<p>I am going to visit Smith soon and I was wondering what places I should visit, who I should meet, and what I should do to get the full Smith expireience.</p>
<p>Visit a class or two. Check out the course schedule online and see if there's anything of interest to you.</p>
<p>explore downtown northampton</p>
<p>Why Smith? Do you have any west coast schools? Mills?</p>
<p>Mills is pretty nice for a bay area school, but I don't think anyone would choose Mills over Smith, and I live lke, ten minutes from there.</p>
<p>Hmm... I've never heard of Mills before. Is that a shortened version of the college's name or is it really called Mills College? I'm guessing it's an all-females school?</p>
<p>It's actually called Mills college. It's in Oakland. I'm like 20 minutes from there. I guess Merdavis2 and I are fairly close then. Location pride!</p>
<p>A while back, they decided to go coed. However, the students revolted, and so they decided to remain all-women. Pretty sweet. </p>
<p>I think people may choose Mills over Smith for location reasons. A girl in my school transfered from a seven sister to Mills to be closer to home. Other than that, I don't think a whole lot of people would choose Mills over Smith.</p>
<p>go to Capen Gardens (to the right of Capen house, if you're facing its front door)...most people miss it, and it's SO beautiful.</p>
<p>If art's your thing, don't miss the museum. If you're planning to be an athlete or just like working out, take a look at the gym--it's really nice (I loved the climbing wall!). I second sitting in on some classes, and I'd see if there's a way that you can eat in a campus dining room. </p>
<p>If you have a car, go to Flayvors at Cook Farms, where you can actually see the cows that made your ice cream! It's also a great indication of how rural the area around Northampton really is (though there is a mall and some big box stores between Northampton and Amherst). Some people love that, but if you need cities nearby and Boston a couple hours away isn't enough for you it's good to figure that out now.</p>
<p>If you don't have a car (or if you like ice cream enough for a second recommendation), Herrell's in downtown Northampton is also great.</p>
<p>Mills is a pale substitute for Smith. Someone I know pretty well recently transferred from Mills to UC Riverside. She was very disappointed with the level of intellectual life at Mills. It was also very clicquey, with not much room for someone who wasn't a hyphenated student of one kind or another, anent of which, the non-traditional aged students were very aloof and unto themselves.</p>
<p>Mills has certain strong departments --- computer science and English I believe are both good. However, I would not choose it over a Seven Sister. I actually recently talked to a woman who works at Mills who says she knows some students who are trying to transfer to Smith.</p>
<p>I went to the museum on tuesday when I visited and I loved it. I would second that reccomendation. Same with sitting in on some classes. Everyone in the class was nicer than I hoped and the teacher even discussed what was going on with me. The class was an awesome experience that made (Okay the housing kinda got me too) Smith my number 1 school.</p>
<p>Karen61990, you've gotten me so excited for my visit now...</p>
<p>I've visited Smith College just recently as well... on this Wednesday in fact. I was unable to sit in during a class session, which was a shame to say the least. However, the campus/housing was great and I was able to see the inside of one of the quads. It seemed pretty empty at the time though. </p>
<p>The only downside about this particular first visit was the weather, which happened to be rainy and sleet on the day that I went over there. But the Discovery weekend will be coming soon, and I'm crossing my fingers that the weather will be as perfect as some of those pictures you see in the Smith brochure.</p>
<p>The weather when i went was the same but for some reason I got a great vibe on Monday/Tuesday. Apparently there was a shift in the atmosphere Tuesday night. Maybe? lol....well great to know you're excited. We went into Gillett. In fact Gillett08 (The girl on CC. She's posted in other discussions on here) was my tour guide. She showed us her room and everything in the building which was really nice. </p>
<p>I would also recommend going into the greenhouses (or whatever they call then). The tropical room is very nice.</p>
<p>Speaking of the greenhouse:</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Spring Bulb Show, which is guaranteed to take your breath away during New England's color-starved mud season, is over now, but you can get a virtual taste of it at the following address. This is definitely one of the highlights of the year on the Smith campus, and something to look forward to if you end up going there. </p>
<p>I talked about the Bulb show with my interviewer. I'm from belgium so I we were talking about the flower show in brussels. It was a good conversation piece.</p>
<p>I was considering going to Mills just because I love, L-O-V-E the bay area, but in the end I realized that's not a good enough reason to go to a school (which is a lesson I learned by attending the school I do now). I sat in on some Mills classes and have visited the campus a couple of times, it's usually pretty quiet, and I will admit my initial reaction was of awe (the campus is much prettier and larger than my current school's) but it just seemed like a really sad place. Also the admissions coordinator was a little too adament about how great it was.</p>
<p>But I digress, this isn't the Mills board and it doesn't look like you are interested anyway...but TD is right, Mills pales and tremors in the shadow of Smith. :)</p>