Hampshire Admissions Advice with Glenn

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

-Hey there, it’s Glenn.I use they/them or she/her pronounsI am a third year atHampshire College,or a second year Div II as we say.I wanted to talk just a bitabout how I got into our school.For me, it is not the pictureperfect admissions story,but I am fine in saying that.I originally was not planningto apply to Hampshire.The deadline kept getting pushedback and kept getting pushed back.I was getting so many emailsthat I felt like "Okay,10they really want me to apply.11They’ll probably give me money,might as well."12It worked out really well for me,I have to say.13It’s been a really great experience,14even though it came tobe in a chaotic way.15I wrote my admissionsessays all in one day.16I think one of them was onan interdisciplinary project.17At the time, everyone wastalking about mansplaining.18I was a little [?]. I was like,"Okay, this is actually [?]."19I had to pick an interdisciplinaryway to do things.20I was like,"Okay, I will use film students21to explore a genderstudies question."22I suggested havingmaybe 20 students become23persuaded with a gift card andfilm them explaining the same24thing to a man or to a womanand see how they reacted.25I think, possibly, it might havebeen [?] of having the film students26explain things and seeif they got talked over.27It was not a superwell-designed study,28but I did spend alot of time working29out p-values and trying to determine30what the actual sample size would be31needed to make it notcomplete nonsense.32Turns out the number is a lot.33I took a statistics class just tomake sure it was in fact a lot.34I came to Hampshire in partbecause I never wanted to do math,35and then I took a stats class.It was hard for me.36I had so many problemswith math in school.37Then I did it for fun.38That was my interdisciplinarythings essay.39I don’t remember what myother Hampshire essays were.40I remember having moreessays for Hampshire41than I did for other colleges,42and they were aboutwhat you wanted to do,43which I thought was really great.44I wrote my general Common App essayon figuring out that I was autistic,45which a lot of people don’t believe46me when I say that I am autistic,but I am.47I have a lot of social skills.48I’ve also worked really hardto get those social skills.49I’ve always felt like an alien.50I know everyone always feelslike an alien a little bit,51but I felt like an alien alien.Like, "Where is my planet?52When can I go back?I want to go back to my planet."53I was self-diagnosed originally,54and I had to figure out howto fit all of the confusion55that I had as a teenager intoa coherent narrative of self,56and that’s what Iwrote my essay about.57It’s not what I wouldwrite my essay about now,58but I am much more stable asa person now and much happier.59I also submitted poetry.60I went to this interdisciplinaryart camp when I was in high school,61and I was acceptedfor creative writing,62so I turned in videosof me reading my poems.63I know someone who actuallydid send in a pie recipe.64It’s a great pie recipe.I love her apple pie.65I think Hampshire’sadmissions process66selects for students who are driven,67or at least have a lot ofquestions that they want to answer,68and they’ll spendtime looking for them.69I have some friends whowant to do one thing,70and they’ve alwayswanted to do one thing,71and they are actuallyvery self-disciplined,72and they will sit downand do that one thing.73You also get students who aren’tvery academic or who don’t74have very academic questions butwho do have a lot of questions.75For those students,there are so many opportunities,76to be a dancer,to be a mover, to be a maker.77There are so many classesthat you can take.78Then I have some friends,like my friend Maddie,79who are super smart and alsosuper chill and good at explaining80things who aren’t sure at allwhat they want to be doing,81but who know that whatthey want to be doing is82interdisciplinary and combinesa lot of different fields,83so that’s what she’sdone with her major.84She’s taken a lot of physics classesand a lot of storytelling classes85and a lot of random philosophyclasses as a means of storytelling.86She got an internshipwith the Field Museum.87She might be a science educator.88She might get a master’sin some science field.89She might be a creativewriter forever. I don’t know.90She doesn’t know either, but she’slearned a lot here that she wouldn’t91have been able tolearn at other places.92Another great thing about the waythat Hampshire’s classes are is that93you do not have to have them makesense in the context of your major.94You do not have requirements.95With the new system,as a first year,96you seriously only have two requiredseminars, and then the entire rest97of your educationis completely free.98You also get a choice of whichseminar you want to be in.99Our academic program is constantlyevolving. We’ve got new stuff.100We have stuff that we had when Iwas a first year that we don’t have101now and stuff that we definitely didnot have when I was a first year.102I feel like here at Hampshire,103you don’t have to reduceyourself to anything.104You can just be who you areand even just do what you want.105I’ve put a lot of emphasison doing what you want,106but it’s what I loveabout this school.107This isn’t a school where you’regoing to have to take tests.108This is not a schoolthat values tests.109This is not a school where youneed to be quizzed all the time110on whether or not youadequately remembered something.111It’s a school where you areasked to think critically about112things that you care about and toresearch things you care about.113That’s part of how I got in.114I feel like all of thepeople I’ve met on campus115are cool and know whothey are and are weird.116If you’re weird andyou know who you are,117I would probably find you cool, andI think this is the school for you.