[dukemama]

I entered college way back in 1983 and applied to 15 schools. It was my father's idea, and needless to say I was notorious in my HS's guidance department. Fortunately most of them took the common application (is that still around?) so it wasn't incredibly time-consuming. I'm just amazed that my parents agreed to pay all of those application fees which even back then weren't cheap.

I got into 11 of the 15 schools to which I applied, but narrowed my choices down pretty easily. Duke wasn't even on my radar when I first started the process; I had my heart set on Northwestern until I stepped foot on Duke's campus.