<p>I hope I am not being premature in my excitement/relief that my D chose Smith, but I want to relate a situation that has made me say to myself "thank goodness she's not going to a Big Box U!"---</p>
<p>I have a friend whose daughter applied to Cornell, U Conn, Binghampton and Barnard. Cornell was her #1 pick. She got into U Conn and Binghampton (I don't think she got into Barnard). She got a "provisional" acceptance into Cornell--if she goes to another U for her freshman year, takes a rooster of classes "approved" by Cornell and gets a certain GPA, she is guaranteed a place at Cornell in her sophomore year (this is IMHO a marketing gimmick that I have read many colleges are employing now to shore up their numbers in the upper class years).</p>
<p>So the Cornell hopeful decided to go to U CONN. High school isn't even finished yet and she's already been to orientation (last week) and registered for classes. Well, it turns out she needs English comp and lit during the first semester in order to transfer and all the sections are already FILLED! Now the family is hoping that Cornell will accept a course from a community college taken over the summer! OMG! The hopeful texted her mom from orientation that she already doesn't like the atmosphere at U CONN (very rah, rah sports oriented); hopefully she'll get over that but it's going to be a long year...</p>
<p>One of my first thoughts was in comparing the wonderful sounding FYS to English comp and lit (how boring) and Smith's open curriculum (how more interesting) and then the idea that a basic, basic class could be filled up already (insane factory U)! </p>
<p>I concur completely. UConn(as well as many other “flagship” schools) is notorious for taking five or more years to complete your education. Stories such as the one you bring up are commonplace.</p>
<p>To top things off, for example, the aid package my d got from Smith makes her attendance there lest costly than it would be at UConn, even if she graduated in four years!</p>
<p>Recently UConn started an initiative called “Finish in four(years).” I will believe it when I see it.</p>
<p>I’ve been encountering this a bit myself. I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll be going be back to Smith or heading off to the University of Michigan, but I’ve had to register for classes at the latter in the event I’ll be in Ann Arbor. </p>
<p>My plan at this point is to major in history and minor in physics, so I figured I’d register for a couple of history classes at Michigan and also throw in a physics class and lab. Lo and behold, all of the physics classes and labs are full! And so are the mathematics courses one needs to take to be admitted to the minor. Were I to stick to my plan, I might have to take classes into the summer after my senior year or at a local university to transfer the credits to the U of M; to graduate in the spring of 2014 while only taking U of M classes, I’d have to abandon my physics minor. It’s crazy.</p>
<p>Also, at Smith you have the opportunity to “contest,” in a way, the results of your language placement exams and to receive permission from the department heads/professors to enroll in a more difficult language class. At a Big Box University, like the U of M, their placement exam is law. So when, after a night where I got maybe two hours of sleep, I made a couple of errors on their French placement test, they condemned me to repeat a level of French I had already taken (and performed well in) at Smith. They know my grade in that course, but they consider their test to be a better measure of my knowledge of French than anything, and I could not contest it were I to go there.</p>
<p>The whole time I was registering for classes, I couldn’t help but think, “This isn’t how Smith does it…” and it made me miss Smith.</p>
<p>^I wish they did; I’ve always wanted to learn it. I can only find one college in the country that teaches Finnish (my father’s pseudo-alma mater), so I’ve had to teach myself. :)</p>
<p>In support of UCONN, my daughter chose UCONN, when she was waiting listed at Smith. Until the letter came saying that the waiting list was closed, we held out hope, as we had sent new grades, another letter of recommendation, and a personal letter. Anyway, to make my point, my daughter too, has already had her orientation at UCONN, and got into every class she needed or wanted. She was hesitant to go to orientation for fear of the size of the student body, course selection, and also this was absolutely not where she ever imagined herself ending up. It may be a big box university, but what she did take away from orientation that given the size of the university, there is something there for everybody, and she will find her niche and make life long friends. Of course, I am not saying that she will not apply to transfer to Smith for soph. year, but for right now she is happy in her outcome.</p>
