but it was one of the smaller colleges my mom suggested i take a look at. in high school and college i tended to “make waves” and stand out, so i decided that a small liberal arts school would be more suffocating than personal for me. i ended up going to notre dame, still sticking out like a sore thumb, then going to the wilderness of new mexico for two years, and now im doing a masters degree at the university of pennsylvania.

the best advice i can give is to decide what size and temperament of a school really fits with your personality. allegheny was too small for me, and notre dame was a good size but too conservative. the urban setting of upenn would have been bad for me as an undergraduate, but i love it now as a grad student.