Kelly Holt: Turns out, Harvard has a sense of humor

"Crimson Countdown"

By KELLY HOLT

The Register-Mail

Posted Jul 04, 2008 @ 04:30 PM

I’ll be leaving for Harvard on Aug. 31. But unlike most of my friends, I won’t be headed directly for classes or even for freshman orientation. Instead, I’ll be participating in a “pre-orientation” program called FOP, for First-Year Outdoor Program. Basically, it is a weeklong hiking and camping trip designed to help people get to know a group of seven to 10 other students before even getting to campus. Around a quarter of the freshman class participates in one of these trips each year. Other freshmen choose to participate in one of the other four pre-orientation programs, which include an arts program, a program for international students, a volunteer program in Boston, and a program on the Harvard campus.

Looking at pictures earlier this summer of previous FOP groups posing in front of beautiful scenery, I decided that I couldn’t easily pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I signed up immediately. Then I started looking at the information about how to prepare for FOP. Luckily I found out that no previous outdoor experience is required, but that participants were advised to exercise over the summer since the trips included five to eight miles of hiking each day.

A long and extremely detailed list of necessary supplies also greeted me. Luckily, many of the most hardcore camping supplies (such as a fancy backpack and a sleeping bag rated for extremely cold weather) can be borrowed from FOP itself. Other supplies, though, I have to find for myself. According to the list, pretty much nothing that I bring can be made of cotton, because apparently cotton loses its ability to keep you warm when it gets wet. This makes it difficult to find clothes to bring, because although I never realized it before, most clothes have cotton in them. I’ve made many shopping trips trying to find the fleece or wool items that are requested, and although I’ve found a few fleece sweatshirts, it turns out that summer is not the best time to find fleece and wool hats, gloves and pants.

Just when I was starting to get intimidated by the difficulty of finding the things I need for my trip, I got another form in the mail. This one is supposed to help the director assign us to a specific group and trip. They ask predictable questions about what difficulty level you want and whether or not you want to include canoeing in your trip, but they also asked some more interesting questions. For example, they asked what my favorite type of cookie was. Then they wrote, “Never mind, we don’t really care,” asked what their favorite kind of cookie was, and told me to check a box if I planned to send them cookies. They also wanted to know how many pieces of pizza I would eat if given a large cheese pizza, with options from one to eight pieces. They added in a side note, “If your answer is more than 8 pieces, are you willing to scavenge for your own food?”

After seeing how serious they were about the gear that I needed, the humor in their form was just what I needed to remember how much fun the hiking trip will be this fall. Now, check the box below if you plan to send me cookies. (Double chocolate chip is best).

[Kelly Holt of Woodhull is a 2008 graduate of AlWood High School. She will be a freshman at Harvard University this fall.]

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=832034&forum_id=1#9946355)