Visiting McDaniel

I still vividly remember visiting McDaniel three-and-a-half years ago. I was sitting in my father’s minivan reading Frankenstein for my senior English class and I was trying to hold in all my nerves. This was the last college tour I would be going on and I was really hoping McDaniel would be the one. Before visiting McDaniel, I had visited Penn State University Park, Penn State Berks, Penn State Abington, Philadelphia University, and Ursinus College, not of these felt like a good match for me. (Also if you could not guess from the schools I had visited, I am from Pennsylvania. )

I was having a real life Goldilocks and the Three Bears moment. This is too big, this is too small, this is too close to home, and this is too far away. Then I got to McDaniel.

I toured the entire campus starting in Lewis Hall of Science where my future biology lab professor stepped out of his office and gave me a tour of the lab–which made me feel so appreciated. We ended at Alumni Hall, McDaniel College’s theatre. Ironically enough I would call both of these places home within a year’s time of my tour.

After the tour, I got home and called my high school counselor and said that I loved it at McDaniel. I described my tour of the biology lab, how helpful the tour guides were, how welcoming the staff was, and how open the campus was to me exploring after my tour if I wanted to see more. I was so excited in a way that I had not been after any of my other campus visit days. I knew McDaniel was the one for me.