<p>I find it interesting that seniors at Smith wish to live on campus. As a senior many moons ago at Northwestern we wanted to get off campus and into the community, be it Evanston or Chicago. On a regular basis what percentage of Smith seniors elect to live off campus? Curious.</p>
<p>Thanks David</p>
<p>Is housing guaranteed here? Only for Freshman, not at all?</p>
<p>From what I understand it’s guaranteed all four years.</p>
<p>Unlike Northwestern, Smith is a small LAC - most students live on campus for the full 4 years. Smith does not have dorms - it has houses - some small, some larger - none are huge.</p>
<p>Folks, my error on the Northwestern seniors post. I was advised by PM that Smith requires 4 years of residence living exept in rare instances. Northwestern has no such requirement-- that being the case many upperclassman moved into the community for various reasons in my day.</p>
<p>Go Smith, let’s get this residence situation sorted out!</p>
<p>.02 David</p>
<p>We received an email update from Rebecca Shaw yesterday (Friday):</p>
<p>Dear Smith Student -</p>
<p>I am writing this afternoon to update you on the status of your housing assignment. I know you are anxious to receive this information and we are working on this. At this time we are still unable to send out housing assignments. We will be able to get these to you by next Friday. We had more students return to Smith this coming fall than we anticipated. Clearly Smith is the place to be!</p>
<p>We recognize that your housing is an important part of your Smith experience and are working to place all students in space that reflects our residential college values and contributes to Smith College housing traditions. </p>
<p>We appreciate all of your patience and understanding. We are so excited to welcome all of our wonderful new and returning Smithies to campus.</p>
<p>Please feel free to contact me directly if you have further questions or concerns.</p>
<p>I did reach out to Ms. Christ regarding the second year of Smith’s overly large class size and its impact on housing. I got a prompt and thoughtful reply. She graciously agreed I could post the response on this site. While I am sure Smith’s President can not to respond to everyone, her response led me to again note the continuing amount of class at Smith, even if the size of the incoming classes themselves are temporarily stretching housing:</p>
<p>"In answer to your question about housing, we are most definitely not trying to grow! In the past two years, we have been surprised by very different patterns of yield and retention. Last year, we had an unexpected 5% jump in yield (the percentage of admitted students who accepted our offers). This year, we deliberately held down the number of admitted students, so as not to over-enroll, depending on wait list activity to balance the class, and were surprised by different retention patterns–many fewer students taking personal leaves, or gap years, and fewer students studying abroad. While the effect is the same, the causes are different. We are emphatically not trying to increase the size of the college.</p>
<p>We have a much better solution this year to our housing shortage. The Clarke School–a residential school for the deaf that abuts the campus–has just closed its residential program, so we will be able to rent their recently redone dormitory for the fall semester. It’s close to other Smith houses, and a beautiful campus–on Round Hill Road, prime real estate in Northampton. We will certainly accommodate the additional enrollment with whatever additional capacity we may need by way of classes (although I can’t promise a Herrell’s outpost). However, the pattern is somewhat different this year in that the over-enrollment is not in the first year class, but the result of very high percentages of returning students in the upper three classes."</p>
<p>I was impressed she not only took the time to respond to parents’ concerns, but also had the facts well at hand, had already taken action, and I was relieved the college had no plans to increase campus population. Smith is just becoming more popular.</p>
<p>BTW, the reference to a “Herrell’s outpost” on campus is my own personal agenda item -this great NOHO ice cream store clearly MUST have a second location on campus. I suggested within the Admissions building, but apparently Ms. Christ did not share my priority system… Her handling of the housing issue (and even her treatment of my attempt at ice cream humor) is but another example of the class that prospective students and parents can expect from this institution. Those of us with daughter’s at Smith, or having graduated from Smith, know this very well.</p>
<p>Brie99-- Thanks for posting President Christ’s response. Agree,a first rate explanation.</p>
<p>I assume we will hear about a housing assignment today or tomorrow as per Ms. Shaw’s e mail posted just prior to yours.</p>
<p>.02</p>
<p>David</p>
<p>Wow good job and thanks for the info. I had suspected a fall-off in JYA study might have been a factor along with high yield. Hopefully this will settle the problem and firsties will find out their assignments soon. ;)</p>