<p>I'm the mother of a Mount Holyoke first-year who hasn't been to CC in quite some time, but I talked with several parents whose children were considering (and ended up deciding on) Smith as my daughter made the difficult choice between the two last Spring. I was just wondering how all the girls have been doing there! Ours is home and expressing some unexpected dissatisfaction with the school and the area. How has the adjustment been for yours?</p>
<p>Mine has had a wonderful, wonderful time! She has music every day of the week - composing, orchestra, Voces Femina (which met at Mt. Holyoke last term), a baroque quartet. Her research, overseen by a Five-College Professor with a home at Mt. Holyoke, seems to be going well. She has set up permanent shop in the music library. She attends the local Friends Meeting regularly, and (to our surprise) helps cook Friday night dinner at the kosher kitchen. Her courses were all terrific, and she loves being close to town where she can wander into bookstores, etc., and has been at events on four of the five campuses. She has also joined the ceramics club, is the religious life liaison for her house, and is preparing to take her junior year abroad in Italy. Bought a bike. Somewhat to our surprise, she even went to an occasional dance or party (we knew it would come sooner or later.) Her roommate didn't work out - they got along fine, but their hours were completely different (mine is the first to breakfast, and roommate's bedtime was usually around 2 a.m., but there was an extra room in the house which her roommate moved into, and now she has a huge single (which is what she wanted to begin it.) But she has plenty of friends in her house.</p>
<p>I'm sorry to hear about your d. What are her complaints? Mount Holyoke struck us as a terrific place, and the dean of religious life is a personal friend. Adjustment for ours was definitely easier, having been taking college classes for the past three years, having previous contacts in town with members of the Friends Meeting, and having met the faculty she would be working with in advance of attending. First term adjustment for many students anywhere is not always easy, and I hope it works out for your d.</p>
<p>flmom--I think the first term of college is quite an adjustment for kids, and despite some of the glowing reports we read on the CC board, I'm guessing it's a lot more standard to have gripes and concerns. I say this as the mom of two very different twins at two very different schools who have both managed to come up with very similar plusses and minuses. I've also heard stories of what's going on with their classmates and talked with other parents at parents weekend and none of these stories are 100% wonderfulness. Sometimes kids are not at the right school, but other times they're just working through the same problems they'd be working through anywhere and a change of venue is not the answer. Out of respect for my kids' privacy I don't want to get any more specific here on the board, but I just don't want you to feel too bad that your daughter isn't reporting absolute delirious daily joy!</p>
<p>Flmom, what are your D's dissatisfactions?</p>
<p>Mine is extremelly happy at Smith...I kept holding my breath, fearing that something would go off-track for her but she loves it, both academically and socially. In academics, she took 20 units first semester and found all of her classes interesting and challenging; I would go as far as "absorbing" for some of them. She loves her House, she's made friends, and she even brags about adapting to the cold weather. She likes having the town of Northampton right there for the occasional movie, ice cream, dinner out, shopping, etc. She says that after high school it's virtually perfect. My pov is that my D getting into Smith and liking it so much is the best thing that's happened all year.</p>
<p>Fwiw, my D looked at Mount Holyoke and thought it was too remote. She has a friend there from her home ballet studio who isn't happy there but I don't know what the issue(s) is/are.</p>
<p>My daughter loves Smith, but it wasn't immediate... The first six weeks were very challanging, mostly because she didn't know anyone at all at the school.<br>
She loved the classes and her teachers, but found even the classes she thought would be "easy" to be quite work-intensive. I think the proximity to Northampton is key to her well-being - being able to get off campus and have access to cafe's, movies, stores etc. and still go for lovely hikes in the woods is really an advantage. Of her friends from high school that are unhappy, most are going to schools in rural settings with transportation issues...</p>
<p>My D loves Northampton too and has occasionally reported a walk around town has helped perk her up from a funk. Mt Holyoke was one of her other choices, too, and although some of the classes there sound appealing and she'll be wanting to take advantage of them at some point, the Northampton location was a big draw. So, flmom, is it the isolation issue that's bothering your d?</p>
<p>Dooger, my D's assessment is that there are no "easy" classes. Some may be less intensive than others but that's as far as she'll go. From what she's pieced together listening to everyone, there's maybe <em>one</em> easy major...and she's not sure about that.</p>
