<p>Hey! I will be attending Smith College in a few months and hence would love to know all about Smith that I should be knowing before I land there ;) Something that you wish you knew about smith before you went to Smith or if you were to go to Smith! Everything from housing to the surrounding area...classes, the other 5 college, what I should expect and what I should not :) I will really appreciate your view/advice/words ?! :p</p>
<p>When you feel tired and you want to stay in. When you feel shy or self conscious and you’re afraid to join in with the group. When you’re not really sure if you want to go jump in the pond at midnight (you’ll get what this means later). Just remember that you only get four years of this. And afterwards you have decades of life where your chances for fun, for doing things with wild abandonment and a lack of propriety and dignity are going to be few and far between. So take a deep breath, and dive in while you have the chance.</p>
<p>So, you’re saying that I shouldn’t be so nervou for college? 
Okay I take your word there… but I am just sooo… excited to go to smith!! 
Actually I couldn’t visit Smith open campus 
But I know smith is a great college! I already sent in my enrolment there. I just want to know more about smith so that I can picture myself there (Sadly I can’t visit until I go there in september )</p>
<p>I would put it differently than S&P but to similar effect: Smith offers more opportunities than any five students could take advantage of without overlap. But find the ones that appeal to you and take some of them. There will seldom be a better time for taking risks in terms of pushing your personal boundaries, e.g., taking on leadership roles when you’ve never done so before.</p>
<p>I would probably yield to no one re attention to academics (stereotype alert: though D says if we were Jewish I’d be normal and if we were Asian I’d be easy), yet the friendships you form at Smith are likely to be part of your life for decades…so don’t stay holed up in your room all the time. Note: the general consensus seems to be, as borne out by operant behavior, is that if something has to be given short shrift, it’s usually sleep. </p>
<p>As to all your detailed questions, don’t sweat the small stuff. Things can work out well with so many alternative paths, even if you aren’t blessed with the good fortune of living on Green Street. :P</p>
<p>Some of my things are general, some specific:
- Be flexible. I went into Smith thinking I knew EXACTLY which classes I wanted to take. I’ve take none of them. I thought I knew my major and my minor-both have changed. Let the world take you someplace amazing. Sometimes a set back or a change of plans is actually way better in the long run
- Go to the botanical gardens often. It’s a great quiet place to read, study, nap (I’m guilty of this) and in the dead of the freezing winter, their 80 degree rooms are amazing.
- Get off campus! Whether you take a class (which I recommend) or just go to a party or just chill at the mall, aim to get off campus twice a month. You’ll be happier.
- Jump in the pond. Don’t be scared of the leech stories or think the pond is icky. The fun you’ll have in it or going to the rope swing is worth a bit of mud.
5)Bring tupperware. Dining closes at like 7 and if you’ve got a late night, it’s nice to have a snack in your fridge! - Go to the lectures. Smith brings a million people to campus to talk about cool stuff. I’m not a history or english major, but I go to the lectures to learn. It’s super chill and a great way to broaden your horizons.
- Go to a quad party at least once. If it’s for you, great, if not, then at least you’ll know
- Tan on Chapin Lawn
9)Be silly. Smith lets you be exceptionally silly, so go all out and LOVE it - Get to know your professors. Office hours are not only fabulous for help, but to get to know a professor. They can lead you in a great direction or offer some much needed advice. Plus, most of them love to feed you</p>
<p>I second everything R6L said,especially about being silly and flexible. Also, Panera at the mall is a great place to study, and it’s near the Barnes and Noble so you can take study breaks.</p>
<p>R6L, all good things. I’d like to call out the last: being an LAC, Smith is a place where you as undergrad can really get to know your professors. There are 3-4 that D has been in close contact with as she planned for grad school and another 5-6 would happily open their doors to her or e-mails from her. That’s an incredibly high percentage, especially when you consider she spent junior year off campus.</p>
<p>x-posted with S&P. I think the capacity for being silly (see “subset of quirky”) is one of those things Smith in some manner seems to actively filter for. If the impulse strikes, go with it.</p>
<p>a) Realize that there are many social opportunities out there and if you don’t ever want to go to a Quad party, Smith students will not think the less of you for it, which is awesome. </p>