<p>My friend’s daughter attends UConn, and she loves it. But colleges/universities are not one-size-fits-all. This young woman is definitely a rah-rah type, and she adores the big sporting events as well as her courses. She has had some issues about getting in the courses she wanted, but the big stuff, such as study abroad programs and the selective undergraduate program she wanted, have worked out well.</p>
<p>My own daughter probably wouldn’t have thrived at a school such as UConn, which is why she didn’t apply to large universities. She’s at a large university now for graduate school and loves it, but she told me that she’s glad her undergraduate years were more intimate in nature.</p>
<p>TD, I understand the distinction you’re making, but I just want to mention that Smith is not exactly a small undergraduate college at 2600-2700 students. It’s small enough that you can get the personal attention you want, but large enough for a wonderful variety of experiences. There are a lot smaller undergrad schools where coping with size is really an issue for someone going on to a large grad school. I’m sure she’ll be just fine.</p>
<p>This is always a conversation I find myself having with people - why did I chose a small LAC over a University? </p>
<p>As a debater, I’ve been to a variety of campuses, ranging from LACs (like Amherst) to huge Universities (like Cornell). My experiences in different campuses really, REALLY, cemented why I love Smith (in terms of campus vibe, down to the physical size of the campus, haha). My brother, who goes to Cornell, still doesn’t believe me when I say “Yeah, my biggest class had 40 students in it and I had dinner at my professor’s house. Oh, and did I mention that professors are almost always available for office hours?” I get responses via email from my professors in half an hour. My brother? A few days - IF he’s lucky.</p>
<p>I get why people like huge Universities (for practical reasons, such as research opportunities that one might not find at a LAC) but I’m sure glad I’m a Smithie. It’s nice to know that my professors actually know my name and that they genuinely care how well I do in class. I just think it’s very easy to lose yourself in the crowd at a University. </p>
<p>USM - Just out of curiosity, why would your friend’s D necessarily like Cornell v. UConn?</p>
<p>miss_murd3r–Cornell was my friend’s D first choice. I guess it has more of what she wants when it comes to academics plus it’s more prestigious than UCONN. I don’t think the girl is a rah rah kind of kid and that seems to be big at UCONN.</p>
<p>Downside of Smith and other LACs: far less choice when it comes to profs in a specific field. It doesn’t matter so much for choice of classes as students can take them at the other colleges, but for the honors thesis, the first adviser has to be at Smith per se. If things go badly, they can go very badly (D’s personal experience).</p>
<p>While I think LIT’s example is a good one, I find that most of the problems that come of Smith being relatively small can be solved in part by using the other colleges. As someone who came into Smith with a high level of fluency in a fairly unpopular language, I’ve exhausted the possibilities for that department (all 3, next year 2, members of it) by the end of my first year. But there are plenty of courses at Amherst and UMass should I decide to take advantage of that, and there’s lots of variety between the two - literature, film, cultural studies, politics and history, etc.</p>
<p>I think the fact that we call higher ed “college” suggests that goals are somewhat consistent. Individuals have wildly differing goals of what those four years will provide. Some want to emerge with a profession already in hand. Some are just discovering what that profession will be.</p>
<p>I think “big box” schools are great for some kids who some goals. I attended one and did well.</p>
<p>Having said that, I can say that both of mine attended LAC’s, and they were the right choice for them.</p>
<p>Smith is larger than most LAC’s which does help in course selection.</p>
<p>Well, what do you know, they do have Finnish! And here I thought it was just Finlandia University. Maybe I should look into taking some classes at the University of Minnesota. Thanks, mythmom.</p>
<p>Some of it has to do with the individual as well, I think. My d. at American U. (granted not large, only twice the size of Smith), probably has had more individual contact on an ongoing basis with faculty than my Smithie d. did. But that is because she is an extreme extrovert, asks for what she needs without hesitation, likes to make small talk, and will drop in on a prof. during office hours just to shoot the breeze. This was true even in classes with more than 100 students. (In addition, AU’s career services office is INCREDIBLE!) But for those not so outgoing, I think this is much more likely to happen at Smith.</p>