So my roommate and I are hosting a prefrosh for Caltech’s Prefrosh Weekend. The way it works is that prefrosh fill out this interest sheet which are distributed to each of the houses and each house allows their members to pick who they want to host.
When Avery had it’s prefrosh picks, I got there fairly on time and scanned through the interests sheets. Within a few sheets, I was astounded and exclaimed: “They’re all the same!” And a bunch of people agreed. Really!
Well, I suppose some things had to be similar like academic interests. Of course they all put something like science or math. But then there are fields like: Who is your ideal host? The general answer (on over 90% of the sheets I’ve read) was something like:
Nice, sleeps early, someone who doesn’t listen to loud rock, etc.
Then there is this other question: What do you like to do besides science and engineering? Now this question was pretty funny. Here’s the 90% response:
I like to listen to soft Jazz, read books, and I play [insert some classical music instrument]. Some of them play a sport like Tennis. But overall, there was virtually no distinguishing characteristics between prefrosh. I kind of understand admissions officers rejecting applications since they were the normal boring “science and math” person now.
Another question was: What kind of music do you listen to and how loud? What kind would you avoid?
90% response was: Soft jazz or classical at a low volume. Avoid loud rock or rap.
One response included: I detest heavy metal.
The final question was: What are the top three things that interest you at Caltech?
90% response:
1. Academics/Research
2. Meeting smart people.
3. Getting freedom/Being able to manage own time.
So I bet you’re probably saying to yourself: “Well, Mike, weren’t you like that when you applied too?” Okay, I admit I wrote down some of the same things like academics/research and playing musical instruments, but I wrote a LOT more than that. While 90% of these kids wrote like one liners, I filled up the spaces with my interests ranging from music (all sorts of intruments and styles) to anime/manga and martial arts. And hell no, I didn’t write classical/jazz music as my favorite type. I mean, I like playing classical and jazz, but I don’t like to listen to them for enjoyment. They get boring pretty quickly whereas rock is much more energizing with catchy beats and lyrics. Somehow I get this feeling that a lot of the prefrosh are religous so they have this thing against supposedly immoral music like rock and rap.
Alright, I must also admit that I’m slightly misrepresenting the prefrosh here since I was only reading the sheets that were distributed to Avery (selected by a group of Avery students). And they just had to select some of the most boring people around.
Finally, if you happen to be offended by this rant, I apologize. In retrospect, there’s nothing wrong with doing whatever one likes to do. That’s right, be your own person!
Don’t take this post seriously! And if you took the last sentence seriously, then there is no hope for you.
