<p>I'm thinking of applying but I'm concerned there may be a high volume of papers... is there an average per week or does it depend on the professor?</p>
<p>Depends on Prof.</p>
<p>The first-year writing intensive class generally has quite a few assignments. For most of her classes, my D has had just one or two papers, plus mid-term(s) and final, but some of them have been rhymes-with-witches. The take-home finals have balanced out the scales of stress, though.</p>
<p>I hear that Art History has a <em>lot</em> of papers.</p>
<p>depends what you want to major in.</p>
<p>math=lots of problem sets and almost no papers.
government=lots of papers and almost no problem sets (there is a quantitative methods elective though)
econ=a mixture of both. </p>
<p>if you're concerned about papers because you don't want to write any, Smith might not be the place for you. But if it's more that you're concerned about writing at a college level, there are a lot of resources here (professors with good office hours, the Jacobson Center's peer editors and professional writing counselors, great reference librarians to work with you on your research skills, etc.) and you should be fine.</p>
<p>{{if you're concerned about papers because you don't want to write any, Smith might not be the place for you.}}</p>
<p>Neither is any decent LAC or University</p>
<p>The science classes at Smith don't involve that much writing. I took one math class that involved a lot of writing (we had to write lab reports). But when they say a course is writing intensive, they definitely mean it. For the English classes I've taken, I've had papers due at every class. However, I find that the professors are really big on concision. Most of them don't like papers to be more than one to three pages (unless stated otherwise). History classes generally involve a lot of research papers.</p>
<p>Hmm. Most of D's classes have had a number of papers in the 5-10 page range. Maybe she doesn't even talk about something in the 1-3 range. </p>
<p>I'd honestly expect more in the 10-30 range but haven't heard of those yet either. Maybe I'm warped. My senior year of high school English involved six 20-page papers.</p>
<p>Last spring, I had two 8-10 page papers (one each for a theater and american studies class). I've never had to write anything longer than that, though 5-7 page papers are pretty common. I think the standard length for a seminar paper might be 25 pages.</p>
<p>Trumpeter, are you a science major or potential science major? That is the area my D is interested in as well.</p>
<p>It's not really any different from any other LACs. The paperload is pretty similiar both at Smith and Colgate. But to give you an idea of what I did at Smith...</p>
<p>Fall:
Russian Literature (200 level)- 2 10 page papers, plus a journal with at least one or two entries per book
Kyoto Through the Ages (First Year Seminar, WI): 1 4 page paper, 1 8 page research paper, 1 5 page paper
(other two classes were astronomy and Russian)</p>
<p>Spring:
History (Latin America @ 200 level): 1 8 page research paper (subsitution of 2 4 page papers)
Texts and Traditions (intro to Judaism type of class, 100 level though should be at 200!!!): 1 4-6 page paper, 1 6-7 page paper, weekly Blackboard postings, 15 page paper in lieu of final if desired
International Relations (200 level): 1 3 page paper, exams were take-home with mutliple essay questions- maybe 5-10 pages</p>
<p>Stacy's right: There is a lot of help everywhere if you need to improve your writing. The professors at the Jacobson Center are FABULOUS!!!!</p>
<p>I am a Computer Science major.</p>
<p>{{The paperload is pretty similiar both at Smith and Colgate}}</p>
<p>Ticklemepink, even though you did an overnight and visited you stated you transferred to Colgate because, I wasn't aware of the extremeness in the campus culture
What did you mean by that?</p>