在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
“I think I know where I’m going,” I say as I walk into the living room, checking my phone for anticlimactic effect.
The new e-mail chime pierces the silence. It is late March, and I have one message.
“Well?” asks my nervous mother.
“Good things.”
“Meaning?”
“Just the subject line of the e-mail.”
“I see. From whom?”
Mom seems a bit annoyed.
“The College of William & Mary.”
Full stop.
Silence.
It sinks in.
I grin.
“People say good things come in small packages, but in college admissions, good things come in thick envelopes. Consider this the small package, but something bigger is on its way.”
Could it be?
I reread the letter. Does it mean what I think it means? I check the calendar, and April Fool’s Day it is not. This is real.
“On second thought, I’m going to need some time to think.”
Mom understands.
By the end of March, my rejection list totaled three: the University of Virginia, Tufts and Georgetown were all “sorry to inform” me that I was one of the “many well-qualified candidates” whom they couldn’t admit.
I was happily surprised to land on the waiting list at highly selective Washington & Lee University, where barely 17 percent of applicants were admitted.
Boston University, which accepted 47 percent of its applicants this year, also put me in decision purgatory. I withdrew from both lists.
I sympathized with the plight of college admissions officers in this decision-making process, but through the opposite end of the looking glass: I was accepted to many more schools than I have the ability to attend, and after careful consideration of each individual college I, too, must make a tough choice.
Luckily, the wide range of schools to which I was accepted gave me many great options. I ultimately narrowed the list to the two most viable possibilities: American University and the College of William & Mary.
Trade-offs were abundant. Would I better enjoy Washington and the plentiful opportunities the city provides for internships and exploration, or Williamsburg, Va., for its quieter, academically focused atmosphere?
Would I prefer the honors program at American or the top-notch academics at public William & Mary? After scholarships, American would be significantly less expensive than W&M; could we afford the difference?
To my parents’ surprise and delight, I decided the most prudent course of action would be to buy last-minute cross-country plane tickets and visit both schools in two days. After all, seeing is believing, right?
Two red-eyes, two cities, thirty-six consecutive waking hours, and an almost-missed Amtrak train later, and I quickly reached a simple decision: I will never, ever, under any circumstances, subject my kind mother to that torture again.
My college decision, on the other hand, became even more complicated.
Sleep-deprivation aside, the admitted student days at both American and William & Mary were dazzling. The opportunities, academics and people at both were exciting and inspiring.
On the flight home, with a shirt from each university stowed safely beneath the seat in front of me, I couldn’t help but love both schools even more.
When I got home, I decided to sleep on it. Fourteen blissful hours later, I opened my eyes, but there was still no college pennant on the wall.
This was a decision I was going to have to make on my own, and soon, with May 1 looming.
It didn’t strike me; no blows were exchanged. There was no lightbulb-over-my-head moment; just the constant drip-drip percolation of facts and feelings through the semipermeable membrane of my mind.
So here goes: In the fall of 2011, I will be studying International Relations at the College of William & Mary.
I could never fit my decision into a linear pro-con list. Just as important as the excellent academics are the less quantifiable factors: the people, the atmosphere and the overwhelming sense of unity in diversity.
One college official said that “those who come here, belong here.” I like that.
My deposit is paid and my hoodie has arrived. I’m college-bound, and in two weeks I’ll be graduated from high school and cleared for liftoff. I like that, too.
I’m also done. I like that best.
Mr. Campbell is one of six seniors at Cherry Creek High School in Denver blogging about his college search for The Choice between now and May. To comment on what he has written here, please use the box below.
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