<p>From all the classes she'd like to take, I wish she had six years instead of four. A bunch of great classes are going by the wayside...no room in the schedule.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the feedback! Our daughter's main dissatisfactions have from Day 1 been academic in nature. I am encouraging her to definitely give it another shot this semester, but her courses, many at the 200-level, and the type of discourse she encountered within them just didn't compare to that she delighted in at past pre-college programs (at TIP and Harvard Summer School.) We're accustomed to receiving lightspeed accounts of what she's learning and writing and of connections she's making between disciplines and places she's wanting to travel, but she says Mount Holyoke has a "draining effect." Her passion for English literature seems to have been extinguished (she still reads voraciously, but the serious scholarship we saw all summer/throughout high school has come to an end), she is involved in a number of arts-related, athletic, and service extracurriculars, but the publications are "pitiful and leave her cold," and she claims she can't muster the initiative to start her own. </p>
<p>We are currently trying to pinpoint what it is exactly that isn't working for her--she seems to have thrived in an urban setting in the past, but the focus that quiet South Hadley would allow her appealed to her initially ("if I could write this much in Cambridge with all its distractions, just imagine what I'll get done in Western Massachusetts!"). She dated an Amherst boy all semester, so lack of coed interaction wasn't a problem, but she says it's awful to be branded a "Moho" from the outset and to have to fight against that stereotype. Sometimes I hear an angry "Mother, there is no compelling reason to exclude males from the classroom setting!" and others, reports of nice, driven girls she's meeting. I worry though that she'll never stop comparing it to what she would be experiencing at an Ivy or coed LAC. Mount Holyoke was her safety, and we (she especially!) expected her to just take off and shine there. Instead, she's breezing through her classes, "going through all the motions" with extracurricular committments, and worrying about clothing and phonecalls from boys for the first time in her life. It is the opposite of what we'd hoped for! </p>
<p>She has reported that the Smith girls she's met seem a lot more intellectual and passionate, and that Mount Holyoke is just <em>too</em> friendly and well-adjusted, and that everyone talks about having academic interests, but not about <em>what</em> they love and are learning. After such one-sided high school years, I'm actually excited to see her leading a substantial social life and not obsessing over school work, but she seems so used to defining herself through her literary accomplishments that this is throwing her for a loop. I know the school has fantastic resources and that my kid is a neat one, I just worry that she is one of the ones who "it just doesn't work for."</p>
<p>Tough call there, flmom. Maybe you can encourage her to take a class spring semester at Smith and see if she prefers to be there instead.</p>
<p>mini- I keep wondering which of the ladies next door is yours! Kosher K is another great hint as I go there occasionally but know several girls there well.</p>
<p>I had a period of adjustment also... All I can say is, I'm happy for anyone who's child is making an effort to adjust to college life. I have a friend at Smith who hasn't made an effort to do so and it's very hard to stand by and watch her being depressed and stressed out all the time... And wants to go home every single weekend next semester 'until she feels better." Gah!</p>
<p>I like Smith enough to be excited to go back for the spring semester :) But I don't want summer to come tooooo fast because I haven't gotten my plans together!</p>
<p>FlMom, I can't address Smith's publications...for all I know, they suck too.</p>
<p>However, I had been reluctant to say anything along the lines of the following but I believe it to be true based upon multiple inputs:
[quote]
She has reported that the Smith girls she's met seem a lot more intellectual and passionate
[/quote]
</p>
<p>True in the overall collective, with individual exceptions in both directions.</p>
<p>Sometimes I think these girls just haven't found their friends yet! My Smithie, who's been reading these posts and thinks my best line so far is the one about respecting her privacy(!!!) says to tell flmom's daughter that she has liked all the Mount Holyoke girls she's met, and she certainly has plenty of stories of fellow Smithies whose antics are passionate but might not be labeled intellectual! I suspect there are all kinds at both schools.</p>
<p>Enjoyingthis, I invited my D to post here in my stead. She said no, she'll leave CC to me, keep Facebook for herself. </p>
<p>As for antics that are passionate but not intellectual, I can think of some but discretion forbids me posting specifics.</p>
<p>Maybe my D only tells me of the intense Smithies but I don't get a picture of too many who aren't. The writer in many keeps thinking, "What a colorful cast of characters!"</p>
<p>TheDad-- exactly. It's all material, and my D says she's warned her particular "cast" they may find themselves written about at some point.</p>
<p>I'm confident the Smithies are as intellectual as any bunch. They're all just human, that's all. And 18!</p>
<p>I'm quite intrigued by the whole facebook thing but my kids are not at all interested in letting me in on it. Sounds like a great way to procrastinate!</p>
<p>ET, I've been given escorted glimpses of Facebook and I think the kids have it as a "No Parent" zone. Even on my escorted glimpses, my eyebrow has twitched and I've had to stifle more than an occasional "Oh really?"</p>
<p>Has any daughter felt that the political, sexual, religious, or cultural view points of others is constantly thrust in her face?
