Smith College Top Questions

Smith is part of the five-college exchange, making for a huge variety of class and degree options for a small liberal arts school. The all-female (excepting trans students), generally very liberal student body makes for a great campus culture if you're a cumudgeonly progressive like me. The science and research angle is very strong for liberal arts, and all the academics are rigorous and demanding.

Most of the other schools I considered were "safer"-they were in my home state, and co-educational. I only considered one other women's college. What set Smith apart is the sense of energy on campus- it's not a competitive energy, it's a genuine drive to be the best at whatever it is you do, coupled with the desire to enjoy the companionship of the other people around you. Most importantly, all the school's resources are meant for the students, and specifically geared toward women: all the facilities, classes, etc. are meant for ME. Awesome.

Houses where everyone lives aren't like any other. They look nothing like regular dorms and you really get to know the people who you live with. Everyone in the house does things together and it's as if you get to come home to your second family every night.

It's a women's college that encourages independent thought from women who deserve the opportunity to opperate in a community without restraints based on their gender, race, sexual orientation or anything else that may be used to identify them elsewhere.

The campus is very beautiful and not too big that you can't find anything and not too small that you fell it is crowded. It is a nice to be able to see the many different varieties of plants from all over the world on campus. The dorm rooms don't look like a jail cell and the house and each house has its own personality.

Students are given a lot of freedom to organize their lives. There are no course requirements for graduating and there are no RA's.

The housing situation is very unique to Smith. We have actual houses (varying from 15 to 130 girls) instead of "dorms". We are also very unique in that we are an all-womans college.

I love the town/environment. It is very liberal, it has a classic New England feel to it. Both the town and the college are not too big, yet not too small. It is a liberal school where people can feel free to be themselves and be accepted for it, I like that attitude of comfort and tolerance. It is an ideal environment in which to learn and grow as a person, to meet like-minded indivuduals and establish connections.

Smith is not only unique in that its a women's college, but its dorm system is as well. It is a close community, set in a cute little town in Western MA, yet with all the opportunities of a small city - thanks to the local colleges and fairly short distance to Boston (only one hour).

I love Smith!! :)

Some days you may wonder why you chose this women's college, but then you will think about the classes you're taking, how beautiful the campus, the pond and the nature trail are, and how much you love Northampton and you will remember. But only come if you really mean it.

SO smith is pretty cool. it's not perfect, but no where is. sometimes you can feel trapped inside a smith bubble - cut off from the goings on of the world. but it's not hard to get off campus. make friends at other schools!

Smith is a place for leaders. Do not think you are going to come here and things are just goin to be given to you like in high school. You have to work for everything!

FROM TALBOT HOUSE!!

Sometimes, half of the floor will be menstruating at the same time and the boxes for pads will get full. That kinda sucks.

Talbot House!!! I LOVE the housing system. Every residential building has character, traditions, and history. There's a house for everyone, whether you like a quiet environment all the time, or you want to be somewhere parties happen often, and you can be loud at 2 in the morning on a weekday.

No, I think I wrote enough.

MONKEYS!

I live in Talbot House, and it is the best! To give you an idea of what going to Smith is like, this semester someone started a group called Grammar Underground that distributes flyers in people's mailboxes advocating good grammar. That's pretty friggin' awesome. There is a significant number of transgendered (female to male) students, who for the most part are accepted in the Smith community. Having grown up in a place where I hardly even knew any gay people it was really weird at first, but I got used to having trans students around pretty quickly and now I'm friends with a few trans Smithies.

I'm a resident of Talbot House