I brought my daughter to see Mount Holyoke and Simmons over spring break. She liked Holyoke but LOVED Simmons. But I told her that she needs to take time and visit again. She has kind of ruled Holyoke out, so we need another trip to Simmons, I think.
She took the tour and heard all of the great things about Simmons, but of course, the tour guides didn’t mention anything bad about Simmons. She spent about 2 hours with the official tour, and another hour walking around. Sadly. we really didn’t see any Simmons students, as far as we knew, or we would have asked them the pluses and minuses.
I’m OK with her going there, but I want to know more about it… I was hoping for Holyoke, but oh, well… it is her life.
If your daughter likes it, that’s a huge plus! Recommend visiting a class and an overnight in the dorms to get a better feel for how she fits in as a student.
Not trying to bash on Simmons…since you asked, here are some things that might be considered negatives:
Accepted students GPA and test scores are much lower than many other private colleges
Student body is neither very ethnically diverse (~70% white) nor internationally diverse (3% international)
Grad students outnumber undergrads more than 2:1
Financial need likely won't be 100% met (77% average) due to very small endowment ($135M)
Depends on her major. Simmons is great for the health sciences, so close to many internship possibilities and some unique programs. Locations couldn’t be much different, maybe its being in the city that your D likes? We looked at both schools and my D didn’t like that the dorms were so removed from the academic campus. I much preferred MoHO as well, but its a totally different vibe, and academically superior. Does your D want to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? I assume if she was accepted at MoHO, she would be in the top 25% at Simmons.
Despite its name Simmons College is in fact a university albeit a very small one. In addition to arts and sciences they offer management, nursing, education and health sciences to undergrads and social work and information/library science to grads. It has a definite pre-professional vibe which can be a pro or con depending on your daughter’s desires.