This has been a concern that I have heard raised by others. Students would tolerate any viewpoint as long as it was in line with what they believed. Smith was the brunt of a joke on West Wing because a conservative staffer had gone there.</p>
<p>In balance I have also heard that the Smith students were very polite when conservative speakers were on campus. </p>
<p>What was your students experience? How do they respond to these types of comments?</p>
<p>Mr.B, good to see you here. My D has rolled her eyes about the degree of PC that's on campus but she knows what she thinks and why, so it doesn't affect her much. My favorite quote was from a new friend she made from South Carolina who said, "I <em>thought</em> I was liberal until I came here." At bottom line, my D is a moderate who's used to being in a very liberal environment and Smith is no different.</p>
<p>And apparently a few of the girls were flipping through a copy of THE JOY OF SEX and a couple of them complained it was so "hetero-normative," which put me in the mind of the hetero-normative invasion of England in 1066.</p>
<p>She's had no problems being accepted as a straight girl in an environment where somewhere around a vocal 1/3 are gay. I would guess that non-liberal students can be accepted at Smith as long as they are gay-accepting...if you're not gay-accepting, then Smith is a bad fit for you.</p>
<p>Fwiw, my D is also a church-goer and this has elicited no negative responses. But she doesn't wear her religion on her sleeve, if you know what I mean, and would never dream of imposing it on others.</p>
<p>Others?</p>
<p>My daughter has also made what seems to be a seamless transition into her first year at Smith. I kept waiting to hear the negative aspects of her life there but everything has been positive so far.
She also looked at Mount Holyoke and really loved what she saw there and the people she met. Her only reservation was the remoteness of the school. A friend of hers attends Mount Holyoke and is very happy there.
My greatest fear now is that my daughter loves it at Smith so much she won't come home!! One of her professors invited her to do research with him this summer and she gleefully accepted. I guess I'll be the frequent flyer in our family now.</p>
<p>Our D and I just talked about this. She thinks that people are usually tolerant as long as people don't try to make other people believe what they believe. D also agreed that anti-gay students would have a hard time at Smith. She says she thinks some of the politeness to conservative speakers is expectations of the administration, but there have been some occasions of conservative students being harassed. She has not seen religious harassement and she is religious life liason for her house.
D and I would describe Smith as liberal as its predominate political culture and social culture, not radical. My D would be more on the radical fringe. Far right wing students might be uncomfortable there but D says it is too rich to be truly radical.</p>
<p>Yes, conservative students are harassed at Smith. I knew that I was liberal but the liberalism on campus is, to my eyes, quite radical in comparsion to other Seven Sisters (had a nice, long conversation with a friend at Bryn Mawr). My best Smithie friend is very conservative but accepts gay marriage and is pro-abortion. But she is having a hard time encouraging liberal Smithies to accept her. She reports that most shun her out just because she's "conservative." She knows that she's different (aka much nicer and open-minded). They often ask her, "Why are you here?!" and she gets upset when they suggest her to leave Smith. She does love Smith and is willing to plant her feet into the ground. No physical harm yet. The Republican Club and her church have supported her and helped her to deal with this bullying. I feel so bad for her even though I do stand up and re-word her arguments/statements for other people. </p>
<p>Smith needs to work on political diversity, not sexual orientation!!! It's a very quiet issue that people should be aware of and accepting.</p>
<p>All I know is that she's here at Smith to add diversity (even though there was nothing about it in her application!). She understands her role but just didn't realize how challenging it would be.</p>
<p>Wow, reading these posts, I'm finding that I like Smith. I attend an all-girls high school. I am surrounded by girls who are smart, academically and street-wise, outspoken( a bad thing and a good thing), and ready to have fun. I seems that I will find the same type of girls at Smith. </p>
<p>I have a few questions about the academic life.
Academics: Does Smith have a stellar repution for its academics? Are students content that they are being challenged enough? Are they motivated by peers who are smart, hard-working, and willing to learn for the sake of learn and ready to apply their knowlege in casual discussions outside the classrooms? How are Smith's science departments and English department? Are classes small, intimate, and rewarding? How would you describe the student and professor relationship? Do Smith students have a plethora of opportunities to conduct research?</p>