Interviews and Overnights

This fall, Elsa has been trying to narrow the list of colleges to which she will apply.

One way to do this is to spend the night at a college and possibly attend classes during the day. Athletes are often invited by coaches to attend games, to eat and to stay over with members of the team with which they would play, if accepted. This weekend, Elsa had two overnights scheduled: Smith and Mount Holyoke College. The Smith overnight was rather loose, but very pleasant. Elsa enjoyed her host, Meredith, and her house very much. She wasn't able to attend classes, but she did see a practice and she got to sample Smith food. She had a wonderful time.



















The Mount Holyoke overnight was a more structured event called Focus on Athletics. Prospective athletes for many sports were invited to attend a series of events including a performance by an a capella group, a panel discussion, a campus tour, an overnight and the opportunity to attend classes during the day.







Elsa attended, but later did not feel well and ended up not spending the night. It was a well organized and welcoming event, and I felt that it gave an honest inside view of the school. Many students who love the school now were skeptical in the beginning and not necessarily looking for an all women's college to attend. Many now feel that they definitely benefitted from the experience and believe in the value of single sex education for women. Interesting!





The weekend began when the Beacon soccer coach, Kevin Jacobs, drove the varsity team to Wesleyan for a tour and a meeting with the women's soccer coach. From CT, they traveled to Amherst, his almer mater, to meet with the Amherst women's coach. The team spent the night at the house of a former professor (how generous!) and then had a tour of the campus the next day. Elsa missed these festivities as she was at Smith. Mr. Jacobs kindly dropped her off. But we did join the team on Saturday for the Williams/Amherst women's soccer game, an annual rivalry, to see former Beacon teammate Chelsea's new team play. It was a rainy afternoon of great soccer. Unfortunately Chelsea did not play. Williams won 3-0, although Amherst looked strong in the beginning and challenged Williams several times.

Elsa has four more overnights scheduled before she will make her final decisions. Whew!