Rhodes College personifies the archetype of an upper echelon liberal arts school — the student body is relatively small, the acceptance rate is lofty (though not entirely inaccessible for above-average students), and the campus is immaculate.

I made an impromptu visit to the school on a Sunday afternoon (damn, 10 years ago) to inquire about their graduate program in accounting, perhaps, in some way, to indulge the fantasy that earning a degree from such a prominent institution was something I needed at that point in my life.

It was my first time on campus since I spontaneously attended Warren St. John’s lecture on his book about lunatic Alabama fans called Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer back in 2006. So I took a few minutes to wander the campus and take in the scenery once more, like a tourist from a foreign country who’d only heard of such an idyllic American place, before finding my way to the academic department located on the upper level of a nearly hundred-year-old building central to the college grounds.

I eventually found myself on a bench in the hallway with a nice heavyset lady who spoke at length about the requirements, which, if memory serves, included a high 600 on the GMAT and tuition that rivaled a down payment on a mansion.

My curiosity quenched — thoroughly extinguished might be a better way to put it — I surrendered my academic pipedream and returned to my everyday existence. Yet somehow I wasn’t disappointed. Maybe just being there for a little while was enough.

Palmer Hall (I don’t care what they re-named it.)

Midtown, Memphis

April 14, 2013

© AMW