<p>It sucks how internationals don’t get it so soon. I can’t wait to frame that acceptance letter and hang it on my wall :D</p>
<p>Mockingbird and Boss–what states are you in? D didn’t get the fin aid letter yet. Hope it comes Monday. Really can’t wait to get this all over with, get the numbers from all schools and get down to the REAL decision time!!</p>
<p>And to all who have gotten their fin aid pkgs.–do you feel that your need was met 100% like they say they will?</p>
<p>lkjhdJKAHDFLJksjdfd I hate being on the west coast…</p>
<p>at least I’ll get my Whitman FA before everyone else…?</p>
<p>meh. I am impatient. now that I’ve resigned myself to defeat from Swat and Brown after a Vassar waitlist I just want to CHOOSE somewhere and send in my deposit and buy a dang t-shirt (that fits lol) and go to the admitted students weekend and all that jazz.</p>
<p>I am the kind of person that loves having a plan, and my plan for next year is so close I can taste it!!! Just a few more days…</p>
<p>@upstate…Mockingbird is my dd so I can speak for both…we’re in Connecticut so maybe that accounts for the quickness. And the aid was very good. Always could hope for more but this was even better than MoHo which was good in itself.</p>
<p>I am so upset! I’m in New Yrok and still no letter</p>
<p>@kymazng I’m in NY, too… I wonder when we get ours :/</p>
<p>Accepted to Smith! Aww yea. I was sooo relieved as I got rejected from Swarthmore, Vassar and Wesleyan. Now I am waiting on Bowdoin, but other than that it looks like I am a future Smithie. Congrats to all those who got in :)</p>
<p>Also our financial aid packet should arrive by Tuesday.</p>
<p>By ours do you me yours? lol ^</p>
<p>I would love for mine to find its way to me by Tuesday, but I still haven’t gotten mine from MoHo yet so who knows.</p>
<p>Accepted to Smith. YAY! Now I’m just waiting to see if my FA is better than what Bryn Mawr offered me. Also still waiting on news from Swarthmore. EEK.</p>
<p>Does Smith offer scholarships on their admission? I was wondering since I was offered scholarships that I wasn’t expecting to get at other schools.</p>
<p>Also, if you do receive merit aid, are you notified in your acceptance mail or does it come later?</p>
<p>It is my understanding that merit aid at Smith College consists primarily of Stride Scholarships with a research opportunity with a Smith professor with an additional stipend and a Zollman Scholarship also with a Stride research opportunity and stipend. There are according to the Smith College Office of Financial Services generally 50 to 60 Stride Scholarships offered and up to 10 Zollman Scholarships offered. These merit offers are sent to the selected students usually 7-10 days before RD decisions are released . Thus if you did not receive one it is unlikely you would receive merit aid from Smith.</p>
<p>I’m aware of the Zollman and STRIDE awards. There aren’t any other merit based aids?</p>
<p>It looks like you’re an international student, so no. The other two are for Springfield/Holyoke residents and US citizen transfers/nontraditionals. [Smith</a> College: Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php)</p>
<p>Ah I see. Thanks for the responses 
Another question on scholarships: during your years at Smith, are there any financial awards given to you because of your academic achievement? I’m thinking of entering as a Biology or a Neuroscience major. </p>
<p>I’m also wondering if there are any biology major students at Smith who’s willing to answer some of my questions. </p>
<p>Also, I have another question. I am aware of how Smithies are required to take a writing-intensive course in their first-year but which courses listed count as this writing intensive course?</p>
<p>Other than the award I posted recently for computer science majors, I don’t think there are any large merit awards besides those offered at admission. There are certain specialty prizes with smaller amounts (English prizes, sociology awards, etc.) that are more honors than financial support. </p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Prize Competitions](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/prizes/]Smith”>Smith College)</p>
<p>Smith does keep a list of outside fellowships as well. Keep in mind that many of these are for upperclass women and/or graduating seniors, although not all are.</p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Fellowships](<a href=“Fellowships & Postgraduate Scholarships Program | Smith College”>Fellowships & Postgraduate Scholarships Program | Smith College)</p>
<p>And this is a list of resources where you can find alternative funding.</p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Fellowships](<a href=“Fellowships & Postgraduate Scholarships Program | Smith College”>Fellowships & Postgraduate Scholarships Program | Smith College)</p>
<p>BTW, my daughter was a neuroscience major (now a graduate student in neuroscience.) Although she does not hang around CC, I might be able to answer some of your questions based on my knowledge of her experience.</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew–My D is interested in neuroscience as well as other majors–WGS, psych and soc. She mostly interested in the cognitive side of neuroscience. I know that this major often or usually leads to med school, etc. but she is not interested in that. If you don’t mind my asking, where is your D doing her graduate work and where does she see herself ending up. Did she do the 5-college certificate program at Smith? Do you have any personal info about that program?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew, thanks for the information! Some things are really hard to find on the Smith College site. </p>
<p>Also yes, it would be great if you can answer a few questions. How rigorous are the classes? Who were your daughter’s favorite professors and why? I’ve never taken any neuroscience related in high school, so would it be too challenging for me (hurt my GPA) if I become a neuroscience major at Smith College?</p>
<p>(Edited to delete information that identifies my daughter.)</p>
<p>My daughter found that courses at Smith were rigorous enough to prepare her for graduate work. She got excellent grades at Smith, and she continues to get excellent grades as a graduate student. That’s not to say that either were easy – she has to work hard and efficiently. After all, in graduate school, she has to work almost full-time in a lab as well as take courses. (Actually, she is working in two labs right now, but that’s a long story.)</p>
<p>Caveat: this is my interpretation of what she has told me, not necessarily her real opinion. In terms of easy/hard courses, my daughter found that the psychology courses were significantly less demanding than the courses in the hard sciences. Psychology courses tended to state the facts without going into the details of the mechanisms that made those facts so. This makes sense since psychology courses don’t have chemistry or biology prerequisites and since the how’s and why’s often require chemical or molecular explanations.</p>
<p>My daughter went cold into neuroscience. She went to Smith thinking that she would major in East Asian Studies, maybe psychology. She disliked science and math in high school. But at the end of her first year, she decided to plunge into neuroscience. She took her first hard science courses (biology and chemistry) as a first-semester sophomore and never looked back, although she continued to take English, government, history, and writing courses as electives. The only thing she had to sacrifice was language study. She found the math courses demanding in terms of time – you have problem sets every day – but not as difficult as courses such as cell biology and organic chemistry.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about your GPA. Study what you love. If you want to go to graduate school, a 3.5 GPA is generally as good as a 4.0, as long as you have lots of research experience. Will the courses be too difficult for you? You won’t know until you do it. If you struggle to get a B in an introductory science course, then you know that science may not be for you. But if you struggle to get a B in, say, organic chem II or cell biology, you’re in good company. It’s just a course or two. </p>
<p>The truly wonderful aspect of Smith is that it encourages students to take academic risks. My daughter would not be where she is now if she attended a college where the students compared grades all the time or if it had “weeder courses” that scared off those who had little experience in the subject. Yes, organic chemistry and cell biology weed out students, but that’s more a realization on the students’ part that it’s not right for them than a conscious effort by the professor to fail the bottom 10% and to give only the top 25% grades of B+ or better. Believe me, that happens at some schools. Smith is not like that.</p>