Midwood High School - Epilog Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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n In Glnllrgwll Some people like to read about and write to colleges in alphabetical order. I file everything according to color. Every college seems to go in for a different color for its catalog cover, and that same school may even have different shades of that same color to differentiate between its various publications. Most application forms are printed on white paper. But when you get down to school record reports, scholarship applications, and personal recommendation forms-every color of the rainbow is represented. You can get to recognize the old hand at this college business by listening to him talk about his adventures in application land. He generally speaks like this: Say, what have you heard from your school? Did they send you their green form yet? Oh, you already have the red one and you expect to get the yellow papers in the mail .... As I said, some file alphabetically, but I Hle according to the system of Roy G. Biv. Now you have the catalogs, application blanks and booklets that give you a complete history of the school, replete with the names of its illustrious graduates and a list of the Presidents of the United States it has produced. These histories must be studied with great care, for who knows but what your interviewer might ask you about the work of President Rufus Iones, who revolutionized our entire educational system by instituting the practice of putting chairs in the classrooms. Some small Eastern schools take especial delight in quoting a bit of poetry some distinguished alumnus has written in honor y 9, of his beloved alma mater. N You read the histories, scanning the list of , classes to find out how many different vari- : eties of Shakespeare they teach. You look '- to see if they have built a new addi- tion to their gymnasium within the last ten years, and if so you are 5 fsll-. quick to liken it to the Colosseum. t if 'Az-X3 You find out how many students if gi-X2 1'-QQ they accepted from Midwood last gi! 1 '4 L year and then you ask your friend's 5 1 friend what he thinks of the school. QA few accept Mister Lovejoy in lieu of a friend's advice.j Finally, 6 N after having amassed all of this very -Oo, l valuable information you decide that ' it might be worth a try. After all - they have to accept somebody, and .EQ- j.f ff X I there's a chance that it might be 'I ',..-.QNX L you. - 'I ' f You've decided, now what? You X read, If you wish to be considered as an applicant for admission, fill S

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Sm 131111 ant Gln ly A, , X .1 'ip Ma I Comes September and the senior begins to rea- fi i N lize that he is not going to spend all of his days x il within the confines of Midwood High School, and 5 what's more, held better start wondering about T what to do after graduation day. There are several . ----- roads open to him: enlistment-no-they'll get 7: iiiii 71 :' me eventually. A much more dangerous and excit- ing form of sport, indulged in by many seniors, is referred to simply as, The College Rat Race. QThe only people that ever tried to define this sport ended up writing psychol- ogy tests for prospective applicants to Brooklyn, so 1,11 confine myself to a discussion of what actually happens to a senior when he decides to throw caution to the winds and- afzflyfb A mere declaration of intention doesn't qualify anyone to be a member of the college merry-go-round. The Hrst step, usually taken sometime in October, is the writing of the initial letter fi.e. the twenty-five sheets of good stationery you wasted when you misspelt -oops, the name of your college, or when you wrote University with a small u. j This is the letter that after ten days of intensive research and perusal of Better Letter Writers emerges as: Dear Sir fs? g Please send me a catalog Quej. Thank youf' Any good almanac will supply you with lists of every accredited institution of higher learning on both sides of the Mississippi, so you simply go down the line checking off every college you ever heard of, or thought you heard of-the one that Uncle George attended, and for good measure you can throw in the ones with nice sounding names. A copy of the letter is then sent to each of your forty-eight choices. Occasionally colleges get mail addressed to them by mistake. N.Y.U. receives letters asking for Columbia catalogs, Vermont gets letters asking which is quicker: the l.R.T. or the B.M.T., while many prospective C.C.N.Y. students want to know if the skiing in New England is really as good as it's cracked up to be. There is also more than one Miami U. as some seniors have rather painfully discovered. But in a while all the letters are out and you can sit back and relax. Take a deep breath now, because from here on in to the awesome day of the College Boards, there just wonlt be any leisure time. In about two weeks the catalogs start rolling in. In three weeks there is a steady How of mail coming to your home, and in four weeks you are snowed under by mountains of pamphlets, catalogs, leafiets, letters, lists, pictures, preliminary application blanks, final application blanks and letters that tell you of all the other pamphlets, cata- logs, leaflets, etc. that are yours just for the asking. After you've cleared out half the bookcases in the house in order to accommodate all of this paraphernalia, you can begin the job of wading through the oceans of literature that confront you. 12

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,-..,,. 3 out the enclosed preliminary il, application blank and return promptl . Eas enou hg all the l mTERVlEwERl-S want toyknow yourgname anti ls your father an alumnus? OFFICE QSome don't even ask for your 57 - name., XFX! The formal application blank N . arrives a few weeks later in a , 5-X lx . long, white, official-looking enve- R lope. Red and yellow papers fall e l'-5, L., out of the envelope once itls ,LN 4 opened, to modestly announce: YSL X i Information for applicants con- ? i cerning the College Entrance ' t A Board Examinationsf, The infor- ill mation is, in effect, that entrance 6- I examinations are given during 'f ffl various months throughout the Y Q .. year-examinations are given in all subjects-and it doesn't mat- ter very much which exams you take as long as you take something. The one exception is, of course, that if you are applying for admission to the School of Archaeology, it is advised that you include Ancient Greek and Cuneiform in your program of tests. The exams are a long way oH, so let's go on to the immediate problem that confronts you-the application. Some of the questions asked of you on the application blank are quite understandable: Did any of your descendants come over on the Mayflower?', or Are you in any way related to Iames Worthington Forsythe Van de Graffe Fitz- Hugh? fOne can easily understand that any college would favor relatives of distin- guished and illustrious alumni.j Sometimes only factual information is required- Date of Birth: Month ...,..,..,...... Day ,.... ...,....... Y ear .....,..,..,.... Moon Phase ........... But the kind that are the most fun run something like this: Name ....... ............. Why do you want to go to college? Address ....................,.. Why do you want to go to our college? Name of High School presently attended ..........,..... Are you sure that you want to go to our college?,' The application having been filed at last, all that remains between you and your ivy-colored dreams is the little matter of the College Boards. The students generally manifest distinctly different attitudes towards the exams. There are those, Whose every hour must be spent in study. This variety usually goes in for Messrs. Hacker, Kendrick, Bemis and Beard. The nonchalant generally lean toward Thirty Days To a More Powerful Vocabulary. But the most intriguing of all is the, I'M not going to study-I want to Walk into the exam room cold type. I have a vague distrust for these people-they probably go to bed with How To Pars That Test! The day of the College Board Exams comes and goes and then one day your letter arrives. Nervously, you rip open the envelope and with bated breath read: The President of the United States sends greetings . , . ll! Robert Blum