<p>I have to say after reading more and more about the school and after talking to family members who are alumni of Deep Springs, my confidence has been refreshed. It’s fairly easy to be daunted by prestigious schools simply because they are just that, but when applying to Deep Springs there’s something increasingly onerous. I almost feel if you don’t have a true hold of what this college is about it’s almost an insult and a waste ppl’s time. Aside from the 9% acceptance rate, I think what holds many people back from applying is a certain reverence for something they cannot understand. Anyway, just an observation most likely there will be many made during my tumultuous application process.</p>
<p>Rednegativity, I will be pleased to tell you after Round 1… I’m sorry If I came off as rude in my last post. But, I’m extremly glad that this thread exists and that we’re all able to talk about DS in this way… And JROSE I was told by current students and alums that grades and SATs are essentially neglible in one’s application. The essays make or break you, which is awesome. What other schools are you guys applying to?</p>
<p>JROSE, I have to say that I completely agree. Not one of my friends (well, with one exception) seems to understand a single aspect of why I would rather attend Deep Springs than an Ivy, which brings my to Samuel’s question:
I plan on applying to ten schools (not including UNM, my local public school to which I have already applied, or DS, because those are obvious for me). As of yet, my top choice (aside from DS) is UChicago. After that, I plan on applying to Swarthmore, Reed, Columbia, Oberlin, and 5 other schools. I have a long list that the last 5 will be drawn from, including Carnegie Mellon, Kalamazoo, Occidental, Sarah Lawrence, Hamilton, William & Mary, UVirginia, Yale, etc, mostly LACs but a few more universities.
In other words, I have no idea where I’ll end up applying.</p>
<p>Right now I have narrowed my list down to about 12 schools-
- Brown
- NYU
- Reed
- Deep Springs
- University of Arizona
- Arizona State University
- Vanderbilt
- Emory
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Northwestern
- University of the Pacific
- University of Southern California </p>
<p>Most likely I am going to apply to all of 'em. I just can’t seem to narrow it down any further.</p>
<p>Reed/Deep Springs vs. USC is quite a contrast!</p>
<p>I know… I’m trying to keep my options open. At least at this point.</p>
<p>For me It’s really all about Deep Springs and St. John’s College Annapolis. But Im also consdiering
-Oberlin
-Grinell
-Reed
-Shimer
-Marlboro
-University of Chicago</p>
<p>DS is again in the popular press:</p>
<p>[GQ:</a> America’s 25 Douchiest Colleges: GQ Features on men.style.com](<a href=“http://men.style.com/gq/features/slideshow/v/0909COLLEGE?loop=0&slideshowId=slideshow60220&iphoto=20&nphoto=25&play=false&cnt=1]GQ:”>http://men.style.com/gq/features/slideshow/v/0909COLLEGE?loop=0&slideshowId=slideshow60220&iphoto=20&nphoto=25&play=false&cnt=1)</p>
<p>Sent ot me by son who attends DS.</p>
<p>hi higgins i am going to pm you when i get the chance, if you don’t mind. i have some questions about your sends experiences so far!</p>
<p>@higgins,
All that article did about my perception of DS is increase it: I didn’t know they read David Foster Wallace?! Haha</p>
<p>Not sure about the reading list, but the article was funny.</p>
<p>Yah thats the first I’ve heard of Infinite Jest there… have any of you read it? I did earlier this year and It was great. What kind of books do you guys generally like to read?</p>
<p>I have read Consider the Lobster and a bit of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, but I am still working up the courage to read Infinite Jest. I felt that reading an entire Bolano novel, Blood Meridian, and Beloved, all recently, was more than enough recent literature haha. Normally I read Faulkner, Wallace Stevens, Joyce, Rimbaud, and all the necessary classics such as Faust and The Metamorphosis and Tolstoy’s work. Recently I have been dipping back into Salinger, it has been forever since I first picked up any of his novels. And I figured that since he doesn’t have all that much published work, I might as well read it all. I have also been picking my way through Remembrance of Things Past–but really I have gotten nowhere yet with Proust. </p>
<p>What about you guys?</p>
<p>Wow did you read Bolano’s 2666?! Thats up on my list. But I’m really into an author named William Vollmann ( DS 79) , I also really like Dostoevsky, Kafka, Tolsoy, Plato, Borges, Shakespeare, and Jonathan Franzen…</p>
<p>I wish. I have read only about half of the first book of 2666. I did read The Savage Detectives, however, once thoroughly and a second time skipping a few parts and focusing on a few parts. It is almost as long as 2666, and it seems to be more about poets and writers than 2666 does. 2666 seems to be more of an epic, but The Savage Detectives is so subtly beautiful and chaotic that I am almost scared to read 2666, simply because its reputation precedes itself and I don’t want to be disappointed–this fear is only possible because of just how much I adored The Savage Detectives.</p>
<p>I have never read Vollmann, but I have seen him mentioned a bit within the DS circle; where would you recommend I start with his work?</p>
<p>Any other prospective Deep Springers who have been lurking this thread: what do you read?</p>
<p>Yah It’s kind of been a three person dialouge,but as Vonneut would say " say it goes"… yah so yesterday I bought 2666, because I try not to worry about reputations of books and just try to go for it, as it were. At least that’s how I approached Infinite Jest. But Savage Detectives looks cool.
So as for Vollmann, I started with this really great book of his called " Riding Toward Everywhere" about train hopping, and I recommend reading it in one sitting. But after that he is so prolific that you can go anywhere you find intersting. For instance I then read his book Poor People which was not great, but parts of it were. Then I read some of his 3300 page epic treastise on violence " Rising up and Rising down" … But The Atlas is also a good one of his to start with. Currently I picked up his brand new 1400 page
" Imperial" about the history of Imperial County , CA ( Note: I have little intention on finishing it!!)… But If it were not obvious, I really like reading!
So If I may inquire to all of those DS prospectives, what is your political affiliation?</p>
<p>Have any of you read anything by Kierkegaard. I’m really into philosophy, but is it a good book to read independently as opposed to reading it in a class? Any other recommendations? I just finished Letters to a Young Poet- A fairly short book, but it produced a few sparks of thought.</p>
<p>Yah I read part of " Fear and Trembling"… I mean I think any good work of some sort of philosophical importance will be able to be read in both independent and academic settings. Go for it.</p>
<p>Good to see some fellow DFW admirers! Oddly enough, I’m using a quote of his for the second essay. My reading habits include him, for both fiction and non-fiction; Salinger, Hemingway, Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, Flannery O’Connor, and Wilfred Owen (for fiction/poetry); and George Orwell and Joan Didion for non-fiction.</p>
<p>P.S. If it wasn’t clear from “I’m using a quote of his for the second essay”, I’m applying to Deep Springs as well.</p>
<p>Welcome Ith2010! Glad to see more competiton haha… what quote of his are you using?</p>