Off The Cuff

If you happened to read this column Wednesday, you may remember that I swore to find out more about that Radcliffe Freshman. Here's the straight word. But first, just to freshen up your memory on her, she was the one a friend of mine overheard saying, at a Phillips Brooks House tea, that she came to Radcliffe because it's three hours from New Haven, switched from French to Drama soon after arriving, and thinks she may now have to transfer somewhere else on account of there's no Drama course at Radcliffe.

What I wanted to find out was why she left French and took up Drama, and I was lucky enough to meet her personally at another Phillips Brooks House tea and get the answer to this puzzle in her own words. Now concentrate on this. I ask her, in words of one or less syllables, why she made the change. She says:

"Well, you see my brother goes to Yale, and he was very distressed and upset when I said I was going to Radcliffe (he wanted me to go to Smith or Vassar) you see, well, it's because going to Yale, you know, he doesn't think much of Harvard. You know, I mean you can understand that, can't you?"

"Sure." Pause. Inexorably, I return to my question. She says:

"Well so you see I'm always changing my mind about my major anyway--I'm interested in practically everything--and so now I want to be a great dramatic actress." Pause. I try a new approach.

"Didn't anything special happen to make you feel this way all at once?"

"Oh yes." Pause.

"Well--ah--WHAT?"

"Oh, I met the most perfectly darling boy down at Yale last weekend. I went home to New Haven for the weekend. It's only three hours away you know and he goes to the Drama School there, and so I made up my mind. But now I don't think he's so darling any more. But I still like Drama. But there isn't any Drama at Radcliffe. Of course, I'm, interested in practically everything except science and math, but I wouldn't want to go into lit because you usually have to go for honors in lit and I wouldn't want to do that."

"Do you like it a Radcliffe, even without Drama?"

"Oh yes. I wish they would start a Drama Department. Do you think they might? Or do you think I'll have to transfer? Or do you suppose maybe I'll change my mind again?"

The word is, don't pass up applying for a Rhodes Scholarship just because you're not a group one man. You've got to have pretty good grades all right, but they aren't any more important than being active in extra-curricular affaire, being able to think well on you feet, and being interested in athletics. If you can do all of these things, and are group three up, you are the ideal, well-rounded, red-blodded Rhodes Scholar.