Students in the 50's and early 60's came to France via the USS United States (oceanliner retired in 1969) leaving the first week in September. Everything was done so that cabin and dining room arrangements would facilitate students meeting each other, making sure that those who came from the same junior college would be separated. Each young woman had an interview with the "directrice" on the boat so she would have the necessary information: program handbook, description of Reid Hall as a club and not a college dorm; rules and regulations, vocabulary book, Michelin guide, one-page bio of each incoming student; readings...
The students' departure from the United States was always a festive occasion. In September 1957, The New York Herald Tribune described "a tea for fifty...at the Hotel Westbury, Madison Ave. and 69h St., prior o their departure tomorrow on the liner United States for a year's study in Paris. They will be accompanied by their director, Miss Alice Ross Bennett." (September 18, 1957, pg. 17).