<p>At all the other women's colleges I looked at there are boys in heavily male schools nearby (such as Barnard, Bryn Mawr and Agness Scott). Since Smith is really not close to anything what is the dating situation there? Is it easy to meet boys?</p>
<p>Smith is part of the Five College consortium, and three of the five schools (Amherst, UMass, and Hampshire) are coed. A bus runs between the colleges, and it’s free for students.</p>
<p>If you want to meet guys, there are ways to meet guys (but you’ll probably have to go off campus). There are frequently guys on campus too.</p>
<p>And I wouldn’t say that Smith isn’t close to anything - Northampton is a great town, and while it’s not a big city like New York or Philadelphia, it’s not complete isolation either.</p>
<p>Have you tried radiocarbon dating? I hear it’s pretty hot.</p>
<p>But, seriously, you’ll have to work at it some.</p>
<p>TD, you are in fine form! 
J’etude, here are the total enrollments for the co-ed contingent of the Five College Consortium:
Hampshire 1300
Amherst 1700
UMass Amherst 20,500 undergrad 6,000 grad</p>
<p>TOTAL: 29,500 co-ed students
If you figure that roughly half are male, you’re talking about 14,000 guys. I hope this info puts the issue in perspective. (Just for the record, there are about 34,300 students total in the Consortium.)</p>
<p>BTW, my daughter was torn between Bryn Mawr and Smith, with the advantage of Bryn Mawr being its close relationship with Haverford (which waitlisted my D). Since the two colleges share classes and departments (French at Bryn Mawr, Japanese at Haverford), she thought she would get a more co-ed experience at Bryn Mawr. And then she did the math. Haverford is 60% female/40% male. Bryn Mawr is 100% female. Each had approximately 1000 students, which meant that there were, between the two colleges, 1600 women and 400 men. 80% women and 20% men. Barnard might be the only one of the remaining Seven Sisters that is close enough to a (larger) co-ed college to make it seem more equitable gender-wise.</p>
<p>It is really not all that equitable, since Columbia is about 50-50 on its own, and the schools have mostly separate dorms(with some exceptions, but preponderantly); the undergrad community as a whole is about 60-40. The other original seven sister, Vassar is about 60-40, IIRC. I thought Haverford was more like 50-50, which made the whole thing more like 60-40 as well, but I defer to prior post on that. Either way, the situation still is not good, by report from wife’s young co-worker who attended Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>Regarding the 5-college consortium, I found this on CC when D2 was considering Amherst:
"For the three top LACs alone, the W:M ratio is about 6.7 to 1. "</p>
<p>Friends’ D went to Smith, she had some male friends; from U Mass.</p>
<p>Monydad, I don’t consider Vassar a “remaining Seven Sister” as much as a “former Seven Sister,” primarily because it went co-ed decades ago. Columbia is much larger than Barnard, thus making the male/female percentages more equitable than Bryn Mawr/Haverford’s.</p>
<p>ok.</p>
<p>FWIW, from Haverford website,“•53% women, 47% men”</p>
<p>Seems like it’s good to be a guy,socially, in US private higher education today.
Where are all the smart guys ??</p>
<p>That percentage has changed from what it was three years ago. The NYTimes article that featured Haverford’s admission process boosted its profile, which may have ended up giving the college a better pool of male candidates for admission.</p>
<p>I have the 2007 edition of US News America’s Best Colleges in front of me, it was used during D2’s college selection process. Obviously data for that edition was from 2006 (i.e. three years ago) or earlier, in order to be included in this edition. </p>
<p>On the listing for Haverford College (page 246) it shows undergraduate student body: 47% male, 53% female.</p>
<p>I had recalled it to be 50-50, evidently my recollection was in error.</p>
<p>Either way, the germane point remains that Haverford’s proximity does not fully resolve the gender balance issue faced by Bryn Mawr students. And I would assume there are implications for Haverford students as well. The composite of the two schools, using the data from that book, is about 78% female, which is in substantial accord with post #5.</p>
<p>My daughter looked in the fall of 2005, so it was four years ago. The official info we received at the time said 60/40.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>They are probably apprenticing to be plumbers and electricians so they can make real money without crushing student loan debt. ;)</p>
<p>Smithies date each other - GUGs Gay until Graduation. The recruiting and pressure is intense.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How true is this, really? I mean I have often heard that women at women’s colleges are mostly gay. I do not believe that can be true. It is just statistically too unlikely. However, there seems to be even more of this kind of talk about Smith than other women’s colleges. Does anyone really know?</p>
<p>The percentage of gay women at Smith is pretty representative of the percentage of gay people in the population at large. Smith, however, is an open, encouraging community, so many students are more comfortable exploring their sexuality than they might be at other schools.</p>
<p>The last large survey found that the percentage of gay Smith students was 4 1/2 times that of the general population. 11%. The percentage gay plus potentially bisexual students was the same as the general population.</p>
<p>
This is a flat out lie. Not only is there not intense recruiting and pressure, the incidence of what could be regarded as sexual harassment is much lower than at most co-ed schools.</p>
<p>Toadstool, that is erroneous information. You can’t make a lesbian out of a straight woman. And yes, the majority of students ARE straight. </p>
<p>While LUGs (lesbians until graduation) do exist because bisexuality exists, it is not the norm. And students are not pressured to do anything, as you suggest.</p>
<p>Toadstool, Tell me more. I’m seriously considering Smith, but definitely don’t want to be in the midst of intense GUG recruiting pressure.</p>
<p><sighhhhh> Bowwatch, Toad has less credibility than Laplace’s demon. Nor does his argumentum ad nauseam make something so.</sighhhhh></p>
<p>Read posts 527-532. Everything you need to know is there. Let this be the end of it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/smith-college/112831-smith-college-36.html?highlight=toadstool[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/smith-college/112831-smith-college-36.html?highlight=toadstool</a></p>