<p>I'm interested in Smith for engineering, and I have but 1 question-- is it too much to go to both an all-girls school for high school <em>and</em> an all-girls college? Has anyone been in this position?</p>
<p>The thing to remember about Smith is that it is part of the Five Colleges, meaning you will not only be able to take courses at UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke, but also have students from those schools in many of your Smith classrooms. With the social freedom that college brings, you won't be sheltered from men at all, unless you decide you want it to be that way.</p>
<p>:O thanks for the quickie response!
like at my school now, we're the "Whores on the Hill" (unofficially of copurse) and we take a sort of pride in that, and i'm pretty sure smith is not not not like that. do men at these colleges treat smithies well?</p>
<p>Aren't any girls at Smith. It's all women!</p>
<p>oooh boy sorry gotta get used to saying women.... o_^ oops. and how do these women get treated by the men elsewhere? :D</p>
<p>While there are men in Smith classrooms, there aren't exactly hordes. However, with Amherst and Zoo/Mass nearby (and Hampshire), there are opportunities...but you have to work at them a little more than you might otherwise. According to one Smithie I talked to, the flip side is that you don't take guys as much for granted.</p>
<p>My D says "avoid the Amherst rugby team" (unless you don't want to avoid them).</p>
<p>lol I'll keep that in mind, sounds like the sage advice of the seniors at my school- avoid the St. Francis baseball team like the plague! I suppose that there isn't too much difference between all-women (hah! I did it!) schools.</p>
<p>What is your daughter's feeling on how much having a single-sex education has helped her?</p>
<p>LOL... If being at an all-female (how's that?) school for eight years is too much, then my 13-year education at Hockaday in Dallas was <em>definitely</em> overkill!</p>
<p>I know that <em>my</em> feelings on how single-sex education has helped me are very strong. Unlike all of my female classmates, I feel that I have the right and obligation to speak up in class and ask intelligent questions. I feel more confident in my abilities, enough so to know that I'm just as good as the guys in my classes. I'm more likely than my fellow women colleagues to feel confident in my answers (none of that "But I'm probably totally wrong..." stuff! I give my answers at least half a chance of being right!) and I'm of the general mindset that I deserve to be where I am just as much as anyone else who is where I am.</p>
<p>I like that. =)</p>
<p>at my old school (co-ed) there wasn't much of that "totally wrong" kind of thing. i mean it happened, but sometimes with the guys, too. (strange...) but i do notice that girls at my school are not afraid to be really really crazy, even when they are around guys at parties, etc. i'm not as shy anymore around guys. hmm.... you'd think it would be the opposite. but hey, whatever works. now i wonder how a guys' school changes its students?</p>
<p>Hollyert, D says: single-sex education has been more focused, even with the few guys in the classes, and the class discussions are really enriched because nobody is afraid of looking stupid. It's also nice because people don't waste time trying to look nice most days, you can roll out of bed and go to class in jeans and a sweatshirt. And when you do go out and dress up, it feels more special. (I know of girls who have attended class wearing pajamas, especially towards the end of semesters. T.D.)</p>
<p>From a Dad's perspective: I had been dubious about D attending one of the womens colleges but I'm a convert. Meeting 15-20 Smithies at a prospect party was eye-opening: the group of articulate young women was the best advertising I've seen for any college. Btw, we're in the L.A. area too. If you show interest in Smith you'll be invited to a party for prospects, probably the first weekend in January before high school starts up again. D will be there and I most likely will be too as a "guinea pig" parent for other parents to talk to...and as a distraction so that the girls can talk to the girls without parents eavesdropping. :)</p>
<p>The prospect party was where D first developed a serious interest in Smith and I recommend going to one if you get the chance.</p>
<p>D just said that she was dubious at first, too.</p>
<p>There are many places you will find differences at a top-flight women's college, but there is one that is really, really obvious, though perhaps not always talked about much: drinking. </p>
<p>Surveys indicate that binge drinking (defined as 5 or more drinks at one sitting at least once in the past two weeks - though the studies also show that the folks who only have 5 and only do it once is very low) at women's colleges only takes place among roughly 20-22% of the student body. Since at virtually every non-dry college, abstainers make up around 25% of the student body, moderate drinkers at Smith outnumber binge drinkers more than 2-to-1. To put that in perspective, at Swarthmore (which has a low rate among coed schools), binge drinkers make up 30% of the student body. At the average school, it is 44%, meaning binge drinkers outnumber moderate drinkers. At Williams, it is 52%, meaning that binge drinkers outnumber moderate drinkers by more than 2-to-1. (It is likely similar at Amherst.) It is even higher among white students. (Williams just published its data in its "diversity" report.)</p>
<p>So, yes, there's plenty of drinking if that's what you want, but you aren't going to be surrounded by folks vomiting in your hallways very much (and, if you seek it, you can always get on the bus to Amherst.) </p>
<p>If you actually want to see this, visit any of these schools during the year on a Thursday night.</p>
<p>another plus of a women's college is the quiet. i went to visit my sister at her (equally prestigious, also private) college last spring and was surprised how noisy college guys can be! plus, my parents (who attended a large state university) are very impressed with the cleanliness of Smith's bathrooms and the fact that we have normal wooden doors, as opposed to the institutional ones they had in their dorms so that nobody could kick them in.</p>
<p>lol i'm a frosh right now so no college tours yet really, but yay it doesn't sound like a nunnery the way i thought it might. it sounds much more intellectual and fun than a big university with guys too. thanks!</p>
<p>Nah. Definitely not a nunnery :) There's too much tolerance and freedom at Smith to have any kind of discipline. </p>
<p>Interestingly with the posts above about girls being too shy or worried about their answers. That's what I've been questioning in some of my classes last year- some of them, no one really spoke even though discussion was highly encouraged. Some girls never spoke a word throughout the semester and class participation WAS part of the grade! Sometimes, some of us are just naturally assertive and not afraid of being criticized. Others, just need a little more time (how much? I have no idea- Smith or any of the women's colleges don't guarantee by graduation). If you're already assertive and outspoken in class, you don't really need the all women's focus- that's where Smith failed me. I've taken crap from high school guys in my AP classes but I've gotten their end respect.</p>