QUESTION: Do you think attending an all women's college at Cambridge was a good decision in terms of becoming a mathematician?

12/24/01 ANSWER: I was very very lucky to go to Newnham, more especially since I hadn't planned to. At Cambridge University, the lectures, examinations and degrees are given by the University, but living accommodation, and supervisions (tutoring) are provided by a college. In my day, to attend the University a prospective student had to apply to a college and be admitted. There are over twenty of these colleges and they have slightly different characters. I applied to Gonville and Caius (pronounced Keys) college which had the reputation of being one of the most conservative colleges, and I (naively) saw it as my mission to provide a bit of diversity. The plan failed however when I didn't do exceptionally well on the Cambridge entrance exams, and Caius was not impressed by my interview. Suddenly I found I wasn't going to Cambridge. I had mostly learned mathematics by reading books on my own since age eleven, then passed the national exams several years early with top grades. It was a disappointment to be rejected by Cambridge. I emerged from deep depression after a few weeks, and started to make plans to go to another university. Then out of the blue, I got a phone call from Newnham college. I was being invited to interviews at two of the three women's colleges at Cambridge, Newnham and New Hall. The good women candidates that year had mostly applied to mixed colleges, and the women's colleges were still looking for students. In the end I got a place at Newnham, and when I arrived there I heard two stories about why I had been accepted. Newnham and New Hall were apparently great rivals. The first story was that I had allegedly sworn at the New Hall interviewer and upset him, which the faculty at Newnham found amusing so they admitted me. (I certainly didn't recall swearing at anyone.) The second story involved my sister Jeannie who is two years older than me and was studying maths at Kings college Cambridge. Apparently Newnham had asked King's how she was doing and they said she was rather good, so Newnham decided to admit me. Thank you Jeannie!

It turned out that Newnham was just a wonderful environment in which to live and study. I hope in the future to write about why it was so good.