<p>Hey ya'll! Was wondering if anybody could tell me some bad juice about Smith? Are some people there unfriendly? Or are some teachers lazy? Any help will be appreciated! </p>
so i know this post was from a while ago but im gonna respond in case anybody else comes across this.
there are many, many pros, but if you’ve already been looking into smith and asked smithies some questions, you’ll eventually figure out what the biggies are. when i was applying to college, it was really easy to get the pros and hard to get someone to tell me the cons. so i’ll try to be that person that i couldn’t find. here we go:
-
if you’re like me and you have a big personality and you like to talk about in-depth things all the time and you’re loud and you dont give acre and you have THAT type of personality, BUT you also wanna be close to academic buildings, you might have trouble because if you really wanna be close youre gonna wanna pick green street but the people here are not the type of people i just described. i dont care if people say things like “oh but everyone is different!” like no shut up hahaha there is totally a homogenous culture on green street and i have met exceptions and made friends with them and i love them, but they don’t even live in my house (house @ smith = dorm) on green street; they live in a different green street house. and so it’s hard to find time to hang out with them during the week because usually during the week the only people you see outside of your classes and extra-curriculars is your house mates like during dinner. so if the type of people you were friends with also lived with you, you’d also get to see them every day. i know that this would be the case for me if i lived in the quad, but the quad is about 15 minutes away (or like 10 depending on which academic building you’re going to…but sometimes yeah it’s 15). i mean it’s fine i love the people in my house but yeah this is something i’ve noticed.
-
similarly, if you want a single as a first-year student but wanna be close to academic buildings, ya cant have both. green street doesnt have singles for first-years. other than students with disabilities who need them, i only know ONE first year on green street who got a single by chance. if youre a normal student who does not need a single for a particular REASON and therefore can’t get specific treatment (which you’re totally entitled to if you do have a reason!!), then you’re gonna have a roommate. this didnt really bother me and i had to think about what was MORE important to me and i realized i’d rather be close to academic buildings and have a roommate than be far and have a single. i know first-years who have singles but they’re in the elms or the quad.
-
the houses are so different that it’s really a hit or miss. not gonna lie, im slightly bitter that my room is very small and very old compared to most on campus. not only is it small compared to most rooms of other houses, but it’s also very small compared to most rooms in my own house. now, i know it’s the average size of a college dormroom, but considering smith is known for its housing system and considering smith doesnt cost the same as the average college, i really think they should make it so that everyone gets the benefits of the housing system. a lot of my stuff is on the floor because there’s no room for it anywhere else, and i can’t just buy an extra desk because there wouldn’t be anywhere to put it without blocking something like a window or doorway or trashcan or drawer.
-
yes, there will be people whom you can disagree with and can have a good convo with, but an overwhelming majority of people dislike it when you disagree with them. smith is thought of to have a really opinionated culture, but its opinions really only differ from the outside world, not from within; what i mean is, smith has some opinions about gender and sexuality and race and stuff that differ from the rest of the WORLD, but within smith ITSELF the views are pretty homogenous amongst the students. (notice i said the VIEWS are similar and not the PEOPLE.) so yeah, smith is diverse in other ways, but the VIEWS of people who go here are not diverse. very few people will seriously entertain extremely different ideas (extremely from their own, not extremely different in GENERAL because smith’s views are extremely different in GENERAL compared to the rest of the world, but im saying extremely different from smith students’ views).
hahahaha this post sounds like i hate smith but i honestly love it and the professors and academics here are amazing, and other than the opinions/views thing, the people here are super awesome too. and while the physical rooms are hit or miss, the way the houses integrate you into college and the student leadership they have set up to help you at the houses is not hit or miss: every house has it and it really helps if you have many questions during your transition like i did 
oh and all those internship and networking opportunities are pretty great too 
also i love that downtown northampton is so close
and all the lectures and workshops smith has are awesome
and the people are helpful
and the campus is pretty
and there are so many opportunities smith offers to you
and other stuff too but again i wont go through all the pros because you can find them elsewhere, but in MY experience, the pros outweigh the cons. i just thought i’d say the cons because they might be very important to consider for SOME people.