<p>Both are beautiful in terms of landscape architecture, the relationship of the buildings to the grounds. You feel it when you walk around.</p>
<p>Mt. Holyoke;s building architecture was extolled above, so I’ll add mention that Smith’s landscape was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s foremost landscape architect of the l9th century. He also designed Central Park in NYC, Delaware Park in Buffalo, and more. He integrates buildings with curving pathways, beds of shrubs and flowers, large trees, and a small lake. When you travel the Smith campus, it unfolds as you walk along. </p>
<p>Since you enjoy art, that would be important to you to be surrounded by physical beauty. Both places are very attractive.</p>
<p>Smith is right up the hill from the small City of Northampton, a dynamic and very livable place. Artsy stores, cafes, and political activity characterize the main street, around a mile long with a crossroad of equal length to define the downtown. The side-streets and neighborhoods are close-knit and pleasant in terms of housing. I’ve never been to Berkeley but I’m searching for a comparable place in California for you to imagine Northampton; maybe even parts of downtown San Francisco? Posters for independent arts projects, grass-roots political meetings, gay community causes are abundant in Northampton. </p>
<p>South Hadley remains the least changed: old, well-kempt, sweet, small rural farmtown crossroads, but nestled in the woods under the tree canopy. If you’ve read Robert Frost’s poems or Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” you can imagine a small rural community in New England. To me it feels like a beautiful dream. YMMV. Your mileage may vary, but that’s my reaction to So.Hadley.</p>
<p>Imagine a well balanced in a triangle of 3 towns: So.Hadley, Amherst, Northampton. South Hadley (Mt.Holyoke) is closer to Amherst (l5 minutes) with Hampshire College along the way, as mentioned above. University of Massachusetts is also in the town of Amherst, with very ordinary buildings/highrise dorms all on one side of town and not visible from the town’s center. UMass adds some 25,000 students to the community, and I agree that Amherst is best described as suburban, but with historic roots as a small town from the l600’s. </p>
<p>Smith to Amherst usually takes 25-30 min (except for rush hour or big weekends). MoHo to Amherst might be l5 minutes. Smith to MoHo, I’m guessing l5 minutes. Please double check this with students. </p>
<p>It’s true, as another poster said above, that there’s constant car traffic on the two-lane “Route 9” between Northampton and Amherst to slow the bus. But, to be fair, traffic is at its very worst when the PARENTS clog the community for orientation, homecoming or and graduation weekends, when I also recall 45 minutes. Ask students what’s normal because it’s actually only a l0-mile distance, but traffic-y. </p>
<p>There’s much more happening in the city of Northampton than in South Hadley so it’s more of a community cultural destination than is South Hadley, where you might go outside to see the stars at night. </p>
<p>There’s an unusual mountain ridge that divides South Hadley from all the rest, although if you’re from the West you’ll laugh that’s even called “mountain.” It’s a gentle group of hills, but they run East-West. It’s the only East-West ridge of its size east of the Mississippi; usually they run North-South. So it’s a physical barrier, but hardly, and the bus goes right through it. </p>
<p>Co-curricular activities bring students onto each others’ campus, as well as the courses. For example, I saw theater productions at Amherst College with actors from Mt. Holyoke, dancers from Smith. Concerts, clubs and seminars at Smith attract men and women from all the other schools.</p>
Both schools are great, and they’re gonna have you working pretty hard, so don’t imagine yourself spending hours on end wandering the shops… The most important things to find out have more to do with the course offerings, professors, facilities, and that great intangible, the student “vibe”.</p>