I am the youngest of four siblings. My oldest brother, Sam, is a Marine Colonel. I’ve shared a bedroom with the other two, Milton and Basilia, for the past seventeen years. We haven’t always gotten along— they made fun of me all the time and I frequently pretended they didn’t exist. But now we’re ok. I mean, we don’t talk much because they’re stuffed platypi and all, but I’m quite fond of them....

Breakfast at the Ratty. Not for the food, though it was palatable. Not for the appearance of the dining hall - no Hogwarts there. Not even for the soft-serve ice cream machine - a draw I admit. I want to go to Brown because the student I visited took me to breakfast with six strangers, all of whom were at least two years older. We had the best conversation. The talk strayed from politics to biology to sex jokes and...

I got full scholarships or nearly full scholarships to every school I was accepted to (except Penn State for some reason). I...