Friday, June 23, 2017

Wildcats and Willis Tower

Javaria woke me up at 8:40 AM telling me that we had overslept a little bit so we were a little rushed in getting ready. We still had plenty of time before we had to meet Robson and Deven but it's just us, we just take a while to get ready. We all met up in the lobby and Deven suggested grabbing some McDonald's breakfast even though he could picture Don shaking his finger at us for going across the country to eat the same food we could get anywhere. When we stepped outside and began walking towards the Chicago L, which is the equivalent of BART, the moisture in the air was prevalent. The tickets we used worked like clipper cards and something I noticed was that when you got on the train, the driver wouldn't come on the speaker to state the doors were closing. The doors just closed and from the looks of it people were just rushing on and off hoping they got lucky. Maybe that is just a Chicago thing?

The Cornell cohort arrived in Evanston and it was such a cute little college town, it was bright and colorful and had cafes every block or so. It was very sunny so the walk down to Northwestern was lovely. We stopped several times along the way to take pictures with historic buildings such as the Woman's Club of Evanston and the home of Frances Willard, the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

We arrived outside Segal Visitors Center and had a mini photoshoot (of course!) before walking down a bit towards the beach. I didn't want to go on the sand because of my shoes, so Javaria and Robson went down while Deven and I were talking about why Northwestern is on my list for colleges to apply to, how it offers different areas of my interest, and how the tour may change my perspective completely.

Inside there were many people with their parents, all upcoming seniors touring colleges since application are due in a few short months. I could relate to the curiosity and some of the stress coming off of them about college decision making. While waiting for the presentation part to begin I grabbed one of the information packets about undergraduate admissions and financial aid since I wanted to learn more about incoming undergrad students and the different majors that they offered, the school you would apply to as well as the demographics which were surprising. A girl named Kaitlyn who is an advisor and alumn of Northwestern called us in and she actually introduced the whole thing. She was accompanied by another advisor named Drew in beginning with asking us who we are. We played a game called "Who Traveled the Farthest" and we set the bar pretty high, until someone from India raised his hand. Drew asked if anyone was from Pakistan and Javaria and I were the only one to raise our hands. That stated a lot about the crowd gathered; most were locals and the rest were from the east coast.
The Cornell cohort. 

They had a presentation on the different schools within the university, how the different schools work such as the Kellogg School of Business and how it's where you go for your Master's Degree but can still receive certificates by taking six to nine courses. Certificates were new to me, it is what students do at Northwestern who want to pursue another degree of knowledge without having to major or minor in that area which I thought was unique. Northwestern has a quarter and we learned about the benefits of timing and being able to graduate in four years taking eight to ten more courses than a school ons semester system. That does not include summer classes!

We covered the different opportunities for finding your community, with groups and organizations ranging from chess team to a trash-talking chess team. Northwestern really does have a lot. We also went over the financial aid; Kaitlyn and Drew made it seem much less intimidating and even mentioned that there's 3.5 million dollars in funding that is solely available for undergrads. They talked about how Northwestern was need based and also need blind. Drew spoke about how students get selected based on where we come from, so coming from a school that doesn't offer many IB or honors I would get compared to someone with the same opportunities as me, not someone who goes to a privileged which a vast offering of courses. The student to instructor ratio is seven to one and instructors are one hundred percent expected to hold office hours, a student also takes 4 classes per quarter, and there are three quarters with one being during the school year. though, that is used more for student for applied learning such as internships or research projects.

Eunice and I. 
The tour guides ran in after with their energy level at about one hundred, their smiles lit up the room as they introduced themselves, the majority of them were Theater majors with other fields of study. We split up into groups, introduced ourselves and followed our tour guide as she walked backwards throughout the entire tour. We saw 'The Rock' as they call it and learned about the history of it being donated in the early 1900's and in the 1940's being painted by one of the graduating classes, actually guarded at night and was next to what used to be a dorm hall before they pushed it further back since the pipes were rendered useless. It painted so much that someone tried to drill in to see how far it would go and the drill broke at 8 inches. A rule that every student knows and follows is that if one wishes to paint the rock they must guard it for 24 hours prior, with students setting out tents and everything at night it gets serious.

