‘Ze Prospies! ‘Ze Prospies!

Hello readers!

I hope you’re all doing well. I’m in a ridiculously chipper mood this morning, especially since school is kicking my butt. Let me tell you about my upcoming schedule, and then that will hopefully mesh seamlessly (crossing my fingers! Writing’s funny sometimes :)) into my focus topic for this week: choosing a college!

As weeks go, this one’s pretty busy. I’ve told you all that I allow myself three arrows per semester? What I mean is that each student here can print out a calendar for the semester, and we write in the due dates for each of our assignments. I allow myself three arrows, to mark off the craziest weeks that are to come. This week is arrow number two!

It pales in comparison to arrow number 3, which is the week of April 22-26^th. It’s totally branded in my mind—I don’t even need to look up the dates :). That week—two weeks from now—is officially my insane week, because almost everything I’m involved in has something major due then. I have a chemistry test, a neuroscience lab report (lab reports are usually not something I worry about… except in neuroscience, when they have to be epic, meaning at least 9 pages long with figures), a computer science test, my normal homework in Making a Difference Through Engineering, RUHLMAN, and even more exciting (this is where my involvement with both swimming and the blog comes in): SPRING OPEN CAMPUS!

Quick bit about Ruhlman Conference, before I get into Spring Open Campus. Ruhlman is Wellesley’s second annual conference, where students who have done research over the year (not just scientific research, but humanities research, art, original writing, and original theatre and musical performances) get to present their work through posters, panels, readings, and talks. I am lucky enough to participate in Ruhlman this year; my partner Yiing and I will be giving a 15-minute talk on our neuroscience research! If you happen to be in the area, we’d love if you’d drop by. This year’s schedule is going to be up today or tomorrow! Ruhlman Conference is open to the public, and there are simultaneous presentations going on from 8:30am-5:40pm with periodic snack breaks, and even if you don’t come for us (which of course I know is all of your primary motivation to fly out to Wellesley College), it’s a truly excellent occasion to see everything that Wellesley students are doing. This is my first time presenting, but I always attend Tanner Conference (our fall conference for students who travelled abroad) and Ruhlman Conference (the spring conference!) and am amazed at the breadth of involvement Wellesley students have in so many walks of life.

SOOO—the above plug applies to you too, potential first-years! Because for those who will be attending, Ruhlman is one day after Spring Open Campus! Spring Open Campus is two days of experiencing Wellesley College and all its inhabitants, where the entire campus opens up to admitted first-years to give them a taste of their possible future life. And when I say entire campus, I mean entire campus, because there are always a lot of you that come and there are only 2400 of us. We’ve been getting emails for weeks about hosting prospies (prospective students, as they’re known around here :)), and when you all come at the same time, you’re quite the presence. You’ll get to stay in the dorms with us, eat with us, go to class with us (I liked this one a lot), meet other prospies, meet current students, meet professors, see the campus, and generally just get a feel for the college. If I’m too much a fan of Spring Open Campus, it’s only because that’s when I made my college decision :). However, if you’re not able to make it over for Spring Open campus, don’t worry about it—you can visit campus anytime, and if your first time here is the first day of school, that’s great too!

I was asked recently if I remembered high school, and I remember quite a bit. Certainly less than I did last year, but there’s a strict divide between high school and college that lets me keep them separate. I think there are maybe three major differences I can name between them, but really, it’s a lifestyle change. Nevertheless, I’ll give a go at categorizing how it feels this year between college and high school.

First major difference: family. In college you leave your family. This is a fact, and it’s hard, and most of us keep in pretty regular contact via phone, skype, and email so it’s not like we’re cutting off contact completely. However, you’re no longer living with your family, and you don’t have that group of unwavering support when you get here. Which is why, when you arrive, you make your own family :). That was my response when I came to Wellesley to visit last spring: yes, these are girls who I can be friends with, be on a team with, have as a source of support and support them in turn. Every one of us creates our own family, whether through a sports team, inseparable friends, the Frisbee club, the Students Helping the Honduras club, a society, our library job, whatever. There are so many brilliant girls here, involved in so many different activities, that you will be able to find your niche in a way it’s very difficult to have in high school. You will be lonely, and you will find your way to these groups and people, and you will have families that are each as long-lasting and valuable as your first :).

Second difference: school. Turns out, a lot of the students that attend Wellesley were hot-shots in high school. If you’re not, don’t worry about it—the Admissions Office knows their students, and they wouldn’t have let you in if they didn’t think you were capable of handling the workload. (If you didn’t get in, and thought you should have, I’m sorry. It happens to all of us, but I have found through all of my experiences that other opportunities will reveal themselves that you never could have accessed before :)). But anyway, if you are a hot-shot, prepare to be with other hot-shots. You’re going to work harder than you did in high school (and most of us worked pretty hard in high school). You’re going to discover you have a new 100%. But you’re going to be learning what you want to learn, at the times that you want to learn it, with teachers who are experts in the subject, with people around you who are just as passionate about whatever you’re passionate about. No one’s forcing you to do you homework, and you’ll pour your time into it because it’s what you want to do. You’ll take whatever courses you wish, and you’ll explore.

Last difference: the rest of college life. You know when I said you’ll be working much harder than you were in high school? A lot of that isn’t even the classes. It’s what you’ll be doing outside of classes, which means you have less time to get your homework done :). Because let me tell you, Wellesley and college in general has so many opportunities outside of classes that you’ll wish you could just spend all your time with the lacrosse team, or the quidditch team, or playing the bells, or volunteering in Boston, or working at the bookstore, or writing for the school paper, or running a Girls in Science club, or singing in the choir, or performing plays, or being in a society, or everything else we do on the side. Life’s crazy, but we all make it so :).

These are things that will accompany you to whatever college you choose, and I think the point of visiting colleges is to get a feel for them all. When you visit, look for family—are these people you like, think you could make your own?—look for school: is this as tough/easy as you want, are there classes that you’re already interested in, and classes you want to explore?—and look for the rest—what organizations are on campus? What jobs, what communities? Together, these are going to be the core of your college experience.

So to all the prospies out there who are attending Spring Open Campus, I’m super excited for your visit in two weeks :). Make sure not to worry about anything—you’ll know where you fit as soon as you visit your campuses, and if you fit in multiple places, then anywhere you choose will be good! If you see me, definitely say hi—I’ll be trying my best to keep my head down on ground level (it tends to spin upwards on me when I’ve a lot to do ;)). And as always, I’m here for questions, comments, whatever—I’m here as your sophomore Wellesley College Resource, so please please feel free to use me!

Hope you all have a wonderful morning, and embrace the busy-ness and all else that ‘twill eventually be done :).

Happy Spring!

Monica