<p>b) Go to the presentation of student organizations in the fall and don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s a great opportunity.</p>
<p>c) Go to a dining hall not near your house at least a few times a year. It’s easy to just hop down the street most nights to eat, but don’t do that all the time. If you live in Green Street, eschew Tyler for Comstock/Wilder or Cutter-Z. If you live in the Quad, check out Hubbard or Chase-Duckett. I found it refreshing to see different parts of the campus that I might not normally visit and the walk was a nice way to clear my head for evening studying.</p>
<p>d) Neilson Library is an amazing, amazing resource. Use it widely and well! It will be your friend.</p>
<p>e) Extensions can be handy in a pinch, but don’t rely on them. I have friends who managed to get extensions on almost all of their work from the semester and sorely regretted it come finals week. It’s no fun to be doing your mid-term paper and three problem sets from your math class on top of final exams and papers. </p>
<p>f) The gym will be super busy on Saturday. If you want to workout, I recommend Sunday.</p>
<p>g) Tea is perhaps the best way to get to know your house and to just relax (and it’s so tasty, too). </p>
<p>h) If things aren’t working out with your roommate no matter what you do, don’t be afraid to ask housing for a new room assignment. If they stall, pressure them kindly but persistently. The hassle to get reassigned beats the misery of an incompatible roommate.</p>
<p>i) If you need to fly home over breaks, the SGA Airport Shuttle will save you so much money.</p>
<p>j) Take classes outside your comfort zone. You have one free first-year drop and you can take (I think) 12 credits pass/fail, making this a fairly low-risk proposition if you’re concerned about your GPA. It’s really worth it.</p>
<p>I’ll come up with some more thoughts later, but here are a few to start. :)</p>
<p>Great posts, R6L and Phanatic!</p>
<p>Thanks a lot TheDad, sandp, r6l and phanatic! Hmm… loads of stuff to think about…!! Okay, just one more thing, how feasible is it to take classes in the other colleges? Oh and just btw I came across this other post by you, TheDad, “You know you’re a smithie…” and it was AWESOME!</p>
<p>Thank you, Vin, but I was only the conduit of the “You Know You’re A Smithie…” post, not the author. I recognize stuff worth stealing\\ re-posting.</p>
<p>Though come to think of it, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea if someone re-posted it to a current thread. Gems like that get buried.</p>
<p>vincollege-it depends.
Taking a 5 clg class has a million variables. If it’s at Hampshire, it’s super doable as Hampshire is like 20 minutes away and the bus runs super regularly. Also, you don’t have to sign over your whole day to that class. With careful scheduling, you can make it fit.</p>
<p>UMass is slightly harder but still doable, while Amherst and MoHo require much more careful scheduling, structure, and normally a whole day devoted to their class. It’s not impossible, just difficult. </p>
<p>It also depends on what time and how often the class is you want. Is it 5 days a week at 9 am? Probably not the best choice. Twice a week from 2 to 4? Much more feasible. </p>
<p>Another variable is what you’re studying. Math classes tend to (not as a rule, but it’s been my experience) to be all over by about 12. So, your afternoons are free to pursue 5 college classes. Sciences, however, have afternoon labs. These are just two examples and I really can’t speak for the humanities. </p>
<p>But, I say go for it!</p>
<p>In my experience, humanities classes at Smith tend to be on the MWF schedule, making it easy to fit a TTh Five College class into your schedule if you have few other commitments on those days. UMass seems to schedule a greater percentage of its classes on the TTh schedule than the other colleges, which makes taking a UMass class one’s easiest bet as a humanities student.</p>
<p>@ TheDad Yeah that thread (the “you know you are a smithie…” one) sure is a gem!
@R6L and phanatic: Thanks! That clears up a LOT!</p>
<p>Keep in mind that regardless of your schedule, you can’t take off campus classes your first semester.</p>
<p>Well, hypothetically you can, but there’s apparently a long appeals process and you’re probably going to get denied. Either way, I think most of us would agree that taking all of your first semester classes at Smith is a good idea.</p>
<p>I disagree with both phanatic and S&P. You CAN take a class off campus your first semester(I did) and the appeals process is very easy. It took a 3 line email to Dean Riddell to get approved.</p>
<p>You need to have a solid reason for the class, but as long as you do and carefully schedule, you can go off campus.</p>
<p>Where is the “you know you’re a Smithie…” post? I missed it.</p>
<p>Well they may have changed the policy, but when I was at Smith first years could not take five college classes during their first semester.</p>