F: What’s your name and where are you from?
M: My name is Marielle Wardell and I’m from Tabernacle, New Jersey.

F: How do you like California in comparison to New Jersey?
M: I like the weather here better. The people here are wimps though; they get afraid of the cold easily and complain about the rain. [chuckle]

F: Yeah, I know I definitely get cold really easily since I’m from around here. Anyway, how do you like it here at Mudd?
M: I like it here. Mudd is good. Me make friends. [laughter] Anyway, it’s nice, although it feels really small at times. Because it’s so small, I see the same people all the time.

F: So do you go to the other campuses a lot?
M: Yeah, I try to eat at other campuses and I’ve met some girls from Scripps through my guy friends here at Mudd. However, I only hang out with the Scripps people when I’m already with the friends that they know. I’m still getting used to Mudd so I haven’t gone to the other campuses as much.

F: I know what you mean. I don’t really get too many chances to go to the other campuses either since I get so busy here. So, has the school lived up to your expectations then?
M: Pretty much. The school’s not too bad so far. The academics are what I was expecting and the people are not as nerdy as I thought they would be. Everyone seems to be an alcoholic. [chuckle] When I first came on a tour at Harvey Mudd, the tour guide kept emphasizing the fact that they “party.” I didn’t believe this at first and thought that their idea of fun was playing Halo all the time. However, there really are a lot of parties.

F: So do you drink a lot then?
M: I don’t drink that much. [says it with shifty eyes]

F: [laughter] I guess we’ll leave certain details out then. Next question…Do you feel any different about school now than you did when you first came?
M: Not really.

F: Given the chance, would you rather have gone to another school?
M: No, I don’t regret coming here. I had other options but the environment here seemed really nice and safe. Because it’s smaller here, if I ever have a problem, it’s always easy to get help. Teachers are always offering to have students drop by and “grab some candy from them” as well.

F: Yeah, the professors are all really nice here and are always willing to help. How do you feel about the students here?
M: Most people are really nice, although there are always those one or two people that talk excessively and won’t stop talking. [laughter]

F: You recently threw a party in Atwood. How would you rate its success?
M: The party went well. People had a lot of fun and liked that it was small since it was easier to talk to people that way. Next time we might throw a private party since it will be easy with all the equipment we have now. It seemed that freshman were more receptive to the party though and they enjoyed it more since they are in the same class as us. Our shirts also sold out and we might even be responsible for making the next Atwood shirts. However, we still need to replace some of the shirts that were sold for the party because some got ruined after being washed.

F: Wow, so all your shirts got sold out! That’s pretty good and it sounds like the party was pretty successful. What made you decide to throw one?
M: Well, I heard that Atwood never throws any parties and freshman never throw any. So since I live in Atwood and I am a freshman, I did it out of spite. My friend Lindsay did it for the enjoyment of planning parties. I enjoy planning things too, but spite helps.

F: Do you still plan to live here in Atwood?
M: I don’t really know too much about the other dorms so I’m not really sure. I kind of like Linde and North, but I don’t know if I’m going to stay in Atwood or not. It seems that Atwood has an attitude of “I don’t care if we don’t have a reputation for our dorm” and I’m a person who doesn’t really care that much either so it’s nice. The quad dorms and Linde have more of a sense of community whereas Atwood is more divided into cliques and suite-oriented. This is good though too because you can avoid people you don’t like.

F: So do you still find a lot of free time even with the massive amounts of homework?
M: Yeah, I can always find time to waste. The workload isn’t that bad. If I have time next semester, I want to get back into soccer and potentially join the team here at the Claremont Colleges. I haven’t played for two years and when I played with my friends this past weekend, I realized that I had forgotten how fun it was.

F: Well, thank you very much for your time. You’ve provided me a lot of information. Good luck at IM Waterpolo!