Smith College

<p>so..what do you mean exactly by "typical college experience" and the quad? more social?</p>

<p>All indications,from what I've heard (again, I am not the parent of a first year..yet?!?), is that Elm st. is a bit more laid back and studious. Green Street housing is, I guess, nice...but, a little out there (sci-fi people, etc). Quad houses are your regular college experience; a bit more partying and louder than others. From what I've heard, there really are few wild parties at Smith, which is just fine with me!</p>

<p>I wouldn't characterize the Green St. housing as "out there." Higher percentages of both athletes and performing arts types, perhaps, due to proximity to facilities. And while D is an SF/Fantasy type herself and has her friends who are fellow travelers, it's by no means a dominant thread in any of the Green St. houses I'm aware of. </p>

<p>If Quad is social and Green St. is studious...both stereotypes with grains of truth in them, then Elm St. is probably eclectic.</p>

<p>There was a lot excessive drama in Albright last year, by all accounts, don't know how it is this year. D says Capen is gorgeous, and she likes folks at Northrup & Gillette. Her impression--limited data--is that Talbot is cliqueier than most. She likes Haven but says it's overdue for being remodeled.</p>

<p>Sorry TD, didn't mean to put green st. down...was just writing what I had heard. Again, as someone with no experience with Smith housing, I am very interested as to which houses are newer, cleaner, have chefs, and still really don't understand proximity to anything yet.(guess I just have to ride to NoHo again, to look at housing if (when?) D gets in. Anyway you slice it, still seems a hell of a lot better than dorms anywhere else!</p>

<p>Wesley definitely has one of the nicest interiors, but it's rare for first years to live there and is actually considered to be a part of Haven (along with Sessions Annex, Park Annex, and Parsons Annex being a part of the larger house of the same name next door). Some of the quad houses look pretty nice too, but I can't remember which ones off the top of my head. The houses with chefs would be the ones that still have dining, but not all houses have dining every day or during every meal period. </p>

<p>The only house other than mine I'd move to would be Lawrence, because I have a lot of friends there now. I spend at least one Friday/Saturday there every week, and plenty of weeknights on top of that. </p>

<p>There's a clickable map on the Smith website that lets you choose different buildings and see where they are on campus, as well as the big fold-out ones that you've probably received in the mail. I'd hate to even cross the street to get to class, even though I cross the street for breakfast every morning.</p>

<p>{Anyway you slice it, still seems a hell of a lot better than dorms anywhere else!}</p>

<p>LOL--The worst house at Smith is still better than the best dorm rooms at some colleges.</p>

<p>{And while D is an SF/Fantasy type herself and has her friends who are fellow travelers}</p>

<p>Fortunately, Smithies don’t <em>space travel</em> Timothy Leary style. :)</p>

<p>BJM8, let me know if/when you're at Smith again. Assuming it's not at a crazy point of the schedule, D can give you a tour of a Green St. House with full ceremonials (clash of arms, tea served with sterling service, attentive house boy imported from Amherst, etc. Okay...I exaggerate slightly. But you get the drift.)</p>

<p>Borgin, thanks for the reminder, duh, comes of me just looking at a list. Yes, I've often seen/heard references to Wesely/Haven or Haven/Wesley.</p>

<p>Fwiw, I wouldn't worry about newer/cleaner with the possible exception of C-Z. House "fit" is mostly a question of being temperamentally simpatico with your housemates, plus a location that aligns with your particular preferences. I know Mini's D likes her House on Lower Elm because it's a hop, skip, and jump to the Friends (Quaker) Meeting House and is otherwise among the closest to NoHo. Green St./Chapin have the added bonuses of being the closest to the classrooms on cold, blustery days...D can get to Seelye in under 30 seconds. :)</p>

<p>I would imagine that, at some point, there will be "issues" of traffic and noise on Green Street as they build the new science/engineering buildings. Don't know when building is set to begin.</p>

<p>You can eat anywhere you want. This also allows one or two dining rooms to stay open late to accommodate athletes and/or students coming back from classes from the other colleges, and there is also a "grab an' go".</p>

<p>Most of my d's friends in her house, she says, are seniors, and her best friends are in Morris and Hopkins, so she gets around. Since she spends about 80% of her time in the music building or her lair at the music library, she is often seen in Green Street territory. An unexpected advantage of her current house is that she falls across the street to help cook at the kosher kitchen on Friday nights. (You should know that a very distinct number of students who attend are not Jewish.) She says she has maintained her perfect record of never attending a quad party, but she goes up there at least weekly for Italian club meetings.</p>

<p>o.k....here's the question: I hear of these quad parties, yet most CC er's say that Smith parties are not as raucous as other colleges. What exactly is a quad party like?</p>

<p>I posed this question to my D, a very happy Quad liver. </p>

<p>Of course almost everyone likes their house/living situation best, (which is great for all concerned!) but my D chose the Quad for specific reasons. She prefers that I not go into detail on what is actually her life online, and I try to respect that, but I have her permission to answer any PM'ed questions. </p>

