dh

NYU’s visit was crammed in many ways. It all took place within one day, the 1L class is pretty big there, and 280 people were at that visit day alone. Breakfast was nice: Columbia should consider copying the “chair” innovation we enjoyed in Vanderbilt Hall. Everything was sliced into 50 minute blocks, which was a bit annoyingly institutional, but they did put together an interesting program (though a bit over capacity). I’m not sure I like the size.

Public interest and international connections seem, of course, fantastic. Panels were pretty panelly, as usual. The big surprise was that the rumored amazing student body lived up to the rumors—instead of sleeping through a third afternoon panel in a row, I went to the admitted student “lounge” set up on the suggestion of the current students. The students there were so great that it is making me think really hard.

Big negative: housing. For the price of Columbia’s luxury aparthotel (and I’d be staying somewhere cheaper), you can get the worst option on campus at NYU. It costs more to take a step up to the nicer on-campus option, Mercer. Of course, there really isn’t a campus… but it’s close. The Village is very, very expensive. I think it’s fun but I’d like the more sedate uptown life a little better… but I really like the people downtown. Ugh. Tough.

Receptions with open bars were scheduled between 5 and 10 p.m. They’re serious about their feeding and greasing. I left before 6 to catch up with Curtis and Mike for Japanese food near Astor Pl., which was great. I’m more conflicted than before I visited (when I wasn’t really thinking about NYU because of the admissions office’s lack of communication). So… argh.

Saturday I met up with Brett, a friend from high school, and his New Yorker girlfriend. Nice lunch. Took the Staten Is. ferry and did a little tourist gawking, and then I was done.

I should be boarding for DTW soon, so I’m going to dash this off: I’m sure I’m leaving out a ton, but this is the gist.

I nearly got bumped from the DTW-LGA flight (and into first class at that, according to my nwa.com itinerary), but the annoying guy who first angrily declared that he was on the volunteer list before me (nope) decided that he couldn’t go then at all—despite the fact that he was in the departure lounge and sure looked like he could have gone. But I’m not bitter. What’s a free ticket, anyway?

I got to LGA on time, where I began a several-hour long $12 journey on the rather dirty and unprofessional “New York Airport Service” bus to Penn Station (which is really a bus to Grand Central and a mini-van to Penn Stn.). We ended up waiting (first in the cold, then in the dingy van) outside Grand Central for around 40 minutes. The van had no less than four signs encouraging tips and a driver eager to share his music with us. I should have taken public transport and just dealt with keeping control of my bags.

From Penn station, I took NJ Transit to Trenton and waiting several hours for the SEPTA R7 to Philadelphia. That took a while. Arrived at my Holiday Inn in the Old City (really a very good location), slept, and stuff.

This morning I woke up at 7 after actually getting enough sleep the night before (rare lately). Eventually, it was time to hop Philadelphia’s embarrassing subway (but at least there is one) to 34th and Market, near the law school. Entering the law school was a bit of a shock… I had to sign in and show ID at a security desk, waiting for a call to Admissions to confirm that I should be let in. City schools. Wandering around, I finally found Admissions—quite a different experience from the excited herding of an Admitted Students’ Event. The people in the office were very nice, though, while I waited for my 1L “host.” The adcomm dean popped out and greeted me for a few minutes in her office, and was as nice and helpful in person as before in e-mail and after on the phone.

While I waited, some more admits and prospectives came to the office. I didn’t see them again—I guess they were hosted by students with different schedules. One prospective wearing a full corporate monkey suit made me happy that I didn’t need to impress anybody. Life went on.

My host took me to his Criminal Law course, with a professor viewed by most of the people we talked to as “a good teacher but not great” (fabricated quote). It was definitely on a level below the Conlaw at UMich, but I was still able to follow and I think I’d definitely be able to learn the material. Damning with faint praise, but faint praise at Penn Law isn’t too shabby.

Next was lunch in undergrad land courtesy of Admissions. The law campus, aside from the grand entrance, is pretty plain, with a functional/office space look in many parts. It might be easier to read from those gigantic Powerpoint screens than from Michigan’s tiny chalkboards, though. The undergrad campus, though, is lovely. Admissions uncannily was able to provide another lunch beneficiary, a 2L from Morgantown who’s worked in China. After that, I asked a few questions and talked things over for a few minutes before the admissions office helped me with a tricky travel question and I headed back to the Old City.

