Melody Joy Kramer: Choosing a college need not be so stressful

Ah, summer session. The greasy smoke hovering over the food trucks mixes with the nauseating aroma of urine that permeates the dank corners of campus. The Ugg species descends into a subterranean burrow to sweat out the summer months, only to be replaced by a heartier beast: neon Steve Madden flip-flops. And high school students descend upon Penn ready to pad their resumes with introductory level college classes, knowing that an A or two will make the application process to [Insert Super College Name Here] just a tad easier.

It would be easier for applicants if colleges simply sent out a vast network of spies throughout the world to create their freshman class. The secret agents could infiltrate classrooms and extra-curricular activities, determining after many months of observation who they wanted to enter their echelons of higher learning in the fall. Students would be informed of their acceptances in April, there would be no early decision, essays, or interviews, and informants would be disposed of properly. But since the Chronicle of Higher Education has rejected this idea due to privacy laws and a few Constitutional provisions, I have no choice but to suggest different application advice to the high school students now roaming West Philadelphia.

I will not tell you how to write your essay on how you spent your summer helping manatees while inventing a cancer drug and touring Europe. Nor will I tell you to make sure you wear pants to your interview or become extra-chummy with your admissions counselor. There are websites where people devote their evenings to posting their statistics and assessing each other's skills. The Princeton Review message boards display legions of high school students trying to determine whether qualification A without qualification B will result in acceptance to school X. "What are my chances?" these students ask each other, sure that one of them will impart the right answer or contain a nugget of information pertinent to their application.

I imagine these teenagers with eyes glazed over, staring at their monitors, trying to determine if everything they do will have some bearing on college. Should I go to the mall, they wonder, or should I do something for my resume? I want to shake them, tell them to go out to a coffee shop, to see a movie, maybe breathe in some fresh air or go down the Shore for a weekend and just be with their friends. Most of all, I want to tell them to relax, because choosing a college is not as big -- or as permanent -- a decision as you are making it out to be. I should know, because Penn was not the first college I attended.

I picked my first college based on the wrong reasons. Simply put, I ignored the advice of my parents, teachers, and guidance counselor, and followed The Boyfriend to a school up north, in what could be described nicely as the middle of nowhere. My parents let me go, though they couldn't believe I was following The Boyfriend and leaving the area. I have no idea to this day why they let me do that, but I thank them, because I became a lot more independent and responsible.

However, after two months up north, I hated being away from this area so much that I dropped out of school. I went to the registrar, canceled my classes, and called my mother to tell her I was coming home. A day later, I dropped back into school, after waking up and realizing that I dropped out of all of my classes. I finished out the year and applied to local schools right before the deadline. Since then, The Boyfriend and I have amicably parted our ways. After three years and seven months, four schools, and almost two presidential elections of dating, we broke up in a matter of hours. Don't follow your high school romance to college. And if you do, and you hate it, switch.

So high school students, the best advice I can offer to you is this: if you make a mistake, it's possible to change schools. You can do all the research you want this summer, but actually moving far away from home is quite a different experience. Fortunately, your decision is not permanent. You can transfer. We're human, we make mistakes. I wouldn't even call my first school a mistake. It was more like trial-and-error. I picked Penn simply because the deadline hadn't passed and it was close to my house.

When you're enjoying Penn this summer, make sure you take in more than just your classes. Philadelphia is fabulous and not taking advantage of it would be a shame. Don't just sit on campus and worry about grades and what you're planning to do this fall. There are always deadlines for that.

Melody Joy Kramer is a junior English and urban studies major from Cherry Hill, N.J.

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