If my college offered sushi when I was there, I probably would have run to the other end of the building.
Of course, now that I’m quite a few years older, and have discovered fish so fresh it should be slapped, I’d be inclined to gobble down a lot of it.
Another deciding factor is location - I went to school in the Midwest. Home of the Squarefish, caught, breaded and frozen months ago. Not to mention everything at the rez dining halls was cooked until thoroughly inert, then cooked some more.
I’ve heard that even some of the public high schools around here are serving up sushi. I’m guessing it’s Cal rolls and futomaki at best. As someone else described it - sturdy stuff that could withstand shrink-wrapping and a few hours in the fridge. Speaking of which - a quickie eyeball test for freshness can be done on anything with avocado - if it’s gone brown or gray, stay away. Avocado’s supposed to be yellowish-green.
Day-yam! Sushi’s not that expensive at the Whole [del]Paycheck[/del] Foods near my office, and they have an on-site sushi chef that’ll take requests if they’re not too busy making pre-pack trays and bentos.
It’s not too late! Defer admission to UPenn for a year and apply at Cornell. I’ll even do your alumni interview (provided you’re not applying to the Hotel School or the Art, Architecture & Planning School).
Don’t resign yourself to the misfortune of UPenn when the most fabulous school in the world- Cornell - is within your reach. (kidding! UPenn is a terrific school. I’m just extremely biased. I loved my time at Cornell. Sigh. I need to go back for a visit.)
Hell no. The cafeteria food was disgusting in my undergrad. They could and did screw up breakfast food. There was no way I would trust them not to screw up raw fish. They would also use the cheapest ingredients to make the food so I doubt sushi was the right dish to eat there.
Don’t worry- even a bad time at college is better than a good time in high school.
You do know that once you go away to college, when you come home to visit, you are no longer obligated to eat anything that your parents serve if you don’t like it, right? And they can’t say anything about it, as long as you don’t make a huge fuss about not eating it
My college dining hall experience did have its moments of getting sick from the food (of course, so did eating at home- checking dates on anything from the fridge is a necessary survival skill in my family), but overall it was better than living at home, food-wise. My parents were and are very unadventurous eaters who shun garlic and spices, and it was nice to get a more varied diet from the dining hall.
I hope MIT came through for you, but if not, work your butt off for 1 year at Rutgers, get good grades & transfer. Start the transfer process the minute you get to Rutgers, and consider every class you take to be part of the transfer process.
I work at a small private college with a good culinary program.
One of the culinary classes is International Foods, where the students get to prepare dishes from other cultures. Since they usually make a LOT of food in the labs, it’s not uncommon for the extras to end up in the school cafeteria, especially when it’s something relatively exotic.
For the really exotic stuff, they even give it away. For free. No charge at all. You can help yourself to as much as you want, without any limits.
This includes sushi. (Rice rolls, usually without any fish at all, and never raw fish.)
This means that a couple of times a year, the cafeteria offers free sushi, all you can eat.
The only reason it’s free, though, is because none of the students want it, and they definitely won’t pay for it. The faculty (non-culinary faculty, like math, accounting, computers, etc.) quickly find out that it’s sushi day, though, and we feast.
