I’d Rather Be a Bluejay
1
Posted by: Hopkins Insider | 
August 9 2010 | 
Comments (1)
Name: Marina Gaeta
Year: Class of 2014
Hometown: Ithaca, NY
Intended Programs of Study: Writing Seminars and Neuroscience
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One of my unexpected favorite things about being a pre-frosh at Hopkins is the camaraderie that emerges between all students, alums, and faculty over the general public’s reaction to hearing our school’s name. It’s almost as if the entire world has been provided with a handbook entitled Things to Say When Encountered With a Reference to The Johns Hopkins University that covers all potential responses and mispronunciations necessary for a variety of social situations.
There are the good: “Oh wow, that’s an incredible school.”
“Aha! You must have aced your SATs.”
“Baltimore is a lovely city, you’ll have so much to do there!”
“A person like you will do so well at a school like that, congratulations.”
There are the bad: “Don’t get shot!”
“Don’t you want to enjoy yourself during college?”
“Oh wow, isn’t everyone there really intense?”
“Isn’t that where ‘fun goes to die?’”
And there are the ugly: “John Hopkin? That’s in Pennsylvania, right?”
“Oh I didn’t know you wanted to be a doctor!”
“I didn’t realize they let 17 year olds go to medical school…”
“Oh St. John Fisher? I’ve heard of that!”
Before I was accepted, I never thought I’d be bothered by something so trivial as a dropped “s” or the assumption that I was going into the medical field. Now I correct everyone who so much as takes a breath between the first and last names of our founding father and make a mental note to forever question their intelligence. Sometimes I think this attitude could be a little harsh, perhaps too critical. Then I think of each generation of Hopkids (I know, I know, so necessary though) before me proudly defending the name and honor of our institution with every eye roll and replaced letter and I additionally note to exclude the offender from all future social gatherings and important discussions. However, there is one realm of my JHops defense to which I feel most of my classmates will not relate. This is what I like to call “The Ivy Issue.”
I suppose I’m a little hesitant about what I’m about to reveal. Perhaps it’s in light of the furious Victoria’s Secret voting battle that is currently taking place or that the last U.S. News and World Report rankings placed a certain pair of schools in spots 14 and 15 or maybe I’m just sensitive because my college decision was, if not controversial, at least a topic of contention for many people I told.
You see, my hometown is Ithaca, New York, the home of Cornell University. There’s nothing special about this fact alone. Everyone has a hometown. Many people live in cities with universities. However, Ithaca, I believe, is a little different. Our town slogan (feel free to cringe, it gets so much worse) is “Ithaca Is Gorges” because of the myriad of waterfalls, creeks, and natural swimming holes that distinguish our part of the Finger Lakes from the rest of the state (and make it “gorgeous”). However, it would be much more accurate – and mercifully less punny- if it were “Ithaca Is Cornell.”
The University hovers atop a hill, high above downtown Ithaca like a medieval castle, its domineering presence pervading all aspects of life. I hardly know an adult who is either not employed by Cornell or is not an alumnus or legacy, including my high school teachers. Most of my friends are children of professors or legacies – some legacies extend five or six generations while some include every single member of the family. In addition, Cornell plays an important role in the community by sponsoring hundreds of different programs and events in Ithaca and Tompkins County. Even Ithaca High School’s mascot is the “Little Red,” a bear that is presumably an offspring of Cornell’s “Big Red.”
I am, while not a perfect one, definitely an example of the Cornell pedigree: my father is a professor in the department of Applied and Engineering Physics; I took a literature class there last fall; I have been employed by the university for the last eight months doing neuroscience research. And of course, I proudly marched with the rest of my classmates through the doors of Bartels Hall this June with a diploma in hand. However, there is one major difference between me and most of the 350 students with whom I walked across the graduation stage. I am one of ten or so students in the top 20% of my graduating class who will not be hiking up the hill this August to continue the Ithacan tradition through their studies at Cornell University.
So, when asked about my plans for next year, acquaintances confront me with a slightly different set of questions:
“What dorm will you be living in?”
“Are you in CALS (College of Agricultural and Life Sciences) or Arts and Sciences?”
“Will you and Chaney (my best friend who is, of course, going to Cornell to study Mechanical Engineering) be rooming together next year?”
“Is your father excited that you two will be on campus together all the time?”
When I respond that I am, in fact, not planning on attending Cornell and will be moving to Baltimore, the inquirer gets a strange look on his or her face as if I have answered the question in ancient Greek. Then, presumably, they stumble upon the aforementioned “handbook” and reply with a Hopkins-appropriate response: “Oh, so you want to be a doctor.”
The reason I refer to this phenomenon as the “Ivy Issue” is because almost as many times as I get doctor comments (or a mispronounced “Johns”) am I forced to answer one of the following questions: “Did you not get into Cornell?” or “So the Ivy League wasn’t for you?”
No, the Ivy League didn’t feel right for me. Hopkins did. Sometimes I need forty-five minutes to choose an outfit in the morning, yet when I walked on Homewood Campus for the first time, I knew immediately that I would apply early to JHU. And I was lucky enough to be accepted to the only university on the planet where I can truly imagine myself the next four years.
A few weeks ago I was on vacation in Mexico with my family and best friend. One evening we met a family from Texas that was particularly impressed by my future educational plans. Whenever we ran into one of the sons, he would introduce my friend and me as the “Ivy League Girls,” leaving me to explain that Johns Hopkins, while of similar academic caliber, is located in Maryland and is division 3 (in all sports besides lacrosse of course!), rendering it ineligible to compete athletically with the Ivies.
“That’s just too bad,” he said to me one night. “I can tell you’re a smart girl and I know John Hopkins is a good school. They should really work on making it an Ivy.”
“You think so?” I said. “I’ll ask Mr. Hopkins to get right on it.”
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By Grace Kim, August 14, 2010 @ 4:23 PM
Congratulations on escaping Ithaca!
I, during my turn at Ithaca High School many years ago, was one of 3 students in my Calculus BC class that did not attend an Ivy (U Chicago, Williams, MIT being the chosen escape routes then). People I met subsequently find it hard to believe that attending Cornell is not the dream of every student from IHS. When my son, JHU class of 2014, categorically ruled out applying to the Ivys, I did not try to change his mind. :-)