, so I was really eager to see it in person! We had a large reservation for seventeen people, which were divided into two circular tables. Sitting at my table was Aaron, Andrew, Shevan, and Jonathan who were our guests for the night. Ian, Alysa, Clara, and Cameron were seated with us as well. Aaron is an admissions officer while, Andrew, Shevan, and Jonathan are students. I tried talking to everybody at least once, but I always ended up back with Jonathan. I really enjoyed talking to Jonathan, he cleared up a lot of questions I had about Northwestern. He also gave me advice on picking out colleges, such as what things I should be taking into consideration and the things I should be aware of.  

I ordered the filet accompanied with two sides that were for the table, lobster mashed potatoes and asparagus. I was primarily going to order the herbal crusted chicken, but then I thought to myself, "I'm in a steakhouse, why am I gonna order chicken? I should order a steak, since this is a steakhouse." I am glad I chose the steak, becuase every bite was better than the one before. The desset, eventhough I can't even pronounce or remember it's name, was just as good as my steak was!

Tonight is our last night here in Chicago. Leaving Chicago means no more college visits. I really enjoyed visiting WashU, NU, and UChicago! I am so fortunate that I got the oportunity to be able to tour all of those amazing schools, and meet so many wonderful people! As for now, UPenn is waiting and I couldn't possible be more excited than I am now. Philadelphia here we come!

UChicago

Our day started out with a 7:30 AM breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast buffet had many things to choose from, but I kept it simple with fruit. After a short cab ride, we find ourselves at The University of Chicago. We were a bit early, so after checking in we had to wait a bit before our information session began. The informartion session included the 8 of us and Callie Brown.  Callie gave us a very thorough description of everything there is to know about the university. The topic that stood out the most to me was their application. They add a fun essay question in their applications. An example she gave us was, that one year the topic was a jar of mustard. The applicant then had to write about a jar of mustard. It is definitely not a common appliccation section, which is why it's so great.

It seems as though a pattern is forming, both of our tour guides for WashU and UChicago have been California natives! Our tour guide, Edgar, really knew how to entertain a crowd. He wasn't just showin us a building, he was taking us back in time to relieve an experience he had at that building. He had a story for every building. He made the tour personal, which I thought was a very good strategy. When we walked into the buildings, which all had air conditioning, he allowed us to take a break from the sun. He knew what to say to keep us focused. Edgar also joined us for lunch along with Janet, who is a student as well. We asked him a ton of questions and he answered them gladly in between bites of his hamburger. He told us about many of the events that have taken place on the campus. The one that he seemed the most enthusiastic about was the humans vs zombies game. It's a game where if a zombie touches a human, the human turns into a zombie. The last human alive wins the gane, and guess who won the game this year! If you guessed Edgar, then you are correct. Sadly Edgar had more tours to do so he had to leave us.

What I really liked about the campus was the different architectural structures of the buildings. Some of them were very hi-tech and modern looking, while others were more roman gothic looking. There was variety, not every building looked the same. The buildings aren't bunched up together, they're spread out. There were a lot of trees which provided shade from the heat. It really is a beautiful school.

Everybody was tired from walking around in Chicago's 100 degree weather, so after lunch we came back to the hotel. We all went to our rooms and enjoyed the free time we had. Tomorrow we will be visiting Northwestern. I can not wait to see what Northwestern is like!

Ladies First, Remember

The air was still quite humid at 7:45 PM when we departed for dinner at The Girl in the Goat.  So far today we received extremely positive feedback whenever we mentioned this reservation, so my excitement for dinner increased throughout the day.  When we first arrived at the restaurant we had about half an hour until our reservation so we waited outside in the humid heat for our guests, Callie Brown, Mario Gage, and his two friends to arrive.  This was only our second informational dinner and after the one we had with the Washington University admission officers and students, I could not wait to get settled into another intellectually stimulating discussion.  

