<p>Here is a powerful story from alum Howard Lutnick. [See the video on this page...] Near the end, Mr. Lutnick describes how Haverford taught him 'to be a human being' through compassion and a belief in him during a personal difficulty, and then how he could do the same for the family members of Cantor Fitzgerald employees. An amazing and great testament to Haverford virtues. </p>
<p>Snowy</a> Friends and Family Weekend Warmed By Howard Lutnick ’83 | The Haverblog</p>
<p>Thx for posting this, worldspirit. I’ve had the chance to hear versions of this on several occasions and I still get bit choked up when Howard discusses his parent’s deaths and how people at HC helped him. Something like that has never happened to me or anyone I directly knew as a student but it speaks to the culture of the place and the real sense of caring my friends and I did see on a more frequent if smaller scale. </p>
<p>I think there are about 20-30 colleges and universities that can provide comparable academic preparation as HC and probably another couple dozen that can approximate. As we’re talking about undergraduate education and not rocket science or brain surgery, there are probably another multiple hundred schools that can provide perfectly adequate undergrad educations as well and success depends on the individual (one of my friends went to a community college and then to JH med school and UCSF residency). HC’s value proposition IMO isn’t with its stellar academics but rather in its unique campus culture. It’s really hard to see this on an interview or an overnight or reading about it. Like people, colleges may have similar feels when things are working well 95% of the time… it’s primarily though during those rare times of stress and trouble that distinctions are made clearand life lessons learned. For example, you can search this on CC if you’re bored, but several years ago, there was an incident at a very top LAC where someone for a joke taped up “Happy B-Day Hitler” cards in several dorms and clearly many people felt offended/unsafe as a result. I think that this can happen on any campus no matter how elite but what was revealing to me as I was reading about it was that at this school with about 2300 students, only 30 or so (students/staff/faculty) showed up at the town hall meeting to address it as a community. By contrast, in my experience at HC, even when “lesser” incidents happended there was always a much more robust community response with students/faculty/staff taking time to put a little skin in the game. </p>
<p>So, until something like that happens, I guess I have to keep on posting things written by other alumni that try to capture HC’s unique campus culture… </p>
<p>[James</a> Bready: Former Evening Sun editorial writer will be missed - Baltimore Sun](<a href=“On losing a great journalist and proud Haverford alumnus”>On losing a great journalist and proud Haverford alumnus)</p>
<p>“But I always felt that Jim’s values — his intellectual honesty, his gentleness in a brutal world and the attention he paid to those he saw as undervalued and unappreciated — were shaped in Haverford’s Quaker teachings and, perhaps, in the silence of its Fifth Day Meeting. Jim was Class of '39 and I was Class of ‘54, but because of the peculiarities of the five-year class reunion cycle our reunions coincided. I have a particular and poignant memory of Jim at one of the last reunions we attended together. Time, of course, had reduced the number of his classmates, and the picture I retain is of Jim, alone, poking at the campus’ wondrous new additions but lovingly revisiting the library, Founders Hall and the duck pond, his haunts of decades before.”</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.chilit.org/PROSNTZ2.HTM]PROSNTZ2[/url”>http://www.chilit.org/PROSNTZ2.HTM]PROSNTZ2[/url</a>]
FORDS</p>
<p>by
Howard B. Prossnitz</p>
<p>Delivered to The Chicago Literary Club February 22, 1999
Copyright 1999 Howard B. Prossnitz
The first time that I heard of it was in the spring of 1968. It was a gray, cold March day in Evanston. I was inside a windowless classroom at the High School studying American History. My teacher was Harry Wood. We were cramming for the upcoming AP exam and had just finished reviewing three quarters of history in 40 minutes. I was not feeling that sanguine about the exam, especially since Steve Ellmann was sitting next to me. His father was Richard Ellmann, the renowned Joyce scholar, who was a professor at Northwestern at the time. Steve was as keen a student as his father, he was a year ahead of me and would graduate as valedictorian. I could not help but notice that he had filled about twenty pages of notebook paper with his detailed precise study notes whereas I was contemplating my own sloppy handwriting which had produced two and one-half pages of a sketchy outline.</p>
<p>With only a few minutes left in the period, our teacher said, “You know it does not have to be like this. When I was in college, we took our exams outside on green lawns near a duck pond. Or if we wanted to, we took the exams back to our dorm rooms and worked on them there. You see there was an Honor Code which meant that we had no proctors. We scheduled our exams for ourselves whenever we wanted to during a two week period. Our classes had eight students and we often met at the professor’s house.”</p>
<p>As one of 1,250 juniors at Evanston High School, I wondered where this mythical place was. None of my other teachers ever talked about their colleges. Harry Wood seemed to be very old, at least forty, so obviously this had been a special place for him. I did not have to wait long to find out the name of this Shangri La. At the end of his reminiscence, we learned that the name of the school was Haverford and that it was a small Quaker college near Philadelphia. Over the remainder of the academic year, Mr. Wood continued to pepper his classes with fond stories of his alma mater. </p>
