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So, against my better instincts, I went to the prefrosh weekend. The campus is, at is was then, approximately 30% female, and that 30% is perhaps better known for mental aptitude than, say, other characteristics. Curiously, I met or saw at least 3 cute girls that weekend. To this day, I am convinced Caltech hired them for the weekend to pose as potential students.
During the day, I struck up a conversation with a sophomore girl.
"You're a prefrosh?"
"Yeah", I replied. "How do you like it here?"
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"What's your major?"
"Biology - I'm a premed." This provoked some surprise from me - Caltech is notoriously difficult with grades, and premeds are of course notoriously obsessive about them.
"Oh, wow - that's cool that you would be a premed at Caltech", I said, completely failing to grasp where this conversation was soon headed.
"Yeah, I mean, you know, I know that grades are tougher here, but you know, I think...I think medical schools will...I mean, I hope they will understand that...that it's different here...and just because I have...I have a C doesn't...it doesn't mean that..."
Her voice was quivering, and I raised my palms and started mumbling, "hey hey it's okay it's okay". That didn't really do the trick though - a moment later she was flat out bawling in front of me. As I, a helpless 17 year old, stood there stunned, this college sophomore continued to cry her eyes out. I made some vague consoling gestures, but she shooed me away. At that point, my friend, a fellow prefrosh passed us and I just bailed, said a quick bye and left this girl sobbing in the hallway. Sort of a fantastic moment for everyone involved.
Fast forward to that evening. I went to get some food at some sort of mini-student center. The cashier looks Indian, maybe Pakistani, with very delicate features. I order some fries.
"You're a prefrosh?" Man, that must have been like stamped across my face.
"Yeah - how do you like it here?"
She looked pensive for a moment. "I would have to say I really don't like it."
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"Why did you decide to come here?"
"Well, I am from Pakistan, and I did not really know anything about American colleges. My family had a copy of that magazine, and it ranked Caltech number one. So that's what I chose."
Wow. Brutal.
"Okay, um, I'm gonna go eat some fries now."
At midnight, I headed to the gym for "Midnight Basketball". Although I play basketball, I'd be hard-pressed to classify myself as anything better than "average". But in this gym, I was Kevin Garnett, reincarnated as a 6'2" Asian guy. I played in a 5 on 5 game where 6 or 7 of the guys appeared as though they had never played basketball before in their lives.
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During a water break, one of the especially awkward guys came up to me.
"Hey man, you're really good!"
"Oh, um, thanks man."
"You're a prefrosh?" Again.
"Yeah - how about you?"
"Oh I go to school here. I'm actually on the basketball team."
Whoa whoa whoa. What? Whoa. "What?"
"Yeah - a bunch of us right here are." He pointed to 5 or 6 other guys we had been playing with. "We play all the time."
Whoa whoa whoa - what? They play all the time? What?
"Yeah, man, you should come to school here and join the team!"
Weeks later, as I retold the story, someone would mention to me that Caltech's basketball team had not won a game in eight years. I couldn't decide what was more shocking: 1) that they hadn't won in eight years 2) that they managed to beat someone eight years ago (who could it have been?) or 3) that the guys I was playing with represented a school that had a basketball team for over eight years.
It was in all honesty sort of a selling point for Caltech in my mind. If I were to enroll, I would become, within an extraordinarily narrow definition of the term, a basketball superstar. Alas, I did not attend Caltech, and my dreams of basketball "greatness" would go unfulfilled.
Even today, I still dream about what could have been.
16 comments:
This was one of the best posts I've read in a long time. Not that I haven't liked your other stuff, it's just that this has the true eric feeling to it. entertaining, purposeful, genuine. If I was a three-toed sloth, you'd get six thumbs up.
This post is really freaky because I just watched Accepted today of my own volition. It was not good, but I didn't have to think.
You should tell this story everyday. To think, you could have gotten a full ride if a scout was there!
i watched a little bit of accepted tonight as well.
i, too, saw accepted today
I did not watch accepted. However, my dad did try to get me to apply to Caltech by dangling the "you could be a starter on a college basketball team" carrot in front of me.
perhaps caltech accepted you because you wrote an entire essay on sports trivia. they know a recruit when they see one :)
I guess a lot of us get HBO.
what up KG?
rematch in AC this coming year?
(btw, i can totally see you walking away from a crying young college age female)
freaking HILARIOUS! i read this post every time i need a good laugh.
keep up the good work.
would you rank mashburn's teeth as #1 on the star athlete bad teeth list?
Some of them wear mouthpieces so it is hard to know with complete certainty, but I think so.
There is actually an awesome article written about the Caltech team by Rick Reilly. Its about 1. how horrible they are, but 2. how academically accomplished they are-- something like 7 1600's on the team 8 valedictorians, etc etc.
Here is a link to a copied version of the article
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/archive/index.php/t-136699.html
Actually, I don't have HBO. That's the scary thing. I took a DVD and plugged it into my computer.
Eric - Varsity Basketball star, vs. Eric - guy who played occasionally in Dillon and played on the asian basketball team. Seems like you made the wrong choice
Seems like an old post but I'll bite.
I was there that weekend with you. what scared me the most was the gothy dorm where they smashed chairs and burned them in the courtyard for the hell of it. I think I remember talking to you about how serene the campus looked, and you noted that it was because there wasn't actually anybody walking around on campus.
Ohhhh yeah - the chair smashing and burning - I forgot all about that haha.
That was terrifying.
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