<p>Smith is a feminist institution. It was founded by a woman, for women. It is headed by a woman, and all the major administrative positions and most of the positions on the board of trustees are women. 99% of the students are women. More than half the faculty are women. They think about women's lives - especially since many of their graduates are going into professions hugely dominated by men. They are putting increasing stress on areas which are particularly male-dominated - sciences and engineering. They have set up a women's financial network - as women often have different needs than men, and are less educated at home about financial issues. They are looking at adding courses and institutes in women's career trajectories. They have a very active all-women's alumnae network, and do lots of career networking specifically geared toward women. Most of the graduation speakers are women, as are most of those accepting honorary degrees. They understand that women in coed high schools often blossom later, and take that into account in admissions. And they put heavy, heavy emphasis on advising, and that shows up in such places as Fulbrights and research Fulbrights where, over the past three years, Smith has had more female winners than Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore combined, and about three times as many as the University of Chicago, and more than any of the Ivies (women only).</p>
<p>Smith is a feminist institution - it's not just a matter of the student body - the entire institution. It isn't "just" a liberal arts college without men. If that bothers you, you really should consider going elsewhere.</p>
<p>I want to emphasize that there are all kinds of feminists: women who believe in themselves and believe they have a right to the same kind of resources that men have. You can be conservative politically, and still be a feminist. You can be gay or straight or liberal or libertine or . . . Smith provides an intellectual environment for all types of women, and I think that's about as feminist as an institution can get.</p>
<p>Mini...you know, you just posted one of the greatest posts of all time, IMHO! Thanks. That's what I've wanted to say for a long time, but you just nailed it.</p>
<p>The one type of woman you <em>won't</em> find at Smith is the type who just wants to settle down and have a family. Yes, they'll want to settle down eventually, but no one attends Smith to find a husband. :-)</p>
<p>Some people are adamant about the fact that life outside of Smith is co-ed and thus that such an environment is not conducive to survival in reality, if you will. Others argue that Smith is effective precisely because it instills confidence in women by way of its single-sex approach. What do you say?</p>
<p>Actually MWFN, that statement isn't exactly true. </p>
<p>I've found that many Smithies have a sort of perverse fascination (their words, not mine) with marrying out of college and becoming stay-at-home moms. Many of them struggle with the idea that this would be a waste of their world class education. The fact that very few of them go on to actually become housewives in the heterocentric vein doesn't mean that many Smithies don't think about these kinds of things.
I've also encountered quite a few smithies (a suprising amount, though no where near a large one) who, coming in their first year, have cultivated the idea of smith's current relationship with amherst as being similar to wellesley's with harvard/MIT circa the 1950s. These preconceived notions of five college dynamics manifest themselves in things like adamant statements of "I'll only date Amherst boys" and the intense and obvious (although denied) desire of many of these girls to interact only with amherst, outside of smith.</p>
<p>Suffice to say that most, if not all of these girls end up disappointed, and many shed (most) of these notions within their second semester here.</p>
<p>In short, every type of woman can be found at Smith.</p>
<p>Narq, I vote with the "confidence" camp. My D has had no problem whatsoever when she shifts to a co-ed environment, whether a pretty damned good D.C. internship or a highly competitive math program. I have heard more than once that the single-sex environment gets rid of most of the "competition for boys" behaviors that can be a distraction and/or self-sabotaging.</p>
<p>I've met very few Smithies, whether current students or alumnae, that suffer from a lack of confidence. And, now that I think of it, I'd really have to search my memory to find one that I consider boring. (Even some that I don't particularly like I have to concede are interesting.)</p>
<p>Bea, I was not referring to whether the students were traditional or not. I'm sure a fair percentage WILL marry fairly soon after graduation.</p>
<p>I was making a joke out of the fact that some women (especially a few decades ago) actually chose their college based on the type of man who attended so that they could land a husband before they graduated.</p>
<p>TD, a friend of mine worked with a group of Smithies on some kind of policy symposium. When I told her that D was going to Smith, she said, "Those are the SMARTEST, most COMPLEX group of women I've ever met."</p>
<p>mini- that was a GREAT post! Sheesh, if you could have knocked it in my head two years ago... :)</p>
<p>As for the boyfriend thing, you might get pretty caught up with the academics, your friends at Smith, your extracurriculars, and other things that the college will offer that you might not even think about chasing after the men! I certainly thought about guys but it was more in a sense of missing seeing cute ones on regular basis, not necessarily looking for a boyfriend.</p>
<p>It all depends on who you are and what you want in a relationship with a boyfriend. If you're anything like the Smithie I know well, you don't feel the need to have a boyfriend because you're too busy making a name out of yourself on campus, running an major student organization, getting involved in your major, studying a lot, enjoying socializing with the closest girlfriends and having amibition plans for the future, there's no need to have a boyfriend right away.</p>