I started talking with a girl from Illinois named Eunice Zhou who was also a senior and visiting the school with her dad, she was super sweet and actually had the same interests as me in what to study in college. We were both interested in computer science and would apply to the School of Engineering at Northwestern if we were to attend. She even has family in California and is visiting in July, so I will definitely be telling her about all the fun places to go visit!

Our tour guide. I love her dress!
Our tour guide took us down a trail while pointing out which building did and did not look like Hogwarts before we arrived at -- as the students call it -- 'Fake Michigan' which is the remains of Lake Michigan before they filled it in and built on it. Which is also where Armadillo Day takes places right before finals week in the spring semester and is the largest student produced music festival. We walked into a guest services building where our tour guide answered our questions about class sizes, culture and community and sports.

Our tour guide told us about a friend she had who got funding to travel to Europe and went to different music festivals. She also told us one of her requirements for a school was that it had to have a football team. Northwestern has 19 varsity teams and is a Division 1 school. Our tour guide was telling how students get into all the games for free with their student card and the tradition of singing the fight song at the games, she even offered to sing it for us after the tour. She also told us about the various study abroad opportunities, what stood out to me was that you could go anywhere to six of the seven continents and study anything, with some limitations on language immersion programs. The credit would transfer back and that financial aid travels with you, so you would pay as much for a quarter abroad as you would pay at NU.

As the tour came to an end our tour guide answered the supplementary question you answer when applying to Northwestern, which is "Why Northwestern?" Her answer was that she wanted a school which offered area for growth and improvement which allowed her to explore more than one area of study. a school that was flexible and held community which she found everywhere she went and that Theater for her was something she knew she wanted to pursue an education in, she felt like she belonged at Northwestern and showed nothing but purple pride. I stayed and thanked her and told her about what brought be to Northwestern and Chicago, I asked if I could have a picture for my blog and she told me she loved the idea of it.



I began talking with a girl named Camber from Maryland, she was actually a sophomore and I told her about my interest in MICA, which is a fantastic art school. I told her about how I'm going to Cornell and that is actually the school she wants to attend to become a vet! We exchanged information so that I could tell her all about my experience, I told her about my blog and she thought it was interesting how I came from so far for more school when it was my vacation time. Initially, we had planned on seeing some sights in Evanston such as the Mary and Leigh Block Museum or maybe even the lighthouse. Deven had wanted us to make it to Willis Tower so that we would have enough time to spend there. We took the train and walked a few minutes before arriving there.

As I entered I immediately took in how open it was, I felt so small walking through to the elevator which brought us up to pass through security. There was a few rooms with attractions in Chicago, what they have to offer and facts about them such as who the architect and designer was as well as what historical visitors have visited there. We walked through to where there was a room with a large digital display showcasing how tall the skyscraper was in retrospect. There was a second elevator which we took up to the top, Willis Tower is 108 stories tall being 1,450 feet. There was a digital display board above where it was showing how high we were going and when we surpassed the height of other attractions such as the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower. Since the elevator was taking us up so fats and smooth I hadn't even realized how swiftly we arrived at the top. 

We went up to the 103rd floor where the ledges were, the ledges were clear boxes built that were extending beyond the walls of the building itself. You actually stepped into a little clear box and had to tell yourself not to look down, at least that is what I did when I first stepped on since it made my heart race. The Skydeck also had binoculars which we could insert change into to zoom in on certain pats of the city which I of course had to do. I could even see Michigan in the distance across Lake Michigan, very faint, but I could still see it when Deven had pointed it out to me. We stopped by the souvenirs and looked around before feeling satisfied with the hundreds of pictures we took. Stopping by some gift shops before walking out to grab some dinner. 

The long awaited Giordano's! We went one that was closest to the Skydeck which only a few minutes walk, I am not surprised since Don told me there are 19 in Chicago. The famous deep dish pizza, I had been waiting to try it, we ordered some appetizers and Deven was asking us about Pakistan, what it's like and how it compares to our life here since both Javaria and I have vivid memories from visiting so often throughout our childhoods. we were joking about he would probably blend in there with no problem at all, the benefits of being ethnically ambiguous. We told him about how not many people are educated and how it is very valued, and how it's the reason we have a deeper appreciation for exposure to new things, and the ILC allowing to embark on this opportunity which we would never have otherwise. Taking some more pictures and being a total tourist which I have really been enjoying lately, we came back to the Omni hotel to blog and get everything ready for the long day ahead. Almost there,  Ithaca. 


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