<p>Smith has a good academic ranking, the science facilities seemed very current and the classrooms are small. You can go to its web site and explore all of the positive things Smith can offer. If there is an area of concern it appears to be their financial situation, they will be borrowing quite a bit of money in the next few years for construction and maintenence of facilities and this will affect their fiscal resources. I have heard of limited program cuts and some belt tightening going on. I don't know how much that it is being felt by new students, I heard that some positions were not filled this year in an effort to save some money. That could be a bad rumor because I haven't seen it in print... Over all I think the school is excellent. Other schools to look at might include Wellesley and Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>PJ, re academics: I don't know what "stellar" translates to but my D is working her butt off. The teacher in her Math class (Discrete Mathematics) invited her to take Number Theory along with Linear Algebra next term instead of waiting to have the LA as pre-requisite. Classes were very small, 11-20 students, except for Government 100, a gateway course which had 200 students...but small discussion sessions taught by professors, in my D's case the head of the department. There is no place to hide in the classroom...your profs know you, your classmates know you.</p>
<p>About the top 40 or students per entry class are either Zollman scholars (5 or so) or STRIDE scholars (35 or so) who have automatic research assistant positions guaranteed for the first two years. My D likes her STRIDE professor, who also doubles as her pre-major advisor, very much. (Her project involves making models to demonstrate mathematical proofs that have application to protein folding...it's a bit funny to think of my D working with power tools in the machine shop as part of making these models...but it's <em>great</em> experience.) Other research positions are also available. Smith also provides every student with a paid internship sometime in the four years. My D is planning to split her junior year between an internship program in Washington D.C. (Summer/Fall) for her Government major and in Budapest with the national mathematics institute (Spring) for her Math major. English is a very popular major and D wishes she could take more than one class...hard with a double-major already. Smith is working very hard on the sciences...they're supposed to have great facilities; I think bio and chem are stronger than physics though apparently they have a nice if small astronomy program.</p>
<p>Mr.B., the budget cuts haven't affected the students much on a day to day level beyond some consolidation of dining halls. Smith's endowment is still in pretty good shape even though it took a sharper hit than some others when the dot coms busted.</p>
<p>I agree that Wellesley and Bryn Mawr, as well as Barnard, are other schools that PJ might consider. D actually liked Northampton better than NYC though she has taken a long-weekend trip into NYC from Smith. She liked Wellesely but thought that music and dance were closer to Smith's core, as opposed to being afterthoughts at Wellesely. She also thought the Smith women were more down to earth and less tightly wound than those at Wellesely...may some correlation with Mini's observations/research about signifcantly greater economic diversity at Smith. Also, D liked downtown Northampton being a two-minute walk from campus instead of Boston being a 45-minute shuttle ride...Wellesley the suburb itself is deaddeaddead and the locals like it that way.</p>
<p>I agree with everything people have said--my classes (as a gov major and a self-designed social science methodology minor) have been small, ranging in most cases from 12-25 students, which is perfect for me--I didn't want to be sitting in a room with just me and a professor, although some of the upperlevel science classes do approach that. I know someone in a two-person physics class last semester! </p>
<p>Smith is spending a lot of money on a new engineering and molecular science building, due to start construction next year I think, and will build a a whole new science complex over the next few years. This will be great for future students, and it has the advantage of minimal disruption to current students (unlike when they redid the art building, relocating all art classes to the nearby Clark School for the Deaf).</p>
<p>About the current temporary science building: it's butt ugly on the outside but with terrific facilities on the inside. The science prof who shepherded the construction project figured why put money on the outside for a temporary building, plus with an ugly building there would be more impetus to build the new, permanent facility quickly.</p>
<p>My daughter and I both enjoyed our tour of Smith this summer. I am sure that it would be a great school for her and am glad to hear TheDad's daughter is doing so well there. Their committment to engineering, math and science is wonderful. I agree Barnard would be a good choice, but I have posted elsewhere that I am not too keen on NYC air these days.</p>
<p>Mr. B, should your D ever be going back to take a second look, PM me and I can set up your D to talk to your D when she's there...my D has said she's game. It was a favor that another Parent/D combo did for us and we'd be more than happy to pay forward.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. I think my daughters next trip east will be with a footlocker and a new note book, next fall. If she decides she needs to re-visit I will keep your kind offer in mind.</p>
<p>Thanx for the responses. I'm also looking into Bryn Mawr. Both schools seem to really prepare undergrads. Plus, the small student bodies and personal attention recieved at both schools are definitely appealing.</p>
<p>I have a friend who had a light workload (she ended up with three classes equaling 16 credits after dropping French 220 for being too easy). I thought mine would be harder than they were (I took 18 credits), but next semester should be harder, as I'm taking linear algebra (I'm also thinking of a math major). I don't know if I'll double major because my interests are very broad, but I might concentrate somewhere else with or without going for a minor. I'm signed up for 18 credits next semester, but if I decide to try computer science without dropping any other classes I'll have 22. I seemed to have a lot of work at once this semester, and I enjoyed my classes a lot, but they weren't especially difficult.</p>
<p>I went through the semester without being attacked for my religion (but there were some misconceptions that came up in class--I'm Catholic), and I was able to express the few areas I'm conservative on without any problems. I'm from a pretty conservative area (Central Pennsylvania) and love living in much more liberal Massachusetts. I also can't wait until I go back next week. I'm going up early to enjoy a week of the Massachusetts winter and then I'm taking a one-credit class during the last week of J-term.</p>
<p>Borgin, by any chance the Humanties one-credit class in J-term?</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you mean by Humanities, but I'm taking Intellectual Inquiry with Jeffrey Ramsey.</p>
<p>Yep, that's the one. Sounds like an interesting class.</p>
<p>Hey Borgin are you from Gettysburg? My best friend lives there and she has a friend who met a young woman from there who was entering Smith this fall. If this is you, I think my daughter met you during orientation. It is a small world.</p>
<p>borgin, i'm TA-ing the government part of Intellectual Inquiries! Looking forward to meeting you then.</p>
<p>Actually, I'm from Carlisle (about an hour north of Gettysburg). There's a girl in my house from Gettysburg though, so she might be the one you're thinking of. :) It's a small world either way.</p>
<p>I'm a Smithie (and for all wondering, I love it). I'm my house's RLL, I wonder if I know your daughter. (I probably do from our RLL meetings).</p>
<p>As for being accepting of diversity of political viewpoints, I've found that most ppl really are. The liberals will argue with you sure, but they won't not-be-friends-with-you b/c of it. The only reason I think anyone would really have a problem is being homophobic/racist/insert-something like-that-here.</p>
<p>Ha. I shouldn't post late at night. The thing about my being RLL was directed to mini, in case anyone was confused by that comment.</p>
<p>Our D is is the RLL for Baldwin house, though I am not sure how many meetings she has made it to, she hopes to get to more of them in the spring. I just dropped her at the airport and we have our fingers crossed that she makes it there tonight. In theory, Bradley is now open and the family friend picking her up has a four wheel drive vehicle.</p>