I went to a public all-girls high school where attendance was based on IQ. The Vice Principal was active in helping those girls who were at the top of the class get into top colleges. Attending an Ivy League men’s college like Yale wasn’t a possibility, so I attended Wellesley, one of the Seven Sisters colleges (Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Vassar, Pembroke, Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley). Hillary Rodham Clinton was a member of our class, the class of 1969. She went on to Yale Law School. Many who entered a Seven Sisters college were in search of a well-to-do husband but left as avid feminists and protestors. Many young women in our class went on to law school and medical school. I got my M.A. and M.Phil. from Columbia. Perhaps we had more opportunities after college than college graduates before us because 1969 was such a happening year across the country. I was able to attend both Wellesley and Columbia only because I earned full scholarships.
I sometimes think about all the bright women my age who were not able to go to college because their families couldn’t afford it and/or couldn’t maneuver the financial aid process