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Jewish World Review
March 10, 2005
/ 28 Adar I, 5765
And you went to Yale?
By Lori Gottlieb
The author interviews applicants in Los Angeles for her alma mater, but finds herself being more concerned about making a good impression than the other way around
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
I can't decide what to wear for the Yale interview. I try on black trousers, a suede skirt, then decide on trendy jeans with a tweed blazer. I want to look stylish but not light-weight. My necklace from India might add some gravitas. I cover a zit with makeup, head for the door, and grab my NRDC backpack to show I care about the environment.
I should mention that I'm the interviewer, not the interviewee. But I still need to make a good impression. As an alumni representative, I want my candidates to like Yale.
Okay, that's not true. Actually, I want them to like me.
Frankly, my interviewees make me feel like a loser. It's not just their 4.2 GPAs and 1600 SAT scores. It's that at 17, these kids are savvy, sophisticated and most intimidating of all, undeniably hip. They're too cool to use the word "cool." At my Yale interview, I wore pearls and a bright pink business suit that made me look like a wannabe network newscaster. I said "Wow!" and "No way!" and "Awesome" and talked about the math team, chess team, and Academic Decathlon.
But these kids dress like the cast of the "The O.C.," used words like "sommelier," and have the social skills of Hollywood's smoothest studio executives. When I called one applicant to schedule an interview, she replied with an email from her Blackberry: "Lovely to hear from you. Let's schedule a meeting. Wanna do dinner?"
Today's candidates are half as old twice as wordly as I am - an unnerving combination. Their references go over my head. When they talk about music and literature, I nod and pretend to get it. I make mental notes to stop at Borders on the way home and pick a CD of Maroon 5 and the complete works of James Joyce. I contemplate preparing for my next interview by subscribing to Harper's and skimming the Cliff's Notes to Dostoevsky.
As a masochistic gesture, sometimes I ask applicants how they see their lives at my age. They invariably offer some rendition on a spouse, kids, and a law, medical or business degree - if not all three. One talked of doing international peace work in Malawi (wherever that is) and another hoped to do groundbreaking research on Fuschian groups (whatever those are).
I, on the other hand, am a single medical school drop-out who recently began scouring online sperm banks for a donor. As one candidate elaborated on her resume - something about having her play produced in French "for fun" - I wondered what she'd say if she knew my life's resume. I imagined her giving me a puzzled look that implied, "And you went to Yale?"
But when we said goodbye, she surprised me. "Hey, I Googled you, and I think your work is really impressive." I couldn't believe it. Was this her way of calling me "cool"?
"Wow, no way, that's awesome!" I said, only to see that look on her face: And you went to Yale?
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JWR contributor Lori Gottlieb is the author of the national bestselling memoir, "Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self", an American Library Association "Best Books 2001" selection that has been optioned for film by Martin Scorsese. A commentator for NPR's "All Things Considered" and singles columnist for The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Time, People, Elle, Glamour, Slate, and Salon, among many others. She is also author of the irreverent exposé "Inside the Cult of Kibu". She lives in Los Angeles where she also writes for television, most recently on the NBC/Bravo sitcom "Significant Others." Visit her website at www.lorigottlieb.com.
© 2005, Lori Gottlieb. This essay first appeared on "All Things Considered"
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