Smith and Mount Holyoke: Totally Confused!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
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<p>I'm absolutely confused between Smith and MoHo, and reading up past threads did not do much to clear my confusion. I got into both. I still need to see some clear differences between them. I would be very grateful if someone could try answering these! :)
A few questions off the top of my head,</p>

<p>1)Which school has a better academic rigor?</p>

<p>2)Which school has a more beautiful campus? A bigger campus?</p>

<p>3)Which school has more traditions?</p>

<p>4)Which school is better for people who would like Wellesley?</p>

<p>5)Which school is better for internships?</p>

<p>6)Which school is better for job opportunities after college?</p>

<p>7)In terms of reputation, which is better? (I have had more contact with Smith, so I might be biased toward Smith, but I want to know the impartial picture. Although this is the Smith forum, so yeah.. :o)</p>

<p>8)What are the key differences between Northampton and South Hadley?</p>

<p>9)If you are a current Smithie or MoHo, if you had the choice between the two, which would you choose and why?</p>

<p>10)I want to go to a school where the people are motivated, competitive (both academic and EC wise) but not to the point of a stifling effect. I know that neither are that competitive so I'm not asking which is more laid back. The general idea I get about MoHo is that it's more laid back. I'm asking which is more competitive. I'm not a diehard competitive person by nature, but I would like to challenge myself with classmates who are also striving to do as well as they can. Where would that be?</p>

<p>Sorry if some of these questions sound really stupid, it's just that I'm very confused.
Thanks a lot! :)</p>

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<p>They are both wonderful Women’s colleges with great reputations. Mt. Holyoke came first, and then Smith copied some of Mt. Holyoke’s traditions (like mountain day) and started some of their own. My D prefers Smith because it is in the city of Northampton, where as the Mt. Holyoke campus, although much larger and beautiful, with big and small, old and newer dorms as opposed to smaller houses, is located in a little town and you need to take a bus to get to more entertainment, etc. I enjoyed visiting Northampton for an afternoon or evening, but I always loved returning to the Mt. Holyoke campus.</p>

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<p>I’d strongly, strongly suggest you visit them if it’s possible. That’ll be more helpful regarding where you’d fit in better than anything we can tell you on this board.</p>

<p>There are real differences in student body, but they’re hard to describe. MoHo actively tries to get international students, and as a result has about 20% (if I remember correctly) international students, which is huge and does make a big difference in campus life. Smithies, I’ve found, are more ambitious, more aware of political issues and activism (especially LGBT rights, women’s rights and environmentalism).</p>

<p>Other differences are easier to describe. The campuses could not be more different. MoHo has a very traditional campus, everything is gothic style, red brick, around a central quad, and has traditional-style dorms. Smith’s architecture varies from building to building, ranging from the traditional red brick to much more modern buildings with lots of glass and natural light. Smith’s campus is also more winding and less predictable and there’s not a real central lawn/quad area. The housing system at Smith is also very different, but I’ll let someone else describe that.</p>

<p>About job opportunities and internships, I’ll just say that I’ve found the Smith Career Development Office to be very helpful, and when I toured MoHo the guide didn’t say a single thing about careers and certainly didn’t show us any specific office.</p>

<p>But really, visit if you can. Most people I know had very positive reactions to one of them almost immediately upon stepping foot on campus.</p>

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<p>I agree, I would strongly recommend that you visit. Since none of the people on this board (as far as I know) have attended both MHC and Smith, so they really only know about one or the other, so we’re not going to be able to give very impartial answers regarding things like rigor, reputation, job opportunities, etc. </p>

<p>One of the ways they are really different is location. Northampton is a big, bustling town, whereas South Hadley is much smaller and quieter. When I was looking at colleges, I didn’t even really consider Mount Holyoke because I felt that the location would just be too quiet for me. There’s plenty to do in Noho in terms of shopping, entertainment, concerts, and restaurants, and that was a big attractor for me.</p>

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<p>My D is a firstie at MHC. She ED’d MHC after visiting (with her parents) both on the same day the spring of her junior year. As said above, the campuses are completely different in look. Both are beautiful (better when things are growing than in the winter). MHC has buildings around a few quads and are in fairly similar 1890’s brick style. Smith’s are somewhat randomly dropped from the sky at different time periods. I think the Smithies think the MoHo’s are study nerds, and the MoHo’s think the Smithies are study nerds. I was at MHC today visiting D, and I saw quite a few in your face LGBTers. At MoHo a few months ago, a Tea Party activist appeared for to give a talk, and a few hindred MoHo’ers also showed up to protest. My D is working her tail off, though there are others at MHC that don’t work so hard. However, at MHC it’s self competition, not competition with others. Most WANT to do well, as opposed to wanting to do better than the MoHo next to her. Although it may depend upon the course taken. (Pre-Meds, I think, are competitive all over). My D fell in love with MHC and ED’d and got in. I liked both Smith and MHC and would have been happy with her in either. Since there is a free bus, one can go to any of the 5 colleges easily, but admittedly NoHo is a metropolis compared to S.Hadley. But mostly, college students ANYwhere have no real need to go off campus for anything since everything is available on campus. If choosing between Smith and MHC, don’t make the town a significant basis. Both have excellen reputations among those who know such things, i.e. grad schools. As for employers, most only know Harvard, Yale, etc., the big universities, not the LACs. That does not mean the LACs are bad, just not as well known because they are smaller and have fewer grads out there. Do some research at the websites of the 2 schools about the majors that you think you might like to select. That’s a better gauge for selection, IMHO. Good luck, either is a great choice.</p>

