Wellesley: Wow!

I was semi-recovered from our long day of travels and ready for a day of adventures when I woke up around 7:00 AM this morning. Iris and I met up with the other girls, Jackie, Kat, and Mrs. Kaplan about an hour later, and we headed to breakfast at the Small Point Café. Although the service was not the quickest, I enjoyed the food and general vibe of the café a lot; it reminded me of some of the individually–owned businesses that exist in and around Berkeley back at home. I had a bagel and cream cheese, and grabbed a coconut water for the road. We headed back to the hotel at 9:00, and were on the road to Wellesley College by 9:15.

My latte had cool foam art!

We reached Wellesley at around 10:15, with plenty of time to spare before our tour. As we drove through the campus, and later, as we walked around, I was awed by the beauty of the place. There were trees everywhere, along with grassy areas and ponds with ducks. The buildings were old-fashioned, many of them made of red bricks. We hung out in the admissions office and read “The Wellesley 100” (a catalog with 100 bits of information about Wellesley) until 11:00, when our campus tour began.

The admissions office

The campus at Wellesley is beautiful!

Our tour guide was a young woman named Amy, who just finished her junior year at Wellesley. She led us around the campus and discussed various topics with us, including academics, financial aid, and the application process at Wellesley. She was really nice and fun to talk to, and she had a lot of useful information for us.

This is the cafe in the science center - it made me happy,
since I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd.

I left the tour at about 11:40 because I had scheduled a meeting with one of the piano teachers in the music department at Wellesley. My piano teacher at home is friends with her, and I was able to get in touch with her through email before this trip. This was really exciting for me, because I am passionate about music, and am seriously considering studying it in college. My meeting with Lois went well; I played her a couple of pieces that I've been working on for a while, and she gave me feedback and some really helpful advice regarding both technique and expression. She also said that she could put me in touch with a couple of her current students through email, which will be great. 

After my meeting, I met Jackie at the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center and grabbed some lunch. Then we headed over to meet the others back at the admissions office for an information session. The girl who talked to us gave us more information on admissions, academics, and financial aid. 

Free postcards!

Visiting Wellesley was an eye-opening experience for me. Although I am still not completely sold on the idea of an all-women's college, I am definitely a lot more open to it than I was before visiting. Wellesley has a gorgeous campus, not to mention fabulous academics and amazing, inspiring people. It also has small class sizes, which I like because I think I learn better on a more personal scale where I can have in-depth discussions with my professor and classmates. I felt relatively at home with the general atmosphere on campus today, which I think is important.

After our visit to Wellesley, we drove home and had a few hours to spare before dinner. I relaxed for 45 minutes or so, and then Iris, Abby, Destiney, and I headed to the hotel's fitness center to exercise. This turned out to be a great idea, because dinner was incredibly rich. 

Our cohort met in the lobby at 7:00 PM for dinner, and shortly after headed to Camille's, the restaurant of the evening. We arrived slightly early, and as a result got to witness some rare dancing from all three chaperons - there was a DJ outside of the restaurant playing dance music. 

The restaurant

Dancing chaperones

Soon, the Brown alums and students that we were to have dinner with arrived, and we headed upstairs and got settled. The evening that followed was enlightening, inspirational, and fun, all at the same time - which is a lot what Brown itself is like, from what the students and alums said. I sat near Iris and Mrs. Kaplan, and we were right across from two alumni, Ida and Guy. Guy graduated in 1980, and Ida graduated in 2011. They were both interesting to talk to, and both gave great advice regarding college.

The dinner was an amazing end to a wonderful day. The food was delicious, and the company was inspiring. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July; I'm looking forward to spending more time with my cohort, as well as meeting up with the kids from Brown I!