By Carl Zielinski

Gargoyle staff reporter

Posted Monday, Jan. 15, 2007, The OG, news

Alums talk about college life on the East Coast,

from left: Sasha Steinberg, Nuole Chen, Amirah

Nelson, Lucy Schiller, Sara Sligar, Justin Park.
(photo by Monica Fountain) (click to enlarge)

EVERY YEAR MANY Uni students take a chance and apply to colleges outside of the Midwest.

They're not always sure of what they're getting into, so it helps when recent Uni graduates come back to talk about adjusting to college life far from home.

Last week six alums returned from college on the East Coast to share their experiences with the Uni community during a lunchtime brown-bagger sponsored by the Student Services Office.

The brown-bagger series addresses topics ranging from different career opportunities to issues facing new college students. As is usual with these events, the Jan. 8 session in Room 109 was quite well-attended.

The returning alums were 2006 graduates Nuole Chen, Georgetown University; Amirah Nelson, Smith College; Justin Park and Sara Sligar, Amherst College; Lucy Schiller, Bryn Mawr College; and 2004 graduate Sasha Steinberg, Vassar College.

The alums discussed some of the expectations they had before going away, and how these were for the most part proven wrong.

Largely, their preconceptions concerned the stereotype of Easterners as either snooty (“I was worried about a massive display of wealth,” said Steinberg, “because East Coast schools don't always have large diversity”) or loud and impatient. As history teacher Bill Sutton piped in from the back, “[In the Midwest] it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.”

According to the speakers, this stereotype died quickly after they arrived at their respective campuses.

“Snootiness just isn't really prevalent at Smith,” said Nelson.

However, it isn't just Midwesterners who have preconceived notions about others.

“A lot of people on the East Coast tend to get Iowa, Ohio, and Illinois mixed together,” said Steinberg.

“I'll say that I'm from Illinois, and people immediately think Chicago,” said Sligar.

“I got asked how much of my town looked like ‘Children of the Corn,'” added Steinberg.

Despite some misunderstandings between locals and students from other parts of the country, East Coast schools do seem to have advantages. Many of the alums said they looked for schools that had long-established reputations, and many East Coast schools date back to before the American Revolution and are still held in high standing to this day.

While some Midwestern schools also boast proud reputations, one thing most of them can't provide is proximity to major cities comparable to Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. This turned out to be an important factor to most of the panelists when they decided which school to attend.

“[Vassar is] connected to the New York theater atmosphere,” said Steinberg.

Other reasons for applying to East Coast schools were much simpler.

“I wanted to be away from the Midwest,” said Nelson.

On the other hand, the distance poses a problem for people who might want to return home over a long weekend or Thanksgiving. Nelson and Chen in particular pointed out that their winter break was the only time they had returned home since going away to college.

But while adjusting may have been slightly difficult for them, they all agreed that making new friends and getting along with roommates helps to ease the transition.

One other difference between the East Coast and the Midwest?

“There's a lot of mountains near Amherst,” said Sligar. “It's pretty sweet.”

All in all, current students came away from the brown-bagger with a better knowledge of what college life is like somewhere other than Central Illinois. With any luck, those who listened will take the alums' experience to heart and not be afraid to apply to colleges outside of their immediate surroundings.