By Rod Bastanmehr
Arts Reporter
Zoë Mansfield hates envelopes.
She remembers the months of constant mail checking, and the nail-biting anticipation that came with every single envelope during the period known as “college acceptance season.”
Chloe Mansfield, her older sister, says she has nothing but love for envelopes, remembering the long-ago days where every mail truck brought with it either dread or jubilation.
For Chloe, one particular envelope gave way to four years at Yale University. For Zoë, that pesky piece of white stationery brought with it two years at Cabrillo Community College.
Perhaps the oddest part of the Mansfield family’s college saga is that Zoë and Chloe maintained the exact same grade point average (GPA), did most of the same extracurricular activities and were all-around equal components to their high school student bodies. As their mother Carole Mansfield put it, the sisters “were near identical applicants.”
But the advice they followed in the college application process was significantly different.
After being told she was a shoo-in by a college adviser, it was recommended to Zo