Both the 1L and 2L were friendly and helpful—as one’d hope for self-selected recruiting assistants, but it’s still worth noting. Much was made of Penn’s small class size—something which doesn’t excite me that much. I think 100 either way isn’t that big a deal (says the 0L). Also promoted were the faculty, the “collegiality,” and other things Michigan is also known for. I didn’t make a secret that I was primarily comparing Penn to Michigan. Philadelphia seems to be rising, sure, but if I’m going to go through the extra trouble of going to a city school, my current thinking says it might as well be in New York. Penn’s decision to not give me money is also troubling, though there’s a chance they’d match some of the slightly better offers I already have. In the Penn vs. Michigan battle, everything Penn cited as an advantage (except Wharton and Philadelphia, yes) is a feature in Ann Arbor—except that up there it comes with a little less corporate focus and a little better law school architecture and more amusing university-licensed souvenirs. Philadelphia does, however, have cheesesteaks, which bring the schools back to even. Not being near New Jersey (I kid…) tips the tie toward Michigan for now.

I walked around the historical areas, saw the Liberty Bell, etc. after the visit. I remained in a non-picture-taking mood.

Tomorrow, I’ll be watching WVU play in the NIT semi-finals at Madison Square Garden. After that, Columbia and NYU promise to make my decision easier (or more likely even harder) on Wednesday-Friday.

My flights were fairly uneventful and fairly long yesterday—though they don’t compare to the 16-hour non-stop from New York (and that’s a good thing).

Apparently, at 5 a.m., the gate from Lingnan facing Fu Tai is closed. Finding this out at about 5:25, I got to run with my luggage along the driveway to the front gate and run back to Fu Tai. I still got the 5:30 A33, which cost $25… a little more than the E33, but cheaper than the taxi I’d have needed to get to it quite that early. It took just about an hour to reach the airport.

Here Northwest impressed me (not favorably) by shoving me at the back of the Economy class check-in line for passport verification. “Save time by checking in at nwa.com” … or not. It was the first day of the liquids/gels regime at HKG, so there were lots of nice free plastic bags. I guess that’s good. I broke with tradition and skipped Popeye’s (their breakfast selection wasn’t looking very good) and had some fast food while I basked in the Wi-fi.

The flight to Tokyo was fine. We got a meal, which is the nice thing about flying anywhere outside of the United States. In Narita airport, I ended up buying some hideously overpriced dumplings (3) and iced tea for around ¥720.

I had snagged a bulkhead aisle seat, but a mother and baby had snagged one of the middle seats in that row.  Instead of sleeping, I watched two-thirds of a season of Arrested Development.

SFO airport was disappointing.  Immigration was incredibly painless—as a matter of fact, the whole place looked pretty deserted.  Customs was more interested in whether I’d forgotten to pick up checked baggage than in my myriad visits to Thailand.  The terminal where I waited for my flight to Detroit, though, was disappointing.  This 20-gate range or so was cut off (by security) from the rest of the airport.  It had one restaurant, one coffee/smoothie place, a few newsstands and souvenir shops, and… that was it.  The restaurant had some clippings on the wall bragging about how SFO’s restaurants are 80% locally-owned.  These are weasel words for “few in number” and “unconscionably pricey.”  After my $6.95++ oatmeal (sob…), I sat down and started wondering about how I could imagine living in New York City.

I was paged before my flight to Detroit and told that due to an equipment change I had a new seat.  “Don’t worry, it’s still an aisle.”  Of course, it was in the last row and next to a mother with baby.  After the door closed, a flight attendant took pity on me and moved me up to the other free seat, also an aisle, about halfway up the plane.  Here the occupant of B (I was in C) told his squeeze in A that he was “really fuckin’ irritated” about that, as he sprawled halfway into my seat.  I used my Hong Kong-trained zen powers (the combination of inadequate food and lack of sleep) to cram my fleece against him and go to sleep.

I guess I’d irritated him some more: he switched with his friend, who seemed perfectly normal and contained her sprawling.

The flight was delayed a bit en route for weather problems, so when I arrived in DTW fast-food places were shutting down.  I gave in and booked a room in the Romulus, MI Super 8, which was decent.  It had an airport shuttle, which was my top consideration.  I escaped for under $50… I’m not happy about it, but it was good to have a room.  Took a sleeping pill from WVU’s travel docs around midnight, and woke up at 6:45 to my alarm.

Maxine, a high school classmate (and saint, I’ll add today), picked me up around 7:30 and drove me into Ann Arbor.  I walked around the Central Campus a bit and ate breakfast.  This, too, seemed deserted at around 8:30.  Maybe Michigan wakes up later, or maybe my metric of crowdedness has been severely warped by Asia.  It started raining as I went back to the Campus Inn to check in to my mostly-subsidized hotel room.  I’m in it now—it was ready really early.  Registration for the events starts at 1:00 p.m. over at the Lawyer’s Club, the (predominantly 1L, I think?) residence in the Law Quad.

And that’s that.  Boring, but exhaustive.  I’m not really feeling the lag right now, but I’m sure I will this evening.  I did get a few hours of accidental sleeping in flight, and I did knock myself out last night, so it shouldn’t be too bad.