None of Meghan’s peers thought her immodest or pretentious. Although she was already prone to quoting aphorisms - something she still does - as far as onlookers were concerned, she was a jewel in search of the right setting so that she could shine even more brightly than she was shining at the moment. Ambition was good. She and her father had done, and would continue to do, whatever it took to enhance her prospects, from having expensive orthodonture so that she would have a perfect smile, to having the bulbous tip of her nose refined via plastic surgery. This was a fairly common procedure amongst aspiring actresses in Hollywood. Even the fabled beauty Elizabeth Taylor had done it in her teenage. It was a simple procedure. Cartilage was removed so that the tip of the nose was sharper than nature had intended. In Meghan’s case, however, the procedure would become more noticeable with the passage of time as the cartilage between the tip and the bone drooped, giving her nose a ski jump effect which, ironically, Harry had naturally.
When Meghan graduated from Immaculate Heart in June 1999, her academic and personal attributes were apparent for all to note at the Hollywood Bowl, where the ceremony was held. As well as her graduation certificate, she was presented with the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles Achievement Award, the Bank of America Fine Arts Award, a commendation in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, and an award for mentoring younger students.
Although Meghan had won three scholarships and could have entered several colleges either as a scholarship or a paying student, the thought had never entered her head that she should go anywhere but where she wanted. She had been brought up by her parents to have her desires fulfilled, and what she wanted was to attend Northwestern University.
This institution was and remains one of the most prestigious private research colleges in the United States. Fees were over $50,000 in today’s prices. It is ranked 9th amongst the American universities and has the 10th largest university endowment in the country, valued at more than $11 billion. Based at Evanston, Illinois, its main campus covers some 240 acres, while its secondary campus in Chicago covers 25 acres. There is a third campus in Doha, Qatar. The university’s former and present faculty and alumni include 19 Nobel Prize laureates, 38 Pulitzer Prize winners, 16 Rhodes Scholars, 6 MacArthur Genius Fellows, 65 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members, 2 Supreme Court Justices, and its School of Communication is a leading producer of Academy Award, Emmy Award and Tony Award directors, playwrights, writers, actors, and actresses. Although Tom had lost a large part of his lottery winnings, he was still a highly successful lighting director, and he took out bank loans and put in the extra hours necessary to raise the money needed to send his treasured Flower to the university which would be but a stepping stone on her journey to ever increasing success.
Considering Meghan’s stated purpose in attending Northwestern was to become a Broadway star, the fact that she chose to major in English, rather than acting, suggests that she was either not quite as confident as she seemed to be, or then that she was so confident that she didn’t feel the need to specialise in her chosen field. Leaving the protection of home is challenging for any youngster, but Meghan had both greater advantages and disadvantages than most of her peers. Being a child of Hollywood, she was far more sophisticated than her fellow students on the Eastern Seaboard. She dressed better, had more style, knew how to present herself better than they did, and had more confidence than most of them. She made friends with both boys and girls as soon as she burst upon the Evanston campus. She had pared down her look to what she regarded as monochromatic chic; she now wore much more make-up than she had been allowed to in California, and even took to highlighting her hair. Always deliberate, measured and calculating in the positive sense of the word, she also watched and waited before deciding which sorority to join. Once she made up her mind, she went straight for her target, turning on the power of her personality in an irresistible onslaught, and not surprisingly got initiated into Kappa Kappa Gamma with its clutch of intelligent and hot girls. ‘The thing we all have in common,’ according to fellow member Melania Hidalgo, ‘is that we’re all all drive, intelligent and ambitious.’ They were also avid party girls, hitting the bottle more than their books, networking in the belief that who you met might well prove more useful in the future than what you knew. So successfully did Meghan fit in, that she would ultimately be elected to chair recruitment for the sorority.
As Meghan tells it, she had one disadvantage most of her sisters did not. Northwestern was primarily Caucasian. Most of the students came from white environments. They were not used to inter-racial interaction, and, by her own account, she found one of the reactions stifling. She recounted to Elle Magazine how she had to navigate ‘closed-mindedness to the tune of a dorm mate I met my first week at university who asked if my parents were still together. “You said your mom is black and your father is white, right?” she said. I smiled meekly, waiting
