Why I Came to University of Rochester

For anyone who has not read my bio, I am an international student from South Korea. I was born and raised there most of my life. In June, 2007,  I came to America (specifically Orange County, California) for education and started high school in my sophomore year. Just as most Californian high school students end up going to schools within their home state, international students in California mostly go to schools in California. There are a lot of reasons: wonderful weather, ethnic diversity, Hollywood, and general west coast culture etc. Now then, the question arises: Why in the world did I choose to study at University of Rochester?

It all traces back to May of 2009. At the end of junior year, I got a piece of mail from Rochester that had an invitation to the UR admissions forum in downtown LA. Alone, I took train to the Museum Of Contemporary Arts where the forum was held. At the event, there were several different speakers: an admissions officer from the school, a local high school counselor, current students of UR, and alumni. They showed the school video, mostly talked about academic freedom, cultural diversity, opportunities beyond studying, and shared experiences of going to University of Rochester in the past and now. Since it was my first college admissions event, I could not compare how good UR was to other schools (I later found out that other prestigious east coast schools usually don’t have many speakers and a great location with reception after the forum). I felt that the event was very informative and made me want to go to the school.

When the forum was done, there was a reception outside, which was a great chance for me to ask personal questions about the school. The first person I was trying to talk to was the admissions officer from UR, Mr. Mark Wells. After waiting for minutes to talk to him, like a machine gun, I started asking a number of questions regarding academic freedom, diversity and surrounding environments of the school. However, Mr. Wells responded that he could not answer my question because he had to fly to another city in California for other events, and soon left. Honestly, the impression I got from him at that moment was not that great, for I had begun dreaming about how it would be wonderful to go to a school with a great academics and various people from around the world. I looked around. Other students were with their parents and I was there alone by myself, wishing I had some guidance from parents like other high school students (my parents were in Korea and they did not go to college so I never had that opportunity).

It may seem like a not so good exemplary college forum experience, but after Mr. Wells left, something extraordinary happened. I was just eating by myself and was thinking about leaving when two people approached to me. Ilene Berg and Marc Gartner introduced themselves as alumni. They were asking me how I felt about the school and if I had any questions. Their warm greeting made me ask the questions I intended to ask Mr. Wells. I introduced myself as an international student, planning to study business related studies. They were so NICE that I just shared all the experiences – ups and downs – as an international student. Ilene and Marc listened to my story carefully. We gave each other emails for contact and they invited me to lunch in downtown in a few weeks.

Then several lunches followed. I got to know about them more and so did they about me personally. Marc studied economics and history at UR and went to several other schools in the US and in Europe for graduate studies. (He currently works for the current administration in Washington DC) Ilene studied film and became film/TV producer, director and blogger. (She also participated in the production of my favorite show Lost in season 1, which thrilled me) More lunches in downtown LA with them meant a deeper relationship with these alumni. At some point, they became my mentors. They were always there when I wanted ask questions about colleges, especially about University of Rochester, and when I needed advice in life. I was grateful I formed such a great relationship.

As the college application period came, Ilene and Marc became a great support and help for me. They encouraged me to apply different schools, which I did eventually. However, I firmly knew that University of Rochester was my first choice (I will share my application process later in other blogs).  Since I met Ilene and Marc and almost a year later, I got in to my dream school and that is how I ended up here in Rochester.

Now here is the answer to the question: more than anything, Ilene and Marc represented the school to me, and the humane relationship with them, allows me to call this institution “home” for the rest of my life.

By the way, my story with Mr. Wells, admission officer, does not end. He happened to be my pre-major advisor at University of Rochester! I guess that I was meant to know Mr. Wells anyway. Now that we know each other well before this academic year, we laugh all the time when we talk about what happened back in LA one and a half years ago. I feel he cares a lot about my path here and helps me a lot with planning my undergraduate years. At least now he won’t just leave me for another forum.