Chris Santos ’74

Having spent my entire life in an asphalt-surrounded apartment in Brighton, Massachusetts, I found my Wellesley admissions tour akin to strolling through a country club, replete with rolling hills of green. I was smitten!

When Director of Admissions Mary Ellen Ames '40 asked if there were anything she should know before she ended the interview, I blurted out, "I really want to come here!" Her response — "Well, we'll see what we can do about that." — gave me hope. In April, a fat envelope from Wellesley arrived in the mail. After rifling through photos, my Philippines-raised mother held up a picture of three-year-old me standing amidst autumn leaves on College Road. "Never did I think you would go there," she confessed.

Years later, as a volunteer admissions representative, I always ended interviews with the same question that Mary Ellen had asked me, to give applicants the opportunity to bare their souls.