Sunday night, I went to a meeting about hosting prospective students, or "prospies." I find this sort of ironic, as I didn't do an overnight stay at Oberlin. (I did do an overnight stay at another small midwest lib-arts college, but that school and Oberlin were pretty different.) The reason(s) I didn't do an overnight here: When I visited Oberlin prior to being admitted, I was on a ridiculously tight schedule in which I attempted to visit Grinnell, Oberlin, and Beloit in about four days over a school break. After admissions decisions are made, Oberlin hosts an influx of admitted high school students in an event called "All Roads Lead to Oberlin." I elected not to come on All Roads because I didn't want to put the financial pressure on my parents (plane tickets are expensive) and also because I had fallen in love with Oberlin harder than anywhere else, based solely on my whirlwind admissions-office tour, meal in the dining hall, and exploratory poke around the town.
Based on that, I find it funny that I'm so excited about hosting prospies. I don't know what people /do/ on Oberlin overnights, aside from eating in a dining hall and sleeping on the floor of their dorm. Roomie and I decided that I was in a good position to host for the college because we've got a decent amount of floor space, and she'll occasionally have sports-related prospies, so we'd just have to coordinate when we were having an overnight guest. I suppose I'll just have to scan the bulletin boards on campus extra-hard a few days before I host; there's so much going on this campus that I have a hard time keeping track of it sometimes. I can't imagine how intense it'll seem to a prospective student go have a band at the 'Sco, a Oberlin Dems interest meeting, a concert by a couple of Connies, movie screenings, plays, and games of Ultimate Frisbee all going on during a single night... If I'd had to choose just one or two to investigate, I would have been petrified!
But hosting will give me a chance to "shape the incoming class" - in other words, I get to show off how ridiculously psyched I am about Oberlin and the opportunities here. I'll get to shock and amuse high-school seniors with our all-gender bathroom and my SexCo exploits, and I can't wait. I'm signed up to host one student in October and one in November right now, but that'll change once I go down and sign up for more hosting. The $10 that the college pays us for hosting isn't why anyone does the overnights; it's a group of students who love the school and want to show off how excited we are about it. According to the group that organizes the overnights, being a host can also lead to a job with the admissions office as a tour guide. I shamelessly admit that I'm going for that; I think it would be a ton of fun to show people around the campus and help make that impression.
I can't wait.
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