<p>after a grueling wkend, and a crazy last min change of heart (from notre dame to smith) i officially sent in my deposit monday. :-) whew.</p>
<p>i'm wondering how long it takes, from them receiving your deposit, until you receive information about dorms? since that seems to be the first step.
(i sorta want to live in the quad first year, mainly b/c i like the idea of more ppl around...and then soph yr, settling into a smaller house env...how much say would i actually have as a freshman?)</p>
<p>anyway, thx for any replies,
and see the rest of you 09 girls this fall :-)</p>
<p>Congratulations, I hope have wonderful first year. As I understand it getting the quad is easier then the other areas because there are more spaces. Most people I heard about last year got into the area of campus they requested. I expect they will get housing stuff out to you within a week or so, I would recommend getting it back as soon as you can since students who got their deposits in earlier have already gotten their housing forms.
Good luck</p>
<p>Oh man it was crazy. I had tickets to fly to SBend last wkend, but 2 wkends ago, I decided to cancel my trip b/c i didn't feel the need to see the campus a second time. That sunday, my parents wanted me to just send in the deposit, but I got cold feet at the finality of the decision, so I started looking at my options again. As of last Friday, I was completely torn.</p>
<p>Basically, Smith offered whatever opportunities I was planning on taking advantage of at NDame, plus more. The reason I only recently realized this was because I had brushed it aside, due to the all-girls factor. B/c they waived my app fee, and didn't req an additional essay, I applied. A wk after making my decision, I couldn't be more excited. I come from a roughly 90% Mormon school, which is obsessed w/ school spirit and football. One ex of what I saw at NDame was their MUN budget being cut down, due to increasing athletic costs. Not only did I decide taht I didn't want to be a part of an 86% Catholic majority, but I have had dealt w/ my fair share of administrative frustrations, in that...speech&debate/my othere interests were always being cut b/c of football.</p>
<p>The biggest thing I hope to do at Smith is grow as a person, which may not happen at NDame. Because of their cozy atmosphere, set apart from the urban bustle, and many distractions during the week, I hope to become immersed/interested in learning again. Coming from a 3k plus, public school... it's hard to find that intellectual curiousity right now.</p>
<p>I could go on and on about their opportunities. But anyway, I'm just looking fwd to becoming a part of the worldwide network of Smithies helping Smithies. :-)</p>
<p>azgirl, you certainly won't have to worry about any football hegemony at Smith!</p>
<p>I'm curious what it was like being at a mostly Mormon school aside from the emphasis on sports and school spirit.</p>
<p>As far as looking forward to growing as a person and regaining your intellectual curiosity, that you will surely do at Smith. I have just picked up my daughter from Smith and had the pleasure of eating lunch with some of her closest friends. I was particularly impressed with the incredible diversity of extracurricular interests represented just among those four or five students -- astronomy, contra dancing, Quaker philosophy, Shakespearean theatre, environmental protection, etc. etc. Smith is a place where you can pursue just about anything and probably find someone to support you with both funding and mentorship.</p>
<p>My daughter also had an interesting comment about Smith that is a little apropos to your aspirations. I tend to see Smith in an excessively rosy light because she has had such an incredible year of growing as a person there this year (her first). But as she pointed out (to rein in my gushing, I guess), there IS some unhappiness at Smith that probably comes to the fore particularly arond this time of year. She thinks, however, that the unhappiness is not so much about Smith itself -- it has to do with the fact that Smith attracts "soul-searchers," as she puts it, people who are deeply concerned with coming out of Smith ready to make a difference in the world, and their unhappiness is the expression of their frustration at not being able to realize their own high expectations for themselves because the real world is not as all-giving and all-forgiving as the Smith world. You sound like a soul-searcher to me -- the perfect Smithie! So go to Smith ready to make the most of what it has to offer you, and then go forth into the world beyond Smith with realism and idealism in equal measure.</p>
<p>She herself has loved Smith, and she hasn't had a single negative experience there.</p>
<p>Pesto, the Smith store sells a t-shirt that says "Smith Football: Undefeated Since 1871."</p>
<p>AzGirl, it sounds as if you made a thoughtful decision.</p>
<p>Pesto, Smith has a little higher transfer rate than many schools. For some, I think the all-girls factor becomes a problem <em>for them</em>, not necessarily for anyone else. Others find Northampton too limiting...karma. One of D's best friends is transferring to Brown because, in my terms, she wants a larger pool to splash around in.
All can be valid reasons for any given individual.</p>
<p>My D is one who has had a great first year experience. If she has any trepidations about her second, it's because three of her best friends were sophomores that she'll never share campus life with again: next year they will be doing JYA programs, the next year D will be doing JYA programs, and the year after that they will have graduated. Sigh.</p>
<p>I am an 05, who just graduated from Smith and I can definitely say Smith is not for everyone. It is also what you make of the college, there have been times when I hated Smith and couldn't wait to leave but I also met some of the greatest friends I will ever meet there. Commencement was an amazing experience but also incredibly sad because I won't be seeing these amazing women everyday anymore.</p>
<p>Smith does have its issues and problems but there are also many great things about the school.</p>
<p>Dreamerlpme: Hang on to those friends. It is so easy to lose touch after college graduation as the diaspora begins, with people drifting off to the far ends of the country and beyond. I didn't work hard enough to keep in touch with my college friends and I really regret it. I know a 55+-year-old woman who gets together for exotic vacations every few years with women friends from her college dorm and I find myself wi****l for that kind of continuity.</p>
<p>Not having been a student at Smith, I can't comment on any problems there, but I suspect that no college is without its flaws. I was never as happy at Brown as my daughter has been this year at Smith. I'm not sure why but I suspect that at least partly it has something to do with the difficulty I had making close women friends while negotiating what was for me the new experience of learning how to relate to men. As the years go by, you may begin to appreciate Smith more and more. I sense that many Smith alumnae feel a much deeper connection to their undergraduate college than I ever have to mine.</p>