Smith vs. Wellesley and Barnard

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
1

<p>Hey everyone .
I'm kind of in the dilemma of choosing a college (this great dilemma I am so grateful to have the chance to be in). At this point I'm sort of leaning towards Barnard with Wellesley very close by and I love Smith too (mainly because of STRIDE). I would be really grateful if any students or parents could share insight on Smith to help me make my decision.</p>

<p>I never in a million years expected to get STRIDE but (all praise be to God) I did :D.
I want to know if it would be really very silly of me to turn it down for Barnard/Wellesley.</p>

<p>I'm interested in Biology (genetic engineering & biotech) and Creative Writing. I would probably like to have theater and journalism as ECs so I would love it if someone could share their experience with those things at Smith.</p>

<p>How is the Smith graduate school placement?Is Wellesley's better?Is Smith's STRIDE the best work-study you could get?</p>

<p>Thank you SO much to anyone who replies!</p>

2

<p>Congratulations! I grew up ten blocks from Barnard. Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt, but I always viewed it as a lesser sister to Columbia. My daughter is a first year at Smith, and she loves it! The emphasis on science is impressive. I am a Public Health Prof at another institution, and I have been VERY impressed with Smith.</p>

<p>From what I have heard, Wellesley is excellent, but more geared towards professional schools, i.e, med school, law school. Smith also sends many along to professional schools, but, in my subjective opinion, has more of an intellectual, research bent.</p>

<p>You really cannot go wrong at any of the schools. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>STRIDE is a tremendous opportunity which no other school will offer you. The ability to do paid research with a professor your first year at college is remarkable, and especially for someone interested in the sciences I’d really recommend talking to current STRIDErs and seeing if the program would be good for your interests.</p>

<p>Have you visited the three of them? They all feel very different. Barnard is in NYC and most students I know there use NYC as their playground for social life and, as they get older, for internships and the like. There are pros and cons to that, of course; New York is very expensive and there’s very little community life on or around campus.</p>

<p>Wellesley is in a rather wealthy and uptight town but does have fairly easy access to Boston. On average, I’d say that the Wellesley students I know are more socially traditional than those at Barnard and definitely at those at Smith; Wellesley has, especially compared to Smith, a much smaller amount of LGBT activism and political discussion in general. Most of the students at Wellesley I know are very much in the med school/law school track and many of them are very, very wealthy.</p>

<p>Clearly I’m biased towards Smith, as it’s a much better fit for me, but I really think it offers a great balance between the two in terms of environment and career tracks. Northampton is a superb college town and has everything you need within easy walking distance (I’m from NYC and I have yet to get bored with Noho), but the vast majority of the social life is on-campus. Smithies tend to be more liberal and accepting, I find, than students from the other two (again, just my experience). Smithies pursue very different goals and plans after college - we have a good balance between people going onto higher education, those finding jobs, and those working for organizations like Teach for America and the Peace Corps. I also found a sense of openness and friendliness at Smith, even during my initial visits, that I had trouble finding at other women’s colleges.</p>

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<p>Theater - </p>

<p>There’s a whole bunch of theatre opportunities here. There’s the theatre department, where you can take classes and/or act in big, professor-directed shows. There’s also a lot of student-run groups, though; I’m part of the musical theatre group, which is super excellent and you can PM me about, and there’s also a Shakespeare troupe and another one-act group. We also do The Vagina Monologues every year (I was involved this year). And all of the student-run groups encourage not only actors but also directors, producers, costume designers, tech people, everything, which I think is really great for both learning useful skills and developing leadership.</p>

<p>There’s more I’m forgetting but I have to be on my way to visit a friend at UMass, so I’ll drop by again later. Feel free to PM me with any questions!</p>

4

<p>Congratulations on your dilemma, Shadowhunter! It’s a a good problem to have! To answer your question, two years ago my daughter was accepted to Smith, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr. She didn’t even consider Barnard because she knew she didn’t want the intensity of living in NYC. It boiled down to this: she loved Wellesley but she couldn’t turn down the STRIDE opportunity, so she said no to Wellesley (and the others). At the time, it was a painful choice, but she came quickly to appreciate the PRICELESS opportunity STRIDE offers. To my knowledge, there is no other school in the country that gives you a chance to work one-on-one in research with a professor in the first two years of your college career. Period. The internships, graduate school and jobs that follow from that experience can simply knock your socks off. Hopefully Smith alumnae as well as TheDad, MomWaitingForNew and other parents of alumnae will weigh in (their daughters are doing amazing things). Or search other posts from a year ago when students were asking similar questions. </p>

