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!

College Interviews

For us, the next step in this college search and application ordeal has been a return visit to Elsa's top choice schools to interview. We have elected to do as many as possible during the summer because next fall will be jam packed with club and varsity soccer (NYC girls will play in the fall now thanks to Title IX,) SAT II's, the ACT, overnight visits and college soccer games. Oh, and there are also the essays to write and applications to fill out, on top of homework!

Elsa's first interview was scheduled at Franklin and Marshall after our tour during our April college tour trip. Elsa interviewed with an admissions officer, which was great, but the interview conflicted with the information session, and as a result, I don't feel I know as much about the school as I would like. I may have to return on my own to attend an information session. Her second interviews were last week, at Wesleyan and Connecticut College, and both were conducted by senior student interviewers.



This past week, she interviewed at Haverford and Swarthmore. At Haverford, Elsa interviewed with a senior and at Swarthmore, a really cool adult admissions officer named Nick. So far, all of her interviews have consisted of really great conversations. They have not been hard or dreadful or challenging for Elsa at all. We like revisitng the campuses again. Whenever possible, we will stop by an visit the soccer coach again. So far, none have been available. Next week: Smith and Mount Holyoke...

Connecticut College

Our college search continues, now with much more focus on finding "target" and "likely" schools. Having learned about FAFSA and something called the CSS profile, we are now looking for schools which offer merit aid for qualified students. We have learned so, so much since those early days and tours of February and April.

We learned, for example, that the athletic conference, NESCAC, in which many CT and MA schools, such as Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams, etc, participate, does not allow any kind of financial consideration for academically accomplished athletes.

Other schools, in other conferences, can offer strong students merit aid, so these are the schools we are now seeking out. However, CT College, for its location, reputation and beauty seemed worth a visit. So, Elsa scheduled an interview while I toured and attended an information session.


What stands out about this school? It's co-ed, for one thing. It has a reputation for being "preppy" but we didn't necessarily see evidence of that. I toured with a Brooklyn girl from Berkeley Carroll who had seen Wesleyan in the morning and didn't care for it but loved CT, so maybe there is something in the air that smacks of a little more conservatism than at Wesleyan. CT has an honor code, as does Haverford. It's a nice sized school, about 2,000 students. They do not offer African American studies, but they do have Africana studies, at least. Our tour guide Brianne, is a cheerful and enthusiastic sophomore who got full time work at the school for the summer. Elsa interviewed with a senior named Carly who is just as nice and friendly as she could be. We had a lovely visit on a beautiful day and really enjoyed seeing the school. We were not able to meet the women's soccer coach, but we know that her team has not been successful. I'm not sure they won any games last year, which would be depressing, I think. We did see the athletic center, which is under renovation. CT has both an ice rink and a pool.