I was surprised to see that the dress wear for the restaurant was fairly casual.  I felt that we stood out as a nicely dressed group compared to the table full of people dressed in jeans and a shirt outside.  Inside however there were a few with more formal attire, so I didn't feel that over dressed as I previously had.  Besides, regardless of the dress code, I think we should wear formal outifits to all of the dinners we have with admission officers or current students.  Our four guests were all dressed very nicely as well, and we quickly made our introductions before stepping through the revolving restaurant door.  While we had already met Callie Brown today at the information session, we each introduced ourselves to current University of Chicago student's Mario, Belle, and Ian.  As rising Juniors they were able to tell us more about the earlier experiences of college and I listened with great interest to these fascinating people.  

As for the food, each of us ordered one dish that would be made a double order and set at each end of our long, wood table.  This system worked out very nicely and we all had the chance to try small portions of everyone's desired dish.  At first I felt like I was not going to get enough food, but soon I realized that all of those small bites of each plate were indeed quite filling.  I must say that satisfying better describes how I felt after eating.  Throughout the night I was able to try bits of quail, escargot, green beans, beef tongue, lamb, vegetables, scallops, and even pig face.  Yes, the daunting pig face was recommended to us as the best dish of the house, so one of our brave guests, Callie, placed in the order.  This plate had all of us quite curious, but I myself felt ready to take on the new adventure.  By the time we received this dish, many of us had already formed a mental image of the actual face of a pig placed in front of us, so we were greatly surprised to find that the plate was delicately designed to comfort any worries the customer might have.  With an egg that covered almost hamburger-style patties, the dish was quite approachable and delicious.  Thank you Callie for making that adventurous decision for the rest of us, for it turned out positively eye-opening.

Scallops

One Piece of the Quail

My Delicious Shirley Temple

Green Beans

Pork Ribs

 

Broccoli Dish

In general I had a wonderful time at dinner and had many great laughs, mainly with students Bella and Mario.  The atmosphere was inviting, but it was a bit loud and that prevented me from being able to talk to the other guests at the opposite end of the table.  Even so, I made interesting conversation with those who were on my end, which was definitely worth it for me. 

I Love Trees

While I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Washington University at St. Louis, our tour through the University of Chicago piqued my interested even more.  The campus was beautiful, the students friendly, and the variety in architecture really caught my attention.

When we finished eating breakfast and left the hotel this morning, the temperature was not nearly as hot as I thought it would be, but it was definitely warm enough to feel completely comfortable in my summer dress.  We took two cabs to the University of Chicago, which only took about 10-15 minutes, and were dropped off right next to a tall building covered entirely by leaves.  This turned out to be a common trait among many of the buildings we visited and I absolutely loved being surrounded by so much greenery.

Building in Harper Hall

One of Two Campus Libraries

Leaves Gave a Comforting Feeling to the Buildings

We were first taken up a few flights of stairs by an admission officer, Callie Brown, who brought us to a meeting room and presented to us a great deal of information about the school.  Ian had already given us questions to think about asking during one of these events back in St. Louis, but I felt that Callie really nailed many of those topics without us even needing to ask.  However, we each threw her some questions to which she responded with thorough explanations.  Following this session, Edgar Gonzalez, a rising senior at the University of Chicago, and a native Californian, eagerly gave us a tour of the campus.  I liked the fact that the buildings had quite a bit of variety when it comes to architecture, size, and location.  He was a great tour guide with all of his entertaining and funny stories at several different spots on campus, and I felt a strong connection to the university once the tour was complete.  In other words, I can really picture myself on that campus and most definitely plan on applying to the university.

One of my favorite aspects of the application process at this school, was the supplement.  They do use the Common Application and require one basic additional essay, but they also require applicants to respond to another essay questions that is rather unusual.  "Find x," Callie said, giving an example of an additional essay prompt.  I thought maybe this was it, but she went on to further questions that were more abstract and thought provoking.  This is wonderful piece of the application process, I think, because it really gives students the chance to write on any number of situations or experiences they have had in their life.  In addition to the general forms and sections of a students application, the creative essay allows the admission officers to get a sense of how the student's mind works in a more abstract way.  These indirect questions give way for a great deal of creativity and deep thought, which I greatly appreciate and am excited to respond to!

Be Adventurous

At around 7:45 PM we left the hotel lobby, and made our way over to the restaurant. Tonight's restaurant was Girl and The Goat. When we told people where we would be having dinner, they were in total shock. Appareantly it is very hard to get a table at this restaurant, you could be waiting up to four months. They gave us a bit of information, such as how the food is amazing. We were all incredibly eager to see this place.

