The Classical Season COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

The Classical Season COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog I am one of those people that likes to work to music.   Something playing the background helps put me in the zone.   If I am analyzing data, answering email, or doing day-to-day tasks I dont have a preferred genre.   Rock, alternative, pop, jazz, electronica, and hip hop all have a certain appeal depending on the mood I am in.   There are definitely albums or groups that define a season or time for me. For example, typically the album that gets heavy rotation each season around the admission deadline is Appetite for Destruction because the office is really a jungle at that time and that album gets me going.   Hell Freezes Over is a favorite when I am traveling because my wife and I traveled shortly after that album came out and we played it over and over as we drove all over the western United States. Full Moon Fever,   Back in Black, and Nevermind defy any convention, can be played at anytime, and if I were stranded on a deserted island those albums would make the top of my play list.   And the song Hey Ya! by Outkast always reminds me of flights of stairs.   That song came out when I was making the move to New York City and I remember listening to it as I went to visit apartments to rent.   I must have walked over 100 miles in the week I spent looking. I am picky though when reading admission files and can only listen to one genre classical.   I like symphony pieces the best, lots of instruments working together and with no vocals.   I set Pandora for my Beethoven station and it pretty much stays there the entire time I read files.   I find that classical puts my mind at ease, but I only play it a great deal during the admission reading season.   Thus, whenever I pass Carnegie Hall, Julliard, or see posters for classical music, I think about reading admission files. Speaking of that . . . back to reading . . .