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<p>ConCerndDad: While I agree with most of what you said, I think that the town/surrounding environment is an important thing to factor in in making a decision. It shouldn’t be THE factor, of course, but the fact that there was absolutely nothing in South Hadley within easy walking distance, not even a CVS, was one of the things that killed me about MoHo. For me, and for plenty of other Smithies, being able to walk to a bunch of restaurants, concert venues and bookstores is important, and that aspect of life would have been fundamentally different had I gone to MoHo.</p>

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<p>Competition: two Smithies console a third about a B+. The competition is all internal but there are a lot of fairly driven, competitive young women at Smith. In retrospect, D thought that Smith made her more well rounded than Wellesley would have.</p>

<p>Job opportunities, counseling, etc.: Senior year, D applied for exactly one job. And got it before Christmas. Pointed at the organization by a Smithie alumna. (Still a measure of luck, but Smith prepped her to have that luck.) The Picker semester-in-Washington program is a great opportunity for those inclined in that direction. </p>

<p>The multi-layered counseling at Smith I thought was terrific, best I’ve ever seen, leaving some Top 25 universities in the dust.</p>

<p>Counseling & mentoring continued after Smith with forming of grad school plans, advice on applications, and, of course, the letters of rec. I’m under interdict about giving more detail for another three weeks. (And I don’t want to be ex-communicated! :slight_smile: )</p>

<p>NoHo: hip & happening. South Hadley: so bucolic, D didn’t want me to park the car when we visited. Impression confirmed during time at Smith. Both campuses are pretty in different ways.</p>

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<p>MHC is a gorgeous campus – beautiful in a classic, collegiate way. Smith is more eclectic, with architecture styles matching the time when the buildings were constructed.</p>

<p>My daughter applied to and was accepted at both (and Bryn Mawr), and this is why she preferred Smith over MHC from day one: walking distance to bustling town; larger course offerings; house system; art museum; students who dressed in their own styles (which is funny because my daughter is conservative in her dress/appearance), and, of course, her tour guide :). When she attended classes during prospective student days, she adored how engaged the Smith students were and how challenging she thought the courses were. (Disclaimer: she had already ruled out MHC at that point, but was comparing to Bryn Mawr.)</p>

<p>But here’s how subjective it all is: my daughter’s close friend since childhood attended MHC at the same time my daughter was at Smith, and she LOVED it. She preferred the isolated campus, found the courses challenging, and loved living on a traditional-style campus.</p>

<p>The funny thing is that both women chose the type of college that fit their personality. My daughter is artsy (despite having been a science major), casual, and from day one didn’t care what her peers thought of her tastes in fashion, music, and art. Her friend is more traditional, spends a lot of time outdoors/in the country, and has more mainstream tastes. That’s not to say that they would have been unhappy had the colleges been reversed, just what kind of individual is attracted to which campus.</p>

<p>Neither my daughter nor her friend at MHC felt that their classmates were competing with them. The spirit in both seemed cooperative and self-driven.</p>

<p>In terms of reputation, Smith has slightly more prestige than MHC (Smith and Wellesley used to uttered in the same breath), but both are LACs that the average person has never heard of, as astounding as that seems. I really don’t think you should use prestige as a guide. You will get a good education at both, so you should choose the school where you feel the most comfortable.</p>

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<p>^^^I think the two parents posting above are spot-on. I’d add only that Smith appears to be a bit more rigorous and more compet in terms of admission (this based solely on a handful of students over the past 2 years who were awarded 21 century scholarships at MHC, none of whom was awarded STRIDE or other merit money at Smith). </p>

<p>Two things OP didn’t ask about that were importatn to my D</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Smith GUARANTEES Praxis internship funding for every student, with a standard award amount ($3K?). No guarantee at MHC; internship grants are awarded competitively, and students decide how much to request (request too little, you won’t cover expenses - - request too much, you might not receive any $). </p></li>
<li><p>Smith has funding designated for for students seeking to study abroad during J-term and the summer (as opposed to participating in semester of year abroad prgms). OP might want to check to see whether MHC offers something similar.</p></li>
</ul>