<p>The other schools: Wellesley may get a lot of press because it’s near Boston, and so has higher visibility, but the grad schools and employers know the seriousness and quality of a Smith education and they are the ones that count. My daughter has a close friend at Barnard who grew up in Boston(!) who initially had difficulty living in NYC, so city life is something you need to embrace if you’re going to choose Barnard and that means less emphasis on college community. </p>

<p>When my daughter talks about her wonderful experience at Smith, one of the first things she talks about is her STRIDE. That topic is quickly followed by how dynamic and supportive the professors are, how close her friendships are at Smith, how wonderful her house is and how easy it is to simply walk into town whenever she wants (no bus, no subway). So yes, frankly, in my opinion, with your interest in bio, you would truly be silly to turn down the STRIDE opportunity, but you need to discover that for yourself, so go to the Admitted Students Day and see the scope and depth of the STRIDE projects displayed and talk to the STRIDE students and professors (the professors adore having STRIDE students!) and ask them how the STRIDE is a springboard for all kinds of possibilities. Visit all three schools, if you can. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>I’m hoping to have the same dilemma as you when Barnard decisions reach the pacific northwest ;)</p>

<p>And if I were you, I’d take the STRIDE in a heartbeat. I’m incredibly envious of that opportunity.</p>

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<p>Barnard has an incredible creative writing program, considered going there myself for a really long time because of that. But personally I’m not a fan of city life, the campus felt weird to me. If you like/prefer that, then if I were you I would lean toward Barnard. Wellesley and Smith aren’t metropolitan like NYC is at all.
However, Smith’s campus is kind of perfect, haha. Have you been there? I really strongly suggest you visit. As soon as I got to Northampton everything clicked for me, and everyone else I talked to who applied to Smith felt the same way about visiting. Corny but whatever it works. They have lots of trees! And squirrels.
On top of the squirrel population, Smith has great creative writing opportunities. First there’s the poetry center. They invite over AMAZING poets every year to read at Smith. And the professors who teach the (few) creative writing courses at Smith are great writers, I assume they’re good teachers as well. Oh, and there are creative writing courses offered through the five college system. Martin Espada (have you read Poetry Like Bread? SO good), Lisa Olstein, John Hennessy (I think he wrote Bridge and Tunnel? agh, sorry if wrong) at UMass, and John Clayton at Hampshire (he publishes a lot of [amazing] lit crit, but admittedly I’m not that familiar with his more creative work). That’s just for fall 2011 so far, I’m only going off what’s been put on the Five Colleges course catalog for fall 2011. It looks like Mt. Holyoke also typically has a lot of creative writing classes. I think quite a few of those courses require a portfolio for admission, but I’m not sure how things work with all of that.
So yeah, I think Smith’s pretty good for creative writing, they have good writing for the theater classes too, and I don’t know much about Smith’s bio program in particular, but I’ve always been told that science in general is strong at Smith. And you’re really not going to get anything like STRIDE at Barnard or Wellesley, kind of an incredible opportunity.</p>

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<p>The three school are in three very different communities. Wellesley is a wealthy Boston suburb, the plus is its proximity to Boston. Barnard, in NYC, is across the street from Columbia; living and socializing in NYC is great - - if you can afford it (a movie is $12, plus $4.50 for roundtrip subway fare). Smith is in a lovely college town (but the campus squirrels are AGGRESSIVE). </p>

<p>I have no first-hand knowledge re: Barnard/Wellesley - - but it would be sad to pass up a STRIDE.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much everybody!I’m even more tempted to go to Smith now :). Also, the squirrels sound very interesting lol :).
Whoa I was not aware of how expensive NYC is, that’s definitely something I should factor in. Smith does sound INCREDIBLE and I don’t want to give up STRIDE. By the way, do STRIDE students get their name mentioned anywhere on the research or is it just basically helping the professor with exclusively his/her research?</p>

<p>I should probably have mentioned that I live abroad so I can’t really visit :(.</p>

<p>Ahh I wish I could go to all 3 haha.
Thank you, you’ve all really helped me <em>beams</em>.</p>

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<p>Your name is on the research!!!</p>

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<p>^ That’s wonderful!</p>

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<p>I know!</p>

<p>Congrats! </p>

<p>Next year, hopefully I can say I have a Smith admittance and STRIDE scholarship</p>

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<p>^ Best of luck!I really hope you get it.</p>

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<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>It’s agonizing watching the Smith threads. I’m so jealous, I wish I was a senior (I’m a junior.)</p>

