When I graduate, I will be using a Fulbright grant in biology to study in Germany (I've taken a lot of German). I'll be researching ferret-like steinmartens and baummarders, animals that normally nest in trees but, drawn to car engines, gnaw on electrical wires and other components. I'll use radio-tracking techniques to study the habitat use and adaptation of the mammals, and also conduct field work at the University of Ulm.
Probably the biggest reason I chose New College was because of its size. I visited schools that were a couple of thousand students but New College has between 600 and 700 students – it's almost unheard of in a public university. The private attention you can get is incredible, even the fact that I was able to go to Panama with my two of my professors. You would never have that kind of experience as an undergraduate at any other school. I have friends that went to Harvard or Yale, they had nothing like this. In fact, they are all very jealous of the opportunities that I have been able to have going around the world doing really interesting research.
I think that the greatest jewel or gem at New College is its tutorial system, which is based roughly on the British tutorial system where you can make your own class. I've had the opportunity to have some pretty cool classes. One was called theory and practice of fluid dynamics and locomotion and most people look at me like – what is that all about? It's actually a sailing tutorial! One of my professors has a passion for sailing, so he taught me and five of my friends how to sail and now we go sail every weekend. One of our alumni is a local business person and we were able to work with him and see exactly what he does and learn about strategy and execution of a business plan. I was able to create my own business plan for one of my classes in a tree climbing school. So if I ever wanted to open a tree climbing school, I have the plan.
