When I first visited as a high school senior, I thought WashU was Disney World. Abundant spring sunshine sparkled off the blushing bricks of the campus buildings. Smiling students played Frisbee in Mudd Field. And the South 40 actually looked like a theme park village. The illusion ended the next day when 70-degree sunshine warped into stinging wind and rain — authentic St. Louis-style, it turns out. Still, when I called home that night, shivering from the walk back to my host’s room, I was smiling.
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