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"This is a state-of-the-art classroo the door of a roo that hurt ht Why would anyone design such antiseptic, uninspiring spaces as classrooms?

Mãe didn’t like either state U any more than I did "We could try one et out of the truck" I was having second thoughts about going to college at all

The first private school we visited was a ned campus, all red brick with doors andframes painted white, shaded by sycamore trees The classrooms had posters and framed art on their walls The dormitory lacked the zoolike qualities of the others we’d seen; students huddled over laptops at their desks or talked in s there Almost

"Everyone is white," I whispered to Mãe

When we talked with the admissions director, he said the school tried to recruit "a diverse population" I guess that population didn’t want to come to a school where everyone else hite The director seemed excited by my last name and appearance; I heard hi home-schooled, I realized, was that I’d never been labeled, by others or by o to a school where I’m called the first Latina," I said to Mãe

We were back in the truck, headed south "Okay," she said "It seemed a little prissy, anyway"

We drove onto the Hillhouse campus on a sunny afternoon in October Mãe had toldfarm, and all of the students had jobs either on the far to operate and: a laith oak, syca leaves I hadn’t seen a rake since leaving Saratoga Springs And the students were a diverse assortment, ethnically and otherwise They had hair of all colors, dyed vivid green and blue and orange and red, and e costuypsies, pirates, and rock stars While so in the piles of leaves They reminded me of a pack of raccoon babies I’d seen back in Sassa, tu down a slope for the sheer pleasure of it

As I watched, a boy sprang out of a mound of leaves as if he’d been launched; the leaves scattered everywhere, and some of the others picked up handfuls and tossed them at him "Thanks a lot, Walker," one said

He had wavy hair the color of sand, blue eyes, flushed cheeks, full lips, white teeth He s leap into another leaf pile I wondered why I was noticing so much about him I wondered why I hoped he’d notice me

We parked the truck and s werenarros that looked out onto the lawns and fields Most had porches, and every porch had a row of rocking chairs

While Mãe and I waited for the admissions officer, I read a pamphlet entitled A Brief History of Hillhouse The school’s philosophy was ressive school in Britain Hillhouse was run as a cooperative community, to which everyone contributed at least fifteen hours of work a week Everyone was expected to attend weekly governance ned their own curricula, and they received written reports on their progress rather than grades The courseas designed around a series of projects planned jointly by the students and professors

The policies sounded sensible to me I didn’t realize how unusual they were until later, when I read the catalogs we’d collected at the other schools The catalogs ees: a syste assumption that students were children who had to be pressured in order to learn

Hillhouse didn’t require applicants to take entrance exarade transcripts Application decisions were made on the basis of the interview and on three essays submitted with the application

The ad woman ide eyes and an open face Like everyone we’d met at the other schools, she seemed relentlessly cheerful

"So," she said, after ere introduced, "I understand that you’re a legacy"

I’d never been called that before

"Yes," Mãe said "I graduated froo"

Cecelia Martinez wondered what sort of plastic surgery my mother had had "You two look like sisters," she said

My mother didn’t look more than thirty, I realized And Cecelia Martinez wasn’t one of us I wondered if anyone at Hillhouse was a vampire

Mãe left the roo was truly formal at Hillhouse) First, Ms Martinez asked me about my education She asked me to describe my favorite teacher

"I was home-schooled," I told her "My father was my teacher" What should I say about him? I described his biomedical research, his work into the development of artificial blood I talked of our lessons in mathematics, science, philosophy, and literature I didn’t say, And he’s a vahts and turn invisible, but he prefers not to

"That’s great," Ms Martinez was saying "So you’re an only child Do you have lots of friends?"

I said I’d had a few close friends I didn’t say, Both of them disappeared

Then she asked about my hobbies and interests, and I told her about , about learning to cook and surfing the Internet

"Terrific," she said "And what do you think you’d like to major in, if you come to Hillhouse?"

"I’m not sure yet," I said "I think I’d like to work on interdisciplinary projects I’m interested in the ways different cultures communicate within themselves and with each other Maybe I’ll becoht

She loved that answer "You should talk to Professor Hoffman," she said "He leads the interdisciplinary studies department here"