We were delighted to receive the following from the regular letter written to his Woodstock graduating classmates (1952) by TZ Chu, former Board member and Woodstock Distinguished Alumnus. We felt that it deserved a wider audience.

Over the past several years, I have been following the increasingly more trying and challenging college admission processes and hurdles facing high school students and have forwarded information from newspapers and magazines to Woodstock Principal Kaye Aoki and College Counselor Dr. Dan Koop Liechty. Woodstock is unique among high schools in that it prepares its students for entrance into colleges and universities that practice North American, Indian and the United Kingdom (UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) pedagogies. Considering the relatively small average graduating class size of ca. 70 to 75 students, it is a challenge for sure.

It is also my opinion that many parents, even some of our alumni, mistakenly rate the School's achievements and successes based on the number of its graduates admitted into Ivy League universities and elite UK and Indian universities. As indicated in my Distinguished Alumnus acceptance speech, I believe that the intrinsic value of a Woodstock education has always been to teach its students to become rounded human beings, rather than to focus solely on academic achievements. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to reach any conclusion about the relative success of its education programs, until its graduates have at least arrived at their respective mid-careers.

Speaking from the perspective of a recently retired trustee of University of California, Berkeley, which today is one of the most difficult universities to gain admission to, the reputation of a university derives more from its graduate schools rather than its undergraduate programs. The College of Chemistry at Berkeley, about which I am well informed as one of its advisors, is perennially rated as offering the best programs for chemistry and chemical engineering, yet half of its incoming graduate students are from liberal arts colleges and the other half from research universities. In other words, where one gets his or her Bachelor's degree is not that important. For most, it is the college that offers the scholarship that covers the greatest percentage of the total costs of college education that would likely be the most appropriate choice. There are simply many fine colleges and good professors around.

That said, the Woodstock graduating class of 2008 is a truly remarkable class. As we were leaving Mussoorie, the college admission notices from North America and UK began to arrive at Woodstock. I learned that several students have been accepted by Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Dartmouth, U Penn, Cambridge, etc., in addition to a number of excellent smaller liberal arts colleges. Given the demands of the broad nature of a Woodstock education, the isolation and distance of the School from these universities, the reported heightened standards of admission this year, and the relatively small number of Woodstock applicants to these universities, it is difficult to exaggerate the accomplishments of these students and teachers who taught them, and the many other staff members who collectively made Woodstock's good well-rounded education possible.

I trust you are as proud of them as I am and I hope you would pass the news around and send a message of congratulations to the students and staff members.