<p>The following summer, when my father and I made our tour of Eastern schools, I went to visit the place and I was not disappointed. It was as promised, an oasis in the middle of the already tranquil Main Line with expansive green lawns, old towering trees, a duck pond, a cricket field and a club house where tea was served during recesses in the cricket games. A small cadre of Evanston graduates had gone there before such as Jack Rakove, son of Milton Rakove, a political science professor in Chicago known for his books on Mayor Daley. Jack himself is now a professor – he teaches history at Stanford. I felt that I had been let in on a great secret and now many years later, I still feel the same way.</p>
<p>Tonight, I will talk about the history of the College as well as two Fords that I particularly admire, Isaac Sharpless, one of the College’s early presidents, and Charles Robinson, class of 1928, whom I had the honor to know personally. I will also try to answer the question of what is it about</p>
<p>Haverford that creates such loyalty among its alumni? Why is it that I return four times a year for meetings of the Alumni Association Executive Committee? Why do many of my classmates feel the same way? For instance at our most recent reunion (number 25), we had our traditional class meeting. One-third of my graduating class of was present. We were seated in a seminar room in a large circle. As has become our custom, we went around the table with each person providing a brief narrative about what had transpired in his life during the last five years. One of my classmates expressed a thought that we all shared. He said, " when I come back here and walk into this room with all of you present, I feel like I am at home again. There is no other place that I feel this way. I know that I can speak freely and from the heart here. There is none of the pretense and posturing that I encounter in my everyday world." What is it that provokes such sentiments? Is it merely nostalgia or something more? …</p>
<p>Thank you so much for posting this. I’m applying Early Decision to Haverford, and my fellow classmates always ask me why Haverford and not an Ivy League or some other big school. However, I can never give them a proper answer except for the fact that I feel like I fit in at Haverford. So now, instead of telling them how nice the people were when I visited, I’ll refer them to this thread to show them that Haverford is more than a school for academics, it’s the whole campus culture that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.</p>
<p>So thank you once again, and now I really REALLY hope that I get in :)</p>
<p>^ You really said everything I wanted to say! (Including the ED part)</p>
<p>"Thank you so much for posting this. I’m applying Early Decision to Haverford, and my fellow classmates always ask me why Haverford and not an Ivy League or some other big school. However, I can never give them a proper answer except for the fact that I feel like I fit in at Haverford. So now, instead of telling them how nice the people were when I visited, I’ll refer them to this thread to show them that Haverford is more than a school for academics, it’s the whole campus culture that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.</p>
<p>So thank you once again, and now I really REALLY hope that I get in"</p>
<p>My D has applied ED to Haverford. I don’t think her rationale could be said any better than by those above. I am so hopeful she will get in as I know it will hold her in good stead for a lifetime.</p>
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<p>One of the unique qualities of many who make Haverford their choice is that they focus on a personally meaningful, high quality educational experience rather than a popular name. I suspect this helps create a more cooperative, participative culture on campus. Best wishes to all those applying…</p>
<ul>
<li>another parent of an ED applicant who could go Ivy but is making Haverford the #1 choice… :)</li>
</ul>
<p>This thread makes me feel very warm and fuzzy, as the parent of a son who is now class of '15. Haverford is not perfect, as was acknowledged in the q&a session at the recent weekend, but it is indeed special. What wonderful alumni it has, and what amazing people the current crop will turn out to be.</p>
<p>Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>Agreed mythdoc. HC is definitely not perfect but nor would I really want it to be. Some of the most important things that can be learned at HC (or any college) has to do with how students deal with resolving their frustrations individually and collectively. HC is really at its best and most memorable when the campus community is struggling to improve itself through traditions informed by its Quaker history… although the “perfect times” can be bliss. </p>
<p>I think the feelings expressed on this thread by applicants are familiar for many students. Like I wrote, when colleges are working well, it can be a challenge to distinguish one set of happy friendly students (and administration) from another… but there may be a feeling hard to pinpoint about HC that resonates with some applicants which clarifies itself during harder times or after students spend months-years on campus. Talking to enough alumni, the consensus I get is that most of us didn’t really see how special our experience was until after leaving… so no worries if you can’t express it clearly at this point!</p>
<p>Definitely agree with the unique and well-rounded education many gain when they leave HC. I’m also an Early Decision applicant for the class of 2016!
Does anyone know the dates we should be expecting mail from Haverford?</p>
<p>Last year ED notification was sent “snail” mail. The letter arrived in NYC on December 15.
Letter may arrive a day earlier or later depending on your location.</p>
<p>What a powerful story! I also applied to Haverford ED. I’m really excited to potentially be apart of a school with such a special culture. Now I’m just crossing my fingers, counting down the days until December 15, and trying to find the motivation to do my other supplements just in case!</p>
<p>I refuse to even think about other supplements. I would end up writing about why I would rather go to Haverford. But hopefully we all get in and you all come out and support Haverford soccer next year! Go Fords!</p>