Back on the NY Times: Minnetonka Grad Writes about College

A 2011 Minnetonka High School grad, Abby Hansen has returned to write for The New York Times.

Two Minnetonka High School students were selected to blog about their college application process for The Times last year.

Hansen and Rachel Yang were chosen for a group of eight high school seniors in the U.S. detailing their college search for readers. Each student writes on the blog once or twice a month throughout the school year.

Now, Hanson has been invited back to answer reader questions about what college life is like after you’ve made your choice. She is a freshman at the University of Minnesota where she is studying animal science.

The transition for Hanson has not been as easy as she expected.

"I would say my expectations for college were high," she wrote. "Honestly, I think everyone’s are. We exist in a culture that tells us your college years are the best years of your life. And while eventually this may become the truth, college has not been the best experience so far. It’s been hard!"

Hanson says she has been doing well in her classes. "I think my high school I.B. curriculum prepared me really well for college-level classes."

She has joined a sorority and loves it. "It made a huge school, like Minnesota, a lot smaller."

Feeling claustrophobic, Hansen only briefly lived in the dorms. "I ended up moving into my sorority house to get out of it."

Hansen's first blog for the New York Times entitled "Who Am I? Can I Get Back to You on That?" was published on Dec. 20, 2011, her second "True Love Can Be Fleeting, Especially When Its Object Is a College" on Feb. 3 and her third "Happier, Perhaps, to Attend a State University Instead of an Ivy League School" on March 21.

In Abby Hansen's fourth blog "In the End, My Gut Decided Which College to Choose," she made a final college decision to go to the U of M.

She confirmed her admission to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities for the fall of 2012 while watching Iowa State lose to Kentucky in a basketball game. "As I sat with my family in my living room, my gut twisting with nerves, I knew I was ready to make my decision final," Hansen wrote.