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<p>My D was admitted to the same three and was STRIDE. Her name was on a paper presented at conference based on research she participated in during her first semester. Stayed late one summer to work a few weeks on an NSF-funded project under the same professor. STRIDE continued to cast ripples into her first job after graduation and then her PhD applications. Like anything, it’s what you make of it but if you choose well and work wisely, I think STRIDE is terrific.</p>

<p>Her synopsis: she liked NYC, didn’t love it. Barnard empties out on the weekend, not as strong sense of community as at Smith & Wellesley. Definitely more expensive. Barnard’s creative writing program is highly regarded and Smith can’t match it, have to find your writing outlets in other ways. Also had better ballet classes than Smith. Wound up being D’s #3.</p>

<p>Wellesley…and some W proponents get upset at this…but the proximity to Boston is somewhat illusory given the round-trip time the shuttle takes, a minimum of 45 minutes each way. (Btw, I think some of the Five College offerings are equally illusory at Smith…it takes <em>very</em> careful planning in choreographing your schedule to make it work well.) The immediate surround of Wellesley is nowhere near as attractive in terms of places/things to go/do as Smith.</p>

<p>I believe that D thought Wellesley was a little more academically intense but not necessarily better and Smith is certainly no slouch academically. I have senses that I can’t well defend that W is a little more pre-professional in outlook, Smithies a little bit quirkier as a whole. D has said that she thinks Smith made her more well rounded than W would have. Oddly enough, her roommate is from W.</p>

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<p>I have a friend at Wellesley who says that she’s at parties or concerts or just going out in Boston/Cambridge every weekend, usually both Friday and Saturday, no problem (Except for during soccer season, as a recruited athlete). But on weekdays she’ll stay on campus because it’s easier and she’s usually busy with homework. You’re definitely not going to school in Boston, but it’s there if you want it</p>

<p>I would agree with the assertion about Smith that the 5 college thing may not be entirely convenient, when I visited Smith and Amherst it took us at least 45 minutes to drive between the campuses. This was on a Saturday afternoon, I don’t know how weekdays are…</p>

<p>I didn’t visit Barnard, but I’ve been to New York City multiple times (kicking myself for not visiting Barnard when I was there last winter…) and with a metro pass the city is your playground.</p>

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<p>OP: my daughter majored in neuroscience and took several writing courses (advanced short story writing, screenwriting, writing for the theater, plus a mini-course in January) while at Smith. She was accepted into a writing course at Amherst as well, but had to opt out because it conflicted with a lab. </p>

<p>If you want to major in creative writing, don’t go to Smith. If you want to take a few courses in writing, however, then you’ll be happy. Some truly exceptional writers are in the five college area – at Smith (I think the writers-in-residence alternate between poets and fiction writers), at Amherst, and at UMass, which has a strong MFA program. Probably Hampshire and MHC have one or two writers as well. Smith is definitely more poetry-oriented (Sylvia Plath went there, after all!) than fiction-oriented, especially in terms of readings/events.</p>

<p>I know a thing or two about creative writing, and Barnard is definitely the best of the three for that. But really, you don’t have to major in writing to become a writer – or to go to graduate school for it. You do want to make sure that you can take several courses, just to get used to the workshop setting and to get constructive feedback.</p>

<p>But if you have a STRIDE and you plan to major in science, it’s a no-brainer: Smith. Graduate schools care more about research experience than they do about grades and test scores (although those have to be good, of course), and Smith is basically offering you a fast-track to top graduate programs. Although my daughter did not have a STRIDE, she did get into a strong PhD program in neuroscience, but the early start on research would have made her even more competitive.</p>

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<p>K, my D could not have absorbed the time penalty of going to Boston more than 3-4 times a quarter if she had been at Wellesley and had the same schedule she had at Smith and gotten the same grades. Weekends, or even partial weekends, without a full commitment to EC’s and studying, were rare. Friday nights and <em>part</em> of the weekend for socializing but the socializing was measured in hours, not days.</p>

<p>MWFN, good take on the difference between writing programs, opportunities to write at Smith, and being a writer.</p>

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<p>Thank you everyone, your thoughts have been very helpful =)!!</p>

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<p>Trapezing between weekend parties at MIT and Harvard, dining/drinking/listening to outstanding music at Boston/Cambridge area restaurants/clubs, visiting museums, attending professional plays and musical performances, etc., are many Wellesley students weekend ECs. Different strokes.</p>

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<p>Well, I think what TD was trying to say is that if you’re involved in a club or activity it can take up a lot of your time that would otherwise be devoted to those kinds of ECs. For example, I was in the Smith Democrats and I spent most of my fall weekends on canvassing trips in other states. So when I got back from that, I probably would not have wanted to then get on a bus to go in to town. But as you say, different strokes for everyone.</p>