<p>I’m sorry for creating confusion – my daughter’s at Emory. I had posted my dissatisfaction with Emory’s advising on another thread that a poster reposted here (#4). I compared her experience to my good experience at Smith. D wouldn’t look at Smith – she firmly wanted coed. But what if she had gone to Oxford, she might have had an experience closer to Smith (small classes, better advising). That was all.</p>
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<p>Class, I was aware you daughter was accepted to Oxford. I was under the impression that’s the only college at Emery she would consider should she be offered admission off the waitlist, hence, my brackets for clarification. Sorry for creating undue confusion due to my error.</p>
<p>^thx - no problem – D had the full roller coaster – accepted at Oxford, WL at Emory, then finally got in @ Emory. And some of my complaints about Emory may indeed be valid for an Oxford student (since they all spend junior and senior years at Emory) but I think good advising is really critical in the beginning.</p>
<p>There is nothing like Smith. If I had another daughter, I would push much harder for Smith to be at the top of her list.</p>
<p>Do you feel that the Smith course catalog can offer someone who is undecided a great amount of opportunity to discover what they want to do? I’m stuck on the idea that attending a larger university such as GW will provide me with more classes, more availability to allow me to figure out what I want to do because I currently have no idea. This is really the only thing that is stopping me from committing to smith at the moment. Any help?</p>
<p>Prospie32, why do you feel you need all the answers regarding a major RIGHT NOW? Many people in the course of their college career change their majors–more than once. Smith offers wonderful courses but I’m not sure that’s going to give you the answers right now. When you take that fabulous course at Smith with that dynamic prof that everyone’s raving about and you discover that’s IT, then maybe you’ll know. Or maybe it’ll be the prof for whom you do research and through the mentoring relationship, you’ll discover what you love. Or maybe it will be some extracurricular activity with other passionate Smithies that really lights you up. Or maybe the opportunity of a spectacular summer internship does the trick. There are myriads of ways that can reveal what you love, if you’re open to them. At Smith, because there are no distribution requirements, you can have a wonderful mix of majors/minors to satisfy your tastes. You don’t have to have your whole future mapped out right now, I promise. You have your whole lifetime to explore your interests. Four years of college won’t be the only opportunity to discover who you are; it’s just a part of the process. If you want to be around intelligent women who are also searching and exploring and figuring out who they are, Smith is a great place to be. The whole point of a liberal arts college is that you don’t have to have all the answers right now. Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>A larger university certainly will offer more classes by sheer size. But will they be better quality classes? Will they have similar class sizes? Will you get similar attention from professors who are similarly skilled? And do they offer more of what YOU want? Those are the questions you have to answer for yourself. Maybe you’re the kind of person who doesn’t need a lot of personalized attention in class. You learn very well on your own, you don’t mind being in a large group of students, you don’t feel like you necessarily need a great deal of mentorship and/or you’re able to really identify what you need when you need it and advocate for yourself. If you’re that kind of person, you probably won’t be disadvantaged by a large school. Many people aren’t. </p>
<p>Also, take this for consideration: look at someone you admire in your life. Or maybe someone famous you don’t know. Most of them probably aren’t doing things that are connected to their college majors. I wish someone would do a study on this. But what they probably did have was good mentoring, good internship opportunties, and good career guidance. Smith is great at that, and because it’s a smaller school with a big endowment, there are proportionally more resources to go around. The alum network at Smith, like at many small schools, is very close to the school and very willing to help students at the drop of a hat. At larger schools there are phsyically more alums, but I know at some large schools they can be more diffused and less connected. I don’t know if that’s the case at GW, I’m just throwing that out there as one of the general hazards of large schools. Again, if you’re a real go-getter who’s able to see what she wants and go after it, that’s probably mitigated. If you think you need more help, more attention, more guidance, you migth consider a small school. </p>
<p>In the end, you could go to a school with a thousand majors and not find one that’s right for you. Smith has 50 majors and over 1,000 courses, not counting minors, five college certificates, etc. If you can’t find something to do within those, they’ll allow you to self design a major. And if that doesn’t satisfy, then you might have very specific interests that require a school with a specific program dedicated to that. But that’s what grad school is for, right? Maybe at GW…? :-)</p>
