[College Tour]
          After an intense week of studying and taking my final exams, I took a short break for two days and headed to Atlanta, Georgia, from Hartford, Connecticut. Since I had a week of free time until the start of the pre-college program Brown University, my dad and I planned to visit some of the colleges that I was thinking about applying to my senior year.
 
          When I arrived at the Atlanta airport, I immediately met up with my dad who had flown all the way from Korea to Atlanta to pick me up. After renting a car at the rental car center, we drove to Emory University. We arrived at Emory University before the official information session and a tour, so we had some time to look around the university by ourselves. Since I am personally interested in studying psychology and pursuing a pre-medicine track in college, my dad and I visited Emory Medical School, which is adjacent to the Emory College campus. The Emory Medical School has a total of three main buildings (A,B, and C), but the day we visited was a Sunday, so we hardly saw any people in the medical centers. We had no choice but to leave shortly after we had arrived because most of the doors were locked and not many special events were taking place.
 
          Next day during the official tour, my dad and I had a much better chance to get a sense of what Emory University really looks like. Since it was my first informative session and first college tour, I paid particularly close attention. What I liked most about the Emory University campus was the modern looking buildings. Not only that, the best part as a whole was that there were plenty of restaurants in and around campus for students. Since I am from a boarding school in a rural area of Connecticut, having so many restaurants near the school campus is like a dream come true. After the tour, I talked with the admissions officer about the quality of the pre-med courses at Emory, and he said that Emory students have a lot of resources available to them because the Emory Medical Center is located right next to the campus. In addition, he told me that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is located near Emory University, so Emory medical students have a great deal of opportunity to take part in certain internships and programs. When I finished the campus tour, my dad and I visited the school store and had a quick lunch at the school cafeteria.
 
[Emory University store]
          The next day, on June 6, my dad and I flew from Atlanta to St. Louis to visit Washington University. When I first passed through the school’s front gate, I saw a bunch of old-fashioned buildings. The school itself was not as big as I had thought. Compared to Emory, there were not as many restaurants near or on campus. Even the school was smaller than I thought, I got lost several times, even after the tour, when I was trying to locate the dining hall and the school store. Whenever I got lost, students or school employees would approach whether or not I needed help. This kindness helped increase my fondness for this school.
 
           After the tour, I looked at the itinerary given by the admissions office, and I had an interview after lunch. Some people get nervous at interviews, but I actually really enjoyed having it. Before the interview started, I thought that maybe it would be more like another information session by a school counselor or admission officer, but it turned out to be an interview conducted by a current undergraduate student. The interviewer focused more about on asking me about myself as opposed to focusing on the school or the admission process. At the end of the campus visit, my dad and I headed to the Lambert Saint Louis Airport using the Metro, which was the first time I rode a train to get to the airport.
 
[Walking down the stairs in front of Washington University in St. Louis]
          After my dad and I flew back to Hartford, CT, we got a rental car again and headed to Boston for a couple of other school tours in the Boston area.
 








Youngjae (Aaron) Kim
Grade: Rising 12th
Pomfret School
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