The truth is inconvenient in Israel too

Growing up, I was always taught to care about the environment. Going green is definitely a part of American popular culture. As a child, I watched "Captain Planet," a television show about a superhero who foiled the plots of polluters. "Litterbug" was the last thing you wanted to be called on the playground. The local government required that families separate paper, plastic and glass when they took out the trash. Everyone knows what the "recycle" symbol looks like, because they went to Earth Day assemblies in school.

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The constant threat of uni strikes

For the past three years, university students in Israel have not been able to complete their degrees uninterrupted.

In 2006, there was the Second Lebanon War, in which many students, who also serve as reserve soldiers, fought. In October of that year, the Ministry of Education and the Treasury formed the Shochat Committee, which was meant to find a cure for Israeli higher education's numerous ailments. When the Committee recommended that tuition be raised in 2007, the National Union of Israeli Students called a strike. Students around the country blockaded the entrances to university campuses, and even those who opposed the strike were not able to get to class. Last year, senior professors did not teach until February, demanding a raise in their salaries and better working conditions. Israeli students had three semesters: one in which only junior professors taught, one for classes taught by senior professors, and one with both. The third semester ended in August, cutting into students' summer vacation.

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Deciding on a college path

Flashback to eleventh grade: All around me, my classmates panicked, going on college visits around the country, while I stuck with the few that were close to home (Penn, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers). In twelfth grade, while my friends wrote essay after essay on "Why I want to study at [insert school-name here]," I applied to four schools (see list above), all of which, even the Ivy Leagues, I considered back-up plans. My college advisor didn't know what to do with me; how could such a dedicated student be so lazy when it came to applying to college?