<p>My daughter came to Smith unsure of what she wanted to major in, but with a few ideas and preferences. After just one year, it seems like she is going in a somewhat different direction than she had originally thought. This applies to both choice of major(S) and her preference for study abroad opportunities. She is far from unique in this experience. That is the beauty of a liberal arts education. At the urging of her adviser she took some courses outside of her area of interest and certainly outside her “comfort zone.” She is so glad she did and will continue this next fall.</p>
<p>No course catalog is going to convince you either way. You should think more in terms of what kind of college experience do I want? A smaller, more intimate school such as Smith, or a larger, more comprehensive one like GW. Either is a good choice, but you need to think about which might be more able to give you the kind of collegiate life you crave.</p>
<p>In any case, good luck with your choice…you’ve got five days or so. :D</p>
<p>Prospie32-- From a prof, the course catalog has very little to do with what you eventually major in (and/or minor). Smith’s course options (as well as the Five College Consortiums) are plenty upon which to base the final decision-- for you, I suspect a year down the road. In my D’s choice of Smith we factored in the Open Curriculum specific to Smith. D was very structure IB educated-- no more structure needed. While it is possible my D will change majors she is pretty firm in a Biology major at this time (entering Smith class 2016). Some students enter knowing what their goal (major) is while others don’t have a clue. Would a structured general education requirement help a student figure out the major-- I doubt it. A GEP just sort of assures a college that the students are broadly educated ( EDUCATED, eh). You can’t predict the future with an OC or a structured GEP-- hopefully your eventual major will move you toward it. In the best of all worlds majors are like LOVE, or at least LUST-- you are drawn to them (or her/him). You get it!!</p>
<p>In short, pick Smith and don’t look back. Just one old prof’s .02 David</p>
<p>To the OP in case you didn’t see the other thread.</p>
<p>This was a response from someone at GW who is seeking to transfer to Smith:</p>
<p>Bossof51 - GW is a good school for those who are really driven and interested in International Affairs or Politics. I thought (when I was applying to college 2 years ago) that I wanted to study International Affairs, but recently I’ve decided that I would like to major in foreign language. GW’s not really a liberal arts college, and doesn’t really have good language programs. Also, I don’t really like the social scene all that much. I feel like anyone at GW could find their niche, but I don’t like the Greek scene, which is becoming more prevalent every year. The fact that most students here are really wealthy, and like to make that known is annoying as well.
My friends who go to liberal arts colleges all tell me about the cool classes they are taking, or how great their advisors are, and I don’t really feel like I get that at GW. I’m stuck in a lot of large, intro level courses, and I only liked about half of my classes this semester. My advisor barely knows who I am (though she is helpful most of the time) and it can be difficult to get an appointment with her. She often refers me to other people when I have questions, and is not helpful about fellowships, etc. The red tape at GW is terrible as well, and I feel like most of my professors are inaccessible. Also, I find it frustrating that a lot of other schools offer grants or other resources to their students if they would like to study abroad, or complete an internship for example. Such resources do not exist at GW, and this really bothers me, as the school certainly has the means to provide these and most schools that are comparable to GW do.</p>
<p>With this being said, I’m not saying GW is a bad school or that I’m unhappy here. I would just rather go to a liberal arts college, and would prefer more individual attention. This has just been my experience in general, but if anyone has any specific questions, I would be happy to help.
sarah9 is offline</p>
<p>re: majors </p>
<p>in a variation on the theme, my D was considering five majors when she arrived at Smith, wound up doubling in two of them, not majoring in English, Classics, or Biology. Plus she discovered that she really really really liked Econ.</p>
<p>I’m actually the GW student bossof51 quoted, and now that I’m rereading what I wrote, I realize I was slightly over-critical of GW.</p>
<p>As far as internship opportunities go, GW is great. So many of my classmates are doing incredible internships (National Geographic, the Hill, various embassies, to name a few.) It’s difficult to balance doing an internship during the school year though, unless you take the internship for course credit (which you can’t do until you’re at least a sophomore, due to GW bureaucracy.) I was easily able to secure an internship during the school year (alas, unpaid but still at a well-regarded media outlet) but I am struggling to find a summer internship, as students from all over the country come to DC to intern in the Summer and I cannot afford to do an unpaid internship. The fact that Smith offers grants to support students pursuing unpaid internships, etc, is great and I’m almost certain GW does not offer any sort of resource like this (unless you’re in the honors program.) The DC location is great, and makes up for a lot of what GW lacks. I agree with what Smithieandproud wrote, and if you are independent and able to seek out resources, GW could potentially be a great school for you. However, I still stand by what I wrote and GW is definitely not a great fit for everyone. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.</p>