Comments on: good choices made a long time ago

By: Celia

Celia — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:48:00 +0000

(I just wanted to say, Katrina!!! And hi, Dan!)

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:34:37 +0000

I DEFINITELY still have my doorplate… as well as a welded heart on a chain that we received at Valentine’s Day, I think.

I was the Hampshire freak who took 4 classes EVERY SEMESTER and who graduated in 3 1/2 years (took fall of my ’senior’ year off and traveled- supposedly as ‘research’ for my Div III). That helped the economics. YES- classes off campus are important- or in my field- music- a necessity. Also- living in various mods- including with Jessamyn and Dan (HI DAN!) was a really important part of me expanding the horizons of what I knew about people. I think they (like everything else at Hampshire) are more structured now, but still…

Honestly, my favorite teachers were at Amherst College. Lewis Spratlan, Peter Lobdell, Wendy Woodson. But man, I can write, it pays all my bills, and it’s because of Hampshire.

By: Parmenator-X

Parmenator-X — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:37:20 +0000

Hey, I think I still have one of Jessamyn’s personalized door-plates from that welding class.

I actually had a final exam for a Hampshire class, in fact it was Weisler’s “Truth and Meaning” class.

By: Katrina

Katrina — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:33:23 +0000

Thanks for sharing this and the memories. Remember welding at Mt Holyoke? I’d add that exams in early grad school were a strangely alien task that I never quite grokked, but I felt much more prepared when it came to my doctoral thesis project.
Katrina (87F)

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:16:42 +0000

I sort of feel like the debt part follows you if you go to any private college. If I had known what I was doing at that age — and who really does — I probably would have gone to Evergreen. I can’t say that I totally loved it there while I was there, I found Adele annoying and there were a lot of weird messed up people who got in the way of me trying to have a normal-ish college experience, but looking back on it, it was a decent choice.

By: Michael Dorfman

Michael Dorfman — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:08:07 +0000

I just want to concur: Helaine Selin rocks.

Michael -(81F)

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:29:37 +0000

I have to concur on the “debt” part. The alumni relations office will be happy to see another alum who *loved* Hampshire enough to comment here, the downside of Hampshire was the debt - even though I had substantial granted financial aid, too. But even with the debt it was totally worth it.

I would also concur that it’s not for the slacker. I took classes at Amherst and my Hampshire classes were consistently more difficult, perhaps because they made me push myself more.

Lastly, librarian Helaine Selin was the speaker at my (December 92) graduation, and I feel it is not an understatement to say that she was the best graduation speaker ever (and the one chosen by the 80 or so graduating students).

Carol
F90

By: Parmenator-X

Parmenator-X — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:05:03 +0000

Jess, weren’t you also in the Hampshire College Marching Band? And I seem to recall that you did some work for the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society. And you were in a movie!

Advice for future Hampshire students: file your Div II early. You can always change it later. And take advantage of the off-campus classes. I can’t stress this enough. I don’t think Hampshire would work at all if it weren’t for the 5-college system.

I’m still in touch with many of my old Hampshire chums and I’ve made several new friends in recent years who went there.

- Dan (85F)

p.s. Hi Celia!

By: Amelia

Amelia — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:46:22 +0000

I really liked reading this, especially since I went to Evergreen, a school that’s perhaps more lax and anarchistic than Hampshire. But I think I’d have to have this sentence in my such letter: “Both college and grad school left me with a sizeable amount of student loan debt, which I still have no idea how I will pay off.”

By: Celia

Celia — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:02:49 +0000

This is such an interesting read for this 87F. Thank you.