I don’t eat fast food. But I can’t live without pizza.
– Trevor Donovan

While there are innumerable ways to approach college visits – including investigating specific areas of interest, like programs of distinction and financial aid availability – I usually incorporate a culturally disarming focus point to guide my “tour experience” and ultimately open the most insightful conversations with students. Food. More specifically, the holy trinity of college cuisine: ice cream, grilled cheese and pizza.

Granted, there are deviations from these three items; however, as far as the major players across the nutrient spectrum, these three staples are the prime conversation openers for most college students. Food is the magical lead in conversation before wrestling with the more mundane – but ultimately necessary and important – topics including academic rigor, programs of note, acceptance rate, student to professor ratios, scholarships, best libraries to study, ultimate Frisbee teams and if the financial aid department is actually as helpful as the school website purports to be.

You are what you eat. But if you don’t have foods that comfort you and your brain conveniently available when the screaming stress monkey comes to visit during mid-term or final exams, your mood – and performance – will suffer. While eating “clean and healthy” should be your overall goal, part of “healthy” should also target the deep psychological comfort food centers of your brain. Enter the serotonin squirting “comfort food” menu. For some it is pizza, for others it is nachos and for many it is chocolate – the food of many a person’s happy amygdala.

I recently toured Santa Clara University and discovered that some entrepreneurial genius (Mission City Creamery) decided to capitalize on two legs of the college gastronomic holy trinity and offer them under the same roof: ice cream and grilled cheese sandwiches. When at Vanderbilt I kept hearing about Jeni’s Ice Cream, and other recommendations for the Grilled Cheeserie. Since the mark of any good college food establishment is a name using a “non-word” I can tell you that the Cheeserie does not disappoint. And, Jeni’s Ice Cream makes a mind altering Buttermint with Chocolate Flecks that has to be good for at least 10% on any exam.

So please, as you tour schools and consider your next four years of rigorous academics I emplore you to include food in your inquiry. Be sure to note what kind of comfort food is available – and when – and do not discount its importance. While you may not want to make a steady diet of such quasi-nutrional sustenance, a late night fix of food that feels good and keeps a smile on your face can be a very powerful influence in your academic performance.

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
– Yogi Berra