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<p>they are both beautiful campuses but Smith has more architectural variety and Mt. Holyoke has a more consistent style. </p>

<p>I took 2 Mt. Holyoke classes while at Smith and found them easier (and did better in them) than I did in my Smith classes as a whole. But that is a small sample size! I think they are fairly similar academically.</p>

<p>Smith has more financial diversity while there is a larger international population at Mt. Holyoke.</p>

<p>Northampton has more going on than South Hadley and more things are within walking distance of Smith than Mt. Holyoke. </p>

<p>I know happy grads of both schools. I agree that visiting is a good thing!</p>

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<p>Thank you SO much for your replies everyone! I am really grateful that you all took the time to answer my queries, CC is just such an amazing community.
Thank you again!</p>

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<p>I’ll just put in my last two cents: As my daughter wanted to be thorough in her assessment of Moho, she sat in on four very different classes on three separate visits, and she came away puzzled and unimpressed with both the quality of the teaching and the response of the students. You could say that it was the luck of the draw but four classes is not an unreasonable random sampling. On the other hand, when she sat in on three Smith classes, she was thrilled with the adept and enthusiastic teaching and engaged students. Yet a friend of mine, a Smith alum, has a daughter at Moho who’s very happy with her classes. "Cha</p>

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<p>Garfield Girl got into Harvard so she won’t be playing here anymore. :D</p>

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<p>Too bad! If my hubby who went to H had a chance to do it all over again (and he were female :slight_smile: ), with what he knows now he would have gone to Smith in a minute!</p>

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<p>Goes to show you that one person’s “dream school” is another person’s “safety.”</p>

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<p>I still love Smith very very much, no doubts about that.
I couldn’t really have a safety seeing that I am an international asking for full fin aid, but stats wise, I was above Smith’s requirements in every way. However I found myself falling more and more in love with Smith as the year proceeded, which is something not many can say about their safeties. I do not look forward to telling Smith that I am declining them. :frowning:
H and P are both giving me more money, and NO loans which is very very attractive…</p>

<p>CarolynB, haha, what does he know exactly that makes him dislike H so much? I promise I won’t tell anyone! :x
I got into Princeton too, and I am currently undecided between the two…so it’s a brand new dilemma. Seems that I cannot avoid them. :p</p>

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<p>GarfieldGirl, you ARE in a dilemma! :slight_smile: I wish you well in your decision.</p>

<p>I will tell you about my husband’s experience. Large prestigious universities are not for everyone. My husband’s pretty low-key and probably back then, he was also kind of shy, so in a competitive academic and social environment such as Harvard, it was challenging making good friends and advocating for himself academically. In a good number of his physics classes taught by esteemed professors, he saw mostly TAs and only later found out that his professors were doing amazing, ground-breaking research; the undergrad students didn’t have a clue. He still graduated with honors, but honestly he felt lost there. As a result, when he met me and heard about my more personal LAC experience, he realized that would have been the right fit for him. So when it came time for our children to look at colleges, knowing their personalities, we clearly endorsed their looking at LACs and they’ve had excellent, successful experiences so far. </p>

<p>To us, LACs are wonderful to explore the breadth of the academic options when you’re still figuring out who you are, and universities are wonderful to narrow your field and explore in great depth as a graduate student. I think if a student is going to attend a large university as an undergrad, he/she needs to be very out-going and friendly, confident and clear about direction and goals, and willing to advocate for him/herself. So, there you have it! </p>

<p>I suppose if you really love Smith so much, you could ask for more financial aid to see if they can come closer to what Harvard and Princeton are offering; it wouldn’t hurt to ask. It’s up to you. Regardless, I’m sure you’ll succeed wherever you go and I wish you well in your college career! :)</p>

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<p>Princeton, Princeton, Princeton!</p>

<p>(Sorry – that’s where I would go. :slight_smile: )</p>

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<p>GarfieldGirl: H & P are very prestigous places, and everyone around the world has heard of them. If you end up at either, you probably cannot go wrong. That said, I went to MIT, initially a physics major, a very big department there at the time. I got totally lost in the many HUGE classes that I had to take. I took intro bio taught by a Nobel Laureate – he was a lousy and boring teacher. Nobody knew who I was, and everything seemed to be self teaching. My D is a firstie at Mount Holyoke, which like Smith, is substantially smaller and has small classes. I think she is getting a better education there, in a LAC, than she would get in a university. But some, like me when I was 18, wanted to disappear into the crowd in college, and a big school is the right choice for them. I did not even apply to LACs way back then (1973), back when there still were the <em>7</em> sisters. My HS wanted me to go to HYP… I turned out OK, I guess, but I could have turned out better with the direction and individualized teaching one gets in a LAC.</p>

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