Senior Takes on Jeopardy!

Answer: The game show that aired last night with a Harvard student as a competitor. The question: What is Jeopardy!?

Mather House resident Katherine L. Bryant '92 competed in March in Jeopardy!'s fourth annual "$25,000 College Championship." She lost the round, but took home pantyhose, Riesen candies, the Jeopardy! computer game and $1000 as consolation prizes.

Despite her loss, Bryant said yesterday that she enjoyed participating.

"It was a lot of fun," she said. "I would have liked to have done better, but I enjoyed watching the other games...after mine."

Bryant said that she originally thought of competing on the show last summer. After she sent in her name, she got a letter in October informing her that she had been randomly chosen to try out.

Following a November try-out session in Washington D. C. which included a written test and several mock games, she was notified in January that she had qualified to compete.

Although Bryant--who competed against a California Institute of Technology sophomore and a first-year from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--described the game as "kind of nerve-wracking," she was not awed by host Alex Trebek.

"He seemed kind of pompous...and stuffy," she said.

During the first round Bryant answered ten out of ten questions correctly, faltering only with her "question" of "home equity loan' (it was approved when she changed it to "home equity mortgage loan") Other correct responses in such categories as "elements," "footwear" and "crossword clues" gave her an $1800 lead at the end of the Jeopardy! round.

She made her only mistake in the category of "American Revolution' during the second-round Double Jeopardy!, falling behind for a while. However, as series of six correct responses at the last minute put her in the lead again with $8100 at the beginning of Final Jeopardy!.

Unforunately, she responded incorrectly in Final Jeopardy!, saying the Iberian, not the Arabian is the largestpeninsula in the world at one million square milesof land mass.

Had she won, she would have advanced to thefinal round of College Jeopardy, along with theother daily winners of the two-week semifinals andthe four top non-winning scorers.

But Bryant could still have advanced if she hadbeen more cautious her her wager, she said.

"If I had risked less the $200 during thefinal round, I would have been one of [the fourtop non-winning scorers], but, of course, I didn'tknow that then," she said.

Bryant said that she was the onlyrepresentative from the Ivy League. The othersemifinalists came from thirteen different schoolsincluding the College of William and Mary andSouthern Methodist University

Had she won, she would have advanced to thefinal round of College Jeopardy, along with theother daily winners of the two-week semifinals andthe four top non-winning scorers.

But Bryant could still have advanced if she hadbeen more cautious her her wager, she said.

"If I had risked less the $200 during thefinal round, I would have been one of [the fourtop non-winning scorers], but, of course, I didn'tknow that then," she said.

Bryant said that she was the onlyrepresentative from the Ivy League. The othersemifinalists came from thirteen different schoolsincluding the College of William and Mary andSouthern Methodist University