<p>Anyone still on the fence? What information do you still need to decide? My daughter is a very, very happy first-year who LOVES Smith, so I'll do my best to answer your questions and I'm sure others on this forum with more experience will chime in as necessary.</p>
<p>Thanks for doing this. What was the highlight of your daughter’s experience this year at Smith?
Also if you would happen to know about the Smithsonian program at Smith…anything on it at all? (as in what year would be nice to go apply)</p>
<p>I think the Smithsonian program, like the Picker program, is probably optimal for junior year. I’ve heard good things about it but for the life of me I can’t remember from who.</p>
<p>The Smithsonian program is a lot easier than the Picker program because for one thing, you don’t have to spend the summer in DC as well as the semester. For another, you don’t have to write a long paper at the end. You get credit for the internship, so while you are taking some classes on the side, you’re not taking classes, working a full day, and writing a paper. Also, unlike Picker, they essentially find the internship for you so you don’t have to spend all that time stressing about finding the right placement. And you get to work in the Smithsonian, so that’s pretty awesome. </p>
<p>When I was in the Picker program, one of the Smithies I shared a house with in DC was in the Smithsonian program and she was so much fun. She had a blast at her internship, though she said the woman that ran the program was a little crazy (I’ve heard mixed opinions on that, some people love her, some people hate her).</p>
<p>I think the summer in DC for Picker is a plus, at least it was for D. She had a “deeper” experience in her office than interns who were there for a shorter term and as more staff got to know her, she got better assignments, including some actual writing assignments and other things for a “trusted intern.” With a shorter stint, just about the time they figure you out it’s time to leave. The ones who were there for 10 weeks (a quarter) barely broke the ice.</p>
<p>Credit for the internship itself? Wow. Smithsonian folks are lucky.</p>
<p>Other than the length of the internships, the way I understand the basic difference between the Picker and the Smithsonian programs is that the Picker is focused on government and the Smithsonian has a more broad, interdisciplinary focus. Is that correct?</p>
<p>I may be mistaken, but I think a lot of Smithsonian program students are American Studies majors which are, yes, multidisciplinary in and of themselves.</p>
<p>Smithsonian is run by the American Studies department, while Picker is run by the Government department. Most of the people who do these programs are majors in one of those departments, but it’s not 100% required (we had an English major in Picker for a bit, but I htink she dropped before the program started). </p>
<p>Smithsonians get credit for their internships because the Smithsonian is technically an educational institution and what you do at your internship there is assist with the research of a Smithsonian scholar. So they give you credit for something educational rather than something vocational, not that vocational training can’t teach you anything
:-)</p>
<p>Ah, so desu. Thanks, S&P, for the clarification.</p>
<p>Jcbaby, I haven’t answered your question yet about my daughter’s highlight for the year. I haven’t talked to her about this because she’s finishing classes today and finals are next week, but I know one of her true loves this year has been her STRIDE research job in the Sophia Smith Archives. She has loved reading and handling original documents, organizing the materials for a person’s file, calling other archives (Harvard, Brandeis, and the Amherst town library) and other sources to gather more information to flesh out a person’s life details, and writing a biographical profile. It was personally satisfying for her because she worked on her great-great-aunt’s materials which my uncle had just donated over the summer. My great-aunt was a Smithie, class 1918, SSW 1919 (first social work graduating class). This research was so interesting to her that she took the first Intro to Archives two-week course during winter break. As part of the course, they had a visit to the Amherst town library archives; she’d been in contact in the fall with them regarding her great-great aunt and she was told at the visit she could have an internship there anytime she liked, organizing her great-great-great uncle’s papers there (Ray Stannard Baker–a big deal). All of this contributed to her deciding to apply for the Archives Concentration, a brand new concentration field offered in January, 2010, to a small number of applicants. She was accepted. This archive interest is a new direction for her, because, while she’s been open to other possibilities for majors, she very much loves English literature.</p>
<p>She absolutely adored an English lit class by Floyd Cheung where they looked at the creative process of the writers’ earlier drafts and compared them to the final “finished” product; she just ate that up with a spoon. She’s taking a British lit survey course this semester and recently the professor took them to the Mortimer Rare Book Collection where they were able to “experience” a number of authors they’ve studied. They got to hold letters written by Wordsworth and Tennyson; a Rossetti manuscript; books bound by Virginia Woolf; and Robert Browning’s travel desk. She was higher than a kite!</p>
<p>With my emphasis on my daughter’s STRIDE experience, I also want to say there are LOTS of other opportunities for research at Smith that are not STRIDE; you just have to be on the lookout and ask around. There’s a whole thread on this topic:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/smith-college/894740-research-smith-if-you-arent-stride-scholar.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/smith-college/894740-research-smith-if-you-arent-stride-scholar.html</a></p>
<p>Also, for what it’s worth, here are the links to the Smithsonian and the Picker Washington internship programs:</p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Internship Program at the Smithsonian Institution](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/ams/smithsonian/]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/ams/smithsonian/)
[Smith</a> College: Government](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/gov/jeanpicker.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/gov/jeanpicker.php)</p>
<p>Wow the Smithsonian Program seems really exciting. But I wonder if anyone knows anyone who has done both the Smithsonian and the JYA program (I’m interested in the Paris program and that will definitely clash with the Smithsonian Program since they are both in usually junior year)?</p>
<p>I don’t know about the Paris program, because I believe it’s a full-year program and I think being away from Smith for <em>three</em> semesters is unlikely. However, you can definitely split a year between DC and elsewhere; D did DC & Budapest. One of her friends split a year between Rome & Oxford (Classics major). I’d investigate other one-semester programs of interest abroad…I think there are a lot out there.</p>
<p>Oops, S&P! Sorry! I just realized I didn’t thank you for your explanation of the Picker and Smithsonian internships programs!</p>
<p>You can’t do the Smithsonian/Picker programs and do one of the Smith full year abroad programs (those are the ones Smith runs in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany) as they are strictly full-year only. Even if you wanted to do a full junior year abroad and then do Smithsonian/Picker in the fall semester of your senior year, it wouldn’t be possible because of Smith’s rules regarding how many consecutive semesters you have to be “in residence” during the last two years of study. It is however possible to do Smithsonian or Picker as a senior, just not when paired with a full year of study abroad. </p>
<p>A lot of people opt for the one semester in DC one semester abroad option. I did the fall in DC and then the spring in London, and I spent the summer overseas on an internship at a US embassy using my Praxis money.</p>