CWA’s college counselors work closely with students to identify a list of schools that may be a good fit for them and then help them craft applications to each school.  The advice they give every student is different, but it’s a pretty safe bet that they always tell students they should never, under any circumstances, apply to just one school.  “The thing was, there was only one school I wanted to go to,” says senior Ben Mishkin.  “So I figured, why apply anywhere else?  I think I just about gave everybody heart attacks, especially my parents, my college counselor (Katie Ryan) and my advisor (Wes Wesby).”  Ben gambled big and he came up a winner.  The one and only school to which he applied is St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, and he got in.

Ben grew up in Olympia and attended the Olympia Community School and South Bay Elementary before becoming a Charles Wright student in fifth grade.  During his high school career he’s served as president of the Gay Straight Alliance and as a member of the Knowledge Bowl team, both for three years.   Outside of school he has competed in the 500 meter and mile events with the Thurston-Olympia Swim Club, taught swim lessons, worked as a life guard, and coached a team of younger swimmers.  One of his goals for this summer is to swim across Lake Washington a couple of times as he gets into open water swimming for the first time.  His biggest commitment, however, has been to Charles Wright’s literary magazine.  Ben was editor and chief his junior and senior years and played a key role in the publication his sophomore year.

Ben always knew he wanted to attend college on the East Coast.  “My aunt lives in New York City and teaches at NYU and for a long time I thought I wanted to go there,” he says.  “I went there to visit and loved it, but then started to think maybe a big school isn’t the best for me so I started looking at small colleges.”  A friend’s mom suggested St. John’s and eventually Ben got around to doing some research on the school.  He visited during spring break of his junior year on a tour of East Coast schools and quickly decided this was where he wanted to go.

St. John’s is well known for its distinctive approach to education.  The school has fewer than 500 students and offers just one bachelor’s degree: liberal arts.  Since 1937, St. John’s has followed a Great Books curriculum based on discussions between students and faculty of works from the Western philosophic, scientific and literary canon.   At St. John’s, students read the classics.  All of them.  From Homer to Woolf.

“Something over 2,000 years of intellectual history form the background of the first two years; about 300 years of history form the background for almost twice as many authors in the last two years,” explains the school’s website.  “The first year is devoted to Greek authors and their pioneering understanding of the liberal arts; the second year contains books from the Roman, medieval, and Renaissance periods; the third year has books of the 17th and 18th centuries, most of which were written in modern languages; the fourth year brings the reading into the 19th and 20th centuries…  The St. John’s curriculum seeks to convey to students an understanding of the fundamental problems that human beings have to face today and at all times. It invites them to reflect both on their continuities and their discontinuities.”

As a prospective student, Ben stayed in the dorms and attended one of the seminar classes that forms the core of the St. John’s experience.  “It was absolute torture,” he says.  “I had to sit in the corner and be completely quiet.  I couldn’t say a thing.  I was so excited about the class discussion, I ended up staying up until three of four o’clock in the morning with the students, talking about what Aristotle means when he talks about infinity.  That’s when I knew that St. John’s was the school for me.”

Ben especially likes the idea that seminars are often scheduled from 8pm to 10pm at night, primetime for college students.  “It seems like they’re really focused on what’s best for the students, not necessarily the teachers, and that the kids are really into what into they’re studying,” he says.  Although he’s not a musician, he likes that the school’s liberal arts curriculum even requires the study of music.

“I met a lot of really cool students who are really into learning and discussing literature and philosophy,” he said of his visit.  “Anna Flies ’08 is at St. John’s so I met up with her too and she introduced me to a bunch of people.”  The one thing he doesn’t like about St. John’s is that the school doesn’t have a swimming pool.  “They do have a crew team,” he says, “Swimming and rowing is just a difference of a couple inches in the water, so I figure I’ll give it a shot.”

Ben isn’t sure yet what sort of career he’ll pursue after college, but he’s confident that St. John’s will prepare him well for whatever comes next.  “All the women in my family are doctors and all the men are lawyers,” he jokes.  When the time comes he’ll likely consider law school, teaching and perhaps even a graduate degree in geology.

His advice for students just beginning the application process?  “Don’t do what I did.  Apply to more than one school.  Don’t give your parents and advisors heart attacks.  St. John’s just has a really unique curriculum, so the applicant pool is self selecting.  As a result, the acceptance rate is really high, so I just wasn’t that worried about getting in.”  Ben completed his application for the rolling admissions process in February and heard back two weeks later.  “If I hadn’t gotten in, I would have been in deep trouble,” he acknowledges.  “It was February, so I would not have been able to apply many other places, but it all worked out just fine.”

He also encourages students to visit as many schools as possible.  “Visit schools that you aren’t excited and don’t think you want to apply to because you might find something unexpected.  I wasn’t interested in Reed at all and I went there I actually liked it a lot.  If I hadn’t been so set on St. John’s, I would probably have applied there.  I never expected that.  And start the application process early.  I asked my teachers for letters of recommendation last year and then just reminded them this year.  That helped take some of the stress out of the experience.”