OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE

Ancient Provides Glimpse of College Life

By Maggie Maas ’25 Staff Writer

As Ancients graduate from Miss Porter’s, we often lose touch. We wonder what their new school is like and what they have been up to. We have hundreds of questions about how they like it, what they miss, and everything in between. How did Porter’s prepare them? Will we have a similar experience when we go off to college? What do we need to be ready for? Well, stop wondering because I caught up with Lucy Newmyer ‘23, who is attending the University of Virginia where she studies politics, psychology, and public policy.

Lucy walked me through her day-to-day life at UVA, where she has most of her classes in the morning and only has classes Monday through Thursday.

“I usually go to lectures in the morning, have afternoon discussion sections or seminars, go to the gym, and reconnect with friends for dinner.”

She said that most weekends have a different agenda but that some of her favorite activities include listening to evening guest speakers, attending basketball games, and going for hikes in the Charlottesville area. Lucy said that students are generally very independent in college; however, she felt well prepared for that as she was a boarder at MPS. She said there is much more freedom on her campus, which she enjoys, but there is also much more responsibility. One of Lucy’s biggest worries about the move from MPS to UVA was having five classes to manage rather than just three, but she feels that the classes are nicely spread out throughout her week, making them more manageable. Lucy is still getting used to exams.

One of the biggest shocks to Lucy was the size of the classes at UVA. She said that one of her lectures was almost 500 people. Although she heard coming into college that professors were not as accommodating as Porter’s

While Lucy has adapted to the UVA community and learning experience smoothly, she said she misses the camaraderie of school traditions and the tight-knit bond that the MPS community shares. We miss her too but are happy to know that she is flourishing in her new environment, just as MPS ancients do.