<p>Her response when I told her of this discussion is that actually the Quad parties are much more supervised/controlled than any room parties anywhere. (By the way, her Quad house has only one public party per semester, from what I understand.) At Quad parties there is always supervision both from house staff and Smith security personnel, to monitor any crowd or alcohol issues.</p>

<p>My D says that on the *rare * occasion that a Smithie needs medical attention relating to alcohol abuse, it is not related to a Quad party, but rather from a less supervised situation.</p>

<p>Her general comment is that the great majority of the time (aside from the annual Mountain Day Quad riot!), the Quad housing is just a quiet as the rest of campus, and offers some distinct advantages.</p>

<p>That has been her experience, at least so far as my recollection of what she has shared with me. She is out at the library now, but I will be happy to run any other questions past her when she returns.</p>

<p>P.S. re distance</p>

<p>Please keep in mind that no part of campus is more than a 15-minute walk from any other part of campus. The "distance" to the Quad is not an issue for those who enjoy daily walks through beautiful settings. For my D, a good walker, the distance to main campus is a 7-minute walk, which she enjoys. </p>

<p>Per D, who is home now, advantages of Quad:
- more privacy
- less "drama"
- more social opportunities -- always someone who is interested in doing something she wants to do -- a movie, a concert, etc. She says at some of the other houses people "sit around on weekends and watch TV or knit."</p>

<p>In brief, she says, "The Quad is the "party" area of an extremely non-party school."</p>

<p>{She says she has maintained her perfect record of never attending a quad party}</p>

<p>Is that some sort of a badge of honor I'm unaware of? Or a statement the Quad students are beneath her?</p>

<p>[The Quad is the "party" area of an extremely non-party school."]</p>

<p>My daughter put it this way "The loudest times at Smith are equal to some of the quietest times at a larger university or most LACs"</p>

<p>"Is that some sort of a badge of honor I'm unaware of? Or a statement the Quad students are beneath her?"</p>

<p>Knowing her, likely neither. (She tends toward the idiosyncratic. And she has many Quad friends.)</p>

<p>okay...so why do some people NOT like the quad? are there any negative things about it?</p>

<p>"The Quad is the "party" area of an extremely non-party school."</p>

<p>I think this sums it up pretty well, only even that is going too far. The Quad has the largest sheer number of students and is representative of the student population as a whole. Some folks choose Green Street because it is closer to the theatre/music buildings, science labs, or athletic fields. Some choose Lower Elm because it is closer to downtown. Some like Upper Elm because of its proximity to the Campus Center. Some folks probably avoid upper Elm because they don't like the possibility of living in the 1950s buildings (Cutter-Ziskind) which some think lack character. Some avoid Green Street because they don't want to live right next door to their classrooms. Some avoid the Quad because they don't want to live among such a large agglomeration of students. Some might avoid Lower Elm because they don't want to cross Elm Street on an icy February morning.</p>

<p>I <em>have</em> heard of that "I don't want to be that close to my classrooms" sentiment regarding Green St.</p>

<p>SC, as Mini says, it all depends. D is happy to go visit at the Quad for a party, happy to leave the noise & mess behind when she comes back home. Stipulating that it's all relative. Compared to, say, a Big-10 school or even Amherst, the Quad is probably fairly sedate.</p>

<p>Mini says it well. </p>

<p>The Quad is not really about parties, since the houses (at least those with which I am familiar) only have one public party a semester. So that is a small fraction of the experience. Even in my own home we may have "noise and mess" at least twice a year! ;) And keep in mind, the parties are kept to the common areas on the first floor. (Same in my house, by the way!)</p>

<p>The Quad is more about having a somewhat more traditional college dorm experience (rooms arranged along a corridor rather than in a corner of a house). You see more people passing in the halls, in the bathrooms, spending time in the common areas, etc. That allows for more interaction among more people. Since many rooms are singles, people can have a delightful combination of individual privacy yet lots of readily available companionship. </p>

<p>One issue with some smaller houses is that they may change "personality" from year to year, especially with many going abroad junior year. The "law of large numbers" makes that less likely in the Quad houses.</p>

<p>Of course, the Quad rooms may have window seats, and the bathrooms may have marble, so they do differ from the typical college living experience.</p>

<p>Commencement exercises are held on the Quad because of the classic campus setting. The Quad houses in which my D has lived are beautiful -- and beautifully maintained. She may never live in such gracious housing again. </p>

<p>But the important point is that there is no one "best" living situation, and that most Smithies are fiercely loyal to their own. House pride is very strong. That is a "good thing," as I see it. (Smith recognizes this by having seniors graduate by house. )</p>

<p>The "personality" issue vis a vis numbers is why D asked to be in one of the larger Green St. houses, fwiw...she knew she wanted Green St. but wanted the social diversity/stability.</p>

<p>I've only heard negatives about three houses and in all three cases I've wondered just how transient the condition was...and in one case, whether it was "just one opinion" (in the other two, multiple accounts aligned).</p>

<p>It occurs to me that we're getting to almost a Talmudic level of hair-splitting.</p>

<p>That said, I don't know that the non-Quad houses have a lower incidence of use of the common areas than the Quad houses.</p>