<p>“Well the parties I’ve attended are held in the afternoon, as have been every one that I’ve ever heard of.”</p>
<p>Apparently you haven’t heard of /all/ the parties. Hard as it is to imagine, just b/c something is done one way in your state doesn’t necessarily mean the other 49 states, US territories, Canada, Mexico, and hundreds of countries abroad have to follow suit. Some parties are in the evening. ;)</p>
<p>“But more data is better than less in most cases and even a small prospect party is likely to be better than none.”</p>
<p>I couldn’t disagree more. If the party represents one small faction of Smithies, and a woman leaves the party convinced Smith isn’t a <em>fit</em>, irreparable damage is done and a possible great future student is lost. </p>
<p>Otoh—and why I posted-- if a woman realizes beforehand the parties with <em>very few</em> women/alumnae are but a representation of ~1% of the students, and, unlike your parties, /might/ be of one ilk, then by all means, attend with an open mind.<br>
As I said and you acknowledge yourself, 17 yr olds are fickle. You don’t always get a second chance… The only reason the woman I spoke of is attending Smith today is b/c she visited the college. If she hadn’t, Smith would be absent a great woman. Let’s just agree to disagree about this. ;)</p>
<p>“nobody has every changed into their evening gowns for the event”</p>
<p>LOL—If women always wear evening gowns to soirees in your area, gwad, no wonder you were confused.</p>
<p>Let’s try this again—One meaning of sioree— “noun soiree: a party of people assembled in the evening (usually at a private house)” “2. An evening of entertainment of any kind.”</p>
<p>And if you believe days at the county club are “trying”, I can see why you might have a distorted view of the organization. ;-)</p>
<p>Seriously TD, this has been fun but you really are expending wayyyy too much energy on one word and you’re assuming some sort of derogatory meaning was intended, when nothing could be further from the truth. A sense of humor helps ;)</p>
<p>I realize you want to practice your wordsmithing-- but let’s change the subject.</p>