<p>“Mini, can you elaborate on the academic opportunities?”</p>
<p>Her areas were music, and specifically early music and opera, and between the Five-College Opera Consortium (to which she was tied as a STRIDE scholar, and did research work which led directly to her fellowship at Princeton), early music performance program and opportunities for both strings and voice, composition seminars, and Smith’s facilitating her joining an orchestra in Florence while she was abroad, the opportunities at Williams (which are pretty good for LACs) paled in comparison. She also took four years of Italian (in which she is fluent); at Williams, the most you can take is three semesters total, and there are no electives, which means you can’t even qualify for the most intense year-abroad opportunities. (And there are very few extracurricular activities in the language, as there are very, very few students.) And Smith’s Center in Florence has been there since 1927.</p>