<p>D called to check on FAFSA today and we chatted a bit before she addresses her take-home Linear Algebra mid-term. </p>
<p>She was extolling the virtues of the Linear Algebra prof..."not only is he excited and energetic at 8am, he makes <em>me</em> excited and energetic at 8am." Or words to that effect. If a student e-mails him with a question about a homework problem, he will anonymize the question and then send it, along with the answer, to the whole class, figuring that if one person has the question, others probably will too. He also does things like stepping away from the classroom to let students give feedback to another prof about how they think the class is going, what they like, don't like, etc. (Prof was startled when students said they wanted more frequent quizzes...students don't want any one quiz to be a grade killer.)</p>
<p>LA is one of D's larger classes (30 or so) but she says the Prof makes it feel like a small class. (In contrast, Number Theory has five students.)</p>
<p>Posted just to give the flavor of a Smith class.</p>
<p>In other news, one her friends became the first student in the history of the Smith riding stables to be thrown not onto a fence, not over a fence, but <em>through</em> a fence. Student is fine, fence was damaged.</p>
<p>back on the west coast, the d is home and well. it's nice to have her back. she has many more smith college anecdotes now than she did last christmas.. life has grown exponentially richer for her this semester, that's saying a lot since the first semester wasn't too shabby. she has had great meetings with a variety of faculty, sometimes just from accidental bump-ins... e.g. the american history prof who's an expert on women's political movement, the math prof who sends her problems (he's kept an eye on her ever since she solved his 12-sided rubix cube during orientation week), and the guest concert pianist/teacher from pomona college overheard practicing in the music building. D drops in on past semester profs whenever she's in their departmental territory. she and friend took a fall course instructor to lunch to celebrate her PhD completion. another occasion, they invited an inspiring guest speaker to lunch (the first woman computer scientist, a smith alum too). the dean sent her an amusing note to explain how it became a no-brainer to deny her from taking 6 courses (25 units) after discovering music lessons counted an additional 2 units. they've had several discussions. D did cut her load back to 5 courses, she dropped a lecture class but still attends and worked out an arrangement with professor to take it again next year for credit. D has no shyness talking to speakers, faculty or deans... says, in fact, it's easier to do as a 'green' 1st-year student, but students are generally more reluctant. </p>
<p>we get fuller accounts of the campus extracurricular life, weekends. there are dedicated socialites at one end of the spectrum, monk-styled academics at the other, and everyone else in-between. following valentine's weekend, D felt there had been an epidemic among some of the returning seniors of marriage proposals and engagement rings. the lives and experiences of other smithies runs the full gamut. D's residence doesn't seem as unified and playful in spirit as other campus houses, a couple of 1st-year students had difficult transitions and transferred out of the college, and many of the remaining first-years there will switch residence next year. D and her suitemates, however, will be staying and hope to form a positive core for the future. the four get along great, as different as they could possibly be from one another (the two ends of the above spectrum are represented). D and her roommate even agreed to be roommates again if neither got singles in the draw for next year room assignments. this is truly remarkable, since last october these two were on verge of splitting up for new roommates.</p>
<p>Somehow I'd missed the latest posts to this thread....</p>
<p>Borgin, my D said she was up until 3:30am Wednesday night working on the mid-term and she said that she was by no means the latest...one of your classmates got less than an hour's sleep. D said she logged 17 hours on the mid-term. She's spending Spring break in Newton with a friend and sounds so relieved to have midterms over with.</p>
<p>Papa, my D is probably in the monkish half but not extremely so. I'm glad that she likes her house and has already hooked up a roommate for next year. She just couldn't room with one of her best friends because the friend's b/f visits a <em>lot</em>...friend should have a single next year. </p>
<p>Smith definitely seems to foster an engaging prof-friendly environment. Well...except for the poor Latin teacher who gets picked on by the girls.
Or over-nurtured. Or something.</p>
<p>Agreed TheDad on prof relationships. My Russian prof invited me to join her and her husband (my lit prof last semester) for lunch the other day with a group of students. And when I got there, the table was packed except for an empty seat next to my host prof and she pulled it from the table for me. I was so flattered that I almost dropped my plate!</p>