Vassar College
Sunday, P, M,
My dear Father
Here I am in the rery place I was almost sure I would not be admitted. Hie examinations are orer and next week we commence work in earnest. I was a little homesick and blue the afternoon mama left but was orer it before evening and new am perfectly happy and contented. Everything is just as they advertise and very nice. Tuesday we left Waterford arrived Poughkeepsie about six. Took the horse cars up to the Morgan House as it
was about miles. "When we went down to supper I began to think I would
like to be home, for the nearer I came to the college the more I dreaded
the examinations. At breakfast the next a.m. there was an elderly lady,
well about forty and a young sister about seventeen. They were the first
ones we had spoken to: as the young lady was a candidate for Vassar we were at once acquainted and after eating went right went right out to the college in the street car. It is about miles from Morgan House and is the most beautiful spot I ever saw, the grounds are almost equal to Central Park and the building is even prettier than it looks to be in the cut. Ma and Miss Rawson were together all day and went all over the college. I-was examined in the preliminaries but was not through and did not know whether I passed or not when we went back to P_ The applicants and their friends took dinner at the college. The next A.M. out we went again. I first went to the office in the building and there was a letter from Ben, Addie, Kate, Nellie and Frankie. Then went up stairs and was examined in Geog. received my pass signed by Prof. Raymond. Then wasn't I a happy girl. I felt so relieved I can not tell you how much. The next thing to do was to go to Matthew Vassar and settle my account. He wrote on my receipt, "Balance in thirty days as shown by letter written to daughter. So the other $150. most be paid in a month any way if not before, everyone is very pleasant and kind and they make you feel at home at once. Then before I was examined in anything else, I had to go to Miss Leny and get my room. Ma, Miss Rawson and I went all over the building and of all the rooms we like the one Kate selected the best. It is a beautiful room and Miss Leny said Helen and I might hare it as it was engaged for me. It has a north and west window and is in the fifth story, but guess I can stand the stairs. There are two beds, two bureaus, two wardrobes, two washstands, a centre table, book-rack like the one in our parlor, and four chairs. Then we each bought us a great big old fashioned rocking chair for $3.50 a peice and are going to get a drop light for the gas is up so high it would be so hard to study by. It will cost $1.62 a peice. The board we have is splendid. Just like any first class hotel board and everything is cooked very nicely. Grapes every day for dinner, sometimes peaches. I was examined in P'hys. Geog. and Latin. The old gentleman who examined seemed much pleased and that paid me for my hard study this summer and the $68 it cost. Katie's old friends meet me as though I had always known them and I like them ever so much. My room-mate is nice. She is from Cincinnati and is a real plain sensible girl. Ma could not leave until Friday noon and I had to cry since then but by tea time was over it and have not been a bit homesick. I'm pefectly satisfied with everything could not help but be for it is so nice. When will you be here I want to see you so much. If you have not sat for your picture wait until you go to Saratoga for they are cheaper and they take then better. Now please write me a letter just as soon as you get this wont you papa?
From your affectionate & thankful daughter
Addie Thompson
The examinations were perfectly awful harder than I had any idea they would be.