The restaurant was a lot different from all the other restaurants we've had dinner in. The atmosphere was definitely a lot more relaxed. The decor, music, and staff really did make you feel comfortable. We sat at a long table for twelve, because we had special guests. Tonight we had the honor of being accompanied by Callie (the admissions officer for Northern California), Mario, Bella, and Ian (current students at UChicago).

The soft shell crab

Pig's face

I think we were all a bit confused when we were reading the menu. Some of the foods that seemed a bit unusual were the pig's face, beef's tongue, roasted baby octopus, and the escargo ravioli. All of these dishes were new to us, and a bit intimidating, but we din't let that stop us. We wanted to be adventurous and try all of these mysterious foods. So we did, we ordered all of the dishes I mentioned earlier plus the quail, crab, goat empanadas, lamb, green beans, broccoli, and a lot more! Every single one of those dishes was delicious. It was clear to me then why the restaurant was so popular. I'd say tonight was the most fun we've had, and how could it not be with great company and phenominall food.



High On A Hill Was A Lonely Goatherd

I would like to preface by saying that every time we told someone from Chicago that we were going to have dinner at Girl & the Goat, their eyes got really round and they started talking about how amazing it is and how impossible it is to get reservations. By the time it came to go to dinner, I was pretty excited. I can happily say that my expectations were exceeded.

Peppers

The atmosphere at the restaurant was not what I was expecting–-the word that comes to mind is “trendy.” After dining at Tony’s earlier this week, I expected this restaurant to have a similar character. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was loud music playing and everything was very relaxed. I think the modern feel of the restaurant contributed to the great dining experience.

Baby octopus salad

Joining us for dinner tonight were Callie Brown, the NorCal Admissions Officer for U of Chicago, and three students from U of Chicago: Mario, Ian, and Bella. Although I didn’t get a chance to talk with Mario very much, he seemed like a great guy from what little interaction we had. (We were seated at opposite ends of the table so it was difficult to converse.) Bella, an econ major, was very friendly and told us about her new internship. I did get a chance to talk to Ian–-I was excited to find that he wants to travel to Japan. Clara and I were fortunate enough to go to Japan on a school trip last summer, so I enjoyed talking to Ian about Japanese culture.

Pork shank

I was really lucky in that I was able to sit near Callie, who was friendly and seemed happy to talk with us. We discussed U of Chicago a bit more, although we had already covered a lot during the info session. She told me about her experience playing varsity soccer at U of Chicago, which I found interesting because soccer is a big part of my life at the moment and I’ve been wondering how that will transition into college. Callie and I also shared travel experiences, and found that we both liked nature, animals, and new cultural experiences.

Beef tongue

I was glad to have the chance to talk to her in more detail, because it was very reassuring to hear her perspective about the college admissions process. Talking with her reminded me of the amazing position that I’m in, as I have so much freedom to apply wherever I want and then study whatever interests me in college.  Too often I find myself worried about the college application process instead of excited for the four great years that are to come, and Callie helped remind me why I want to go to college so badly.

Goat Cheesecake–Yummmmmm

The dining style at Girl & the Goat was a little unusual, but I liked it because it reminded me of Chinese banquets with my grandparents, where everything is ordered family style. Our waitress advised us to each pick one dish that we liked, and then she would bring two orders of each and we would all share everything. We took her advice and together complied a list including items such as pig face (Callie’s pick), escargot ravioli, baby octopus, goat empanadas, and beef tongue. I especially enjoyed the pork ribs, the pork shank, and the green beans. Both pork dishes were ridiculously tender, juicy, and flavorful. The flavor of the green beans, or at least the flavor of the sauce, somehow reminded me of Chinese food from back home. It was a little like finding an old friend in a new place, but with food. 

The shared dishes method of eating ensured that we got to enjoy all the different flavors that Girl & the Goat has to offer while preventing us from getting so full as to feel uncomfortable. Our meal finished off with a selection of desserts. I chose goat cheesecake because I assumed that it would be a specialty, as it included goat cheese. It was the best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten. Girl & the Goat was a unique dining experience that I will use to measure up against fancy dinners in the future, and if I find another comparable experience I will be happy indeed.