Greil '10 competes on college Jeopardy

After completing the online qualification test in early October and taking part in an interview in Washington, D.C., the next month, Greil learned in March that she had secured a place in the tournament.

“I was very excited,” she explained. “I kind of knew, because they wouldn’t have called me if I didn’t get it, because they don’t tell people who don’t get it. When [I called them back and] they told me, I just sort of screamed and did a dance.”

Greil promptly began raiding the college preparation section at Labyrinth Books on Nassau Street, she said. “I would ask my friends or just people I was eating dinner with, ‘Teach me something about philosophy. Who were the most important philosophers?’ I just realized that I couldn’t learn everything,” she explained.

But what she learned was enough — at least so far.

Greil’s first television appearance was last Thursday, and as the round came to a close, her chances did not look good.

“I was pretty sure going into Final Jeopardy … that I was going to lose,” she said. “I was in third, and the category was [on] BC thinkers. I knew Plato, but I was pretty sure the other contestants couldn’t know less than I did,” she noted.

She was wrong, scoring a “come-from-behind win.” Now a semifinalist, Greil will next appear on the show Wednesday.

Though initially “very competitive,” people began to show more camaraderie on the second day, Greil said, adding that the several practice rounds that were played before each taping helped the contestants feel more comfortable.

“You’re behind the podium all day, buzzing in on the buzzer, so you forget that this time there’s an audience and that that’s Alex Trebek, not Glen the contest coordinator,” she noted.

“I answered some questions kind of foolishly because I forgot I was on national television,” she said of her participation in the episode airing this week.

The transition back to college life also hasn’t been easy, Greil noted.

“I got back to my room on a Thursday night, and I really wanted pizza, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just call someone and have them bring it to me.’ But then I remembered that this was my dorm room and not the Hilton and that no one was going to bring me pizza without effort to me. I was really sort of disappointed and upset by that.”

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But coming back to campus has had its perks, she added, such as being recognized as the “Jeopardy!” girl on several occasions.

“I had two or three different groups of people come up to me and interrupt my conversation and be like, ‘Hey, sorry, but I’ve been watching you for 10 minutes, and I just had to tell you that I saw you on “Jeopardy!”’ ” she said. “It’s fun. It’s something different.”

Though the contestants were asked not to write messages on their screens or “go all quote-Sean-Connery-unquote on us,” Greil decided it was OK to show her Princeton appreciation and send a message to her eating club once she made it to the winner’s circle.

“[Former Terrace president] Jon Feyer ’09 basically told me — threatened my life — that if I didn’t give a shout-out to Terrace [Club] I wouldn’t be able to eat there anymore,” she said. “I love [Terrace Club], so I figured might as well shout it out.”