Monday, June 29, 2009

What a busy day!

Today, everyone met at 11 am at the Maddock Alumni Center for a lovely brunch. Not only was there great food (I loved the blueberry french toast! haha), but I was able to talk to a few people who currently go to Brown or have graduated from the university. I liked talking to Marcella, a rising junior, who explained to me why she chose Brown over other schools. She, like several others, told me she liked the open curriculum and the freedom to explore various subjects led her to choose her major of Geophysics. I also plan to go to the admissions office sometime this week to speak to Mercedes Domenech about the medical program here at Brown. After eating, we went to a different room in order to here a couple of speeches. I found it interesting when speaker Tehani Collazo mentioned that she first went to a poor, low-rate school district, her parents took her out and moved her to Brookline. This struck me because I know a few students who left our district to move to one that they thought was better. I wonder if Tehani would have stayed with her school district if it had organizations, such as the Ivy League Connection, which helps students. Although we may not have the best district, I'm glad I am part of one that is slowly improving with programs like ILC.

After the brunch, Gina, Meuy, Carla, and I went to visit Wellesley College with Ms. Kronenberg, Ms. Kent, and Mr. Ramsey. Fortunately, a kind lady, Moira Kelly, was able to give us a tour of the campus. This school is one of the seven sisters (the seven all-women liberal arts colleges located in the northeastern US) with famous graduates like Hilary Clinton and Madeline Albright. My first impression was that the campus was beautiful and huge (600 acres!). There are only 2,000 undergraduates and 30% diversity. I liked how the school has such a strong connection to MIT and allows students to take courses there and has an extensive study abroad program. In the end, I could not see myself going to this school. This tour was helpful because I learned I may be more of a city person. Although it is 5 minutes away from downtown Wellesley and 15 miles away from Boston, I still felt a bit isolated. However, I'm sure I can use the information I received to talk to any students who are considering an all-women college.

1 comment:

Don Gosney said...

Courtney,

It's interesting to read of your positive comments about Wellesley. I've heard other comments that weren't quite so flattering.

I'm a little surprised that you think that 600 acres makes for a big campus. Stanford has more than 8,000 acres and even Cal has 6651 acres. I suppose it all depends on how you look at things.