Last night at dinner, I heard there was going to be a meeting about hosting prospies. I decided to go, mainly because there was free pizza involved. I am a big fan of free pizza.
I am, however, not as big a fan of prospies. True, I fondly remember the first prospies we had in Dascomb. Everyone on the whole hall had been excited to see them, because we'd all been prospies ourselves only a few months before that.
So don't get me wrong, I like meeting prospies. I like talking to them about how to navigate the chem. department. I like talking to them about College (Arts and Sciences) Orchestra. I like telling them about what I do in my spare time. (What spare time?)
I just have mixed feelings when I think of my own time as a prospie. My host was very good. She took me to some things, but also gave me a good amount of time to poke around without her. That was all good. I went to a concert, I experienced the dining halls, and I even got to sleep on a bed since she was an RA and had two of them.
My problem with the prospie experience was this: it wasn't enough time. I couldn't tell if I would actually like the campus if I was there for longer periods of time. I couldn't tell that for any of the other campuses I visited either. Pitt was big, but had good qualities. Wooster was very similar to Oberlin.
However, I do suggest visiting. Most people are probably more intuitive, in some ways, than I am. I like to have all the information before I make a decision, and when I picked a college, I knew I didn't have all the information. Of course, I couldn't really ever have that, and my visit actually did help give me more information.
So as my fellow bloggers have said before: be a prospie. Go out and experience a lot. Try to go with your gut, even though that might be harder said than done. It will serve you well.
