<p>I have been accepted to both Smith and Wellesley and I'm confused about which would be a better option for me. i am interested in engineering</p>
<p>1) Smith is offering me a STRIDES scholarship for a research opportunity. I'll be getting $15,000 a year plus a $4500 stipend for the first two years.</p>
<p>2) Wellesley is obviously a great school. if i want to pursue engineering here i have the opportunity to do a 4+1 program with either MIT or Olin and graduate with two degrees, a B.A. and a B.S. from Wellesley and either MIT or Olin within 5 years. I'm not sure about the financial aid and scholarships yet.</p>
<p>location is important to me. i hadn't considered going to an an all girls college before but since these are such good options I'm looking more closely at them. I'd like to be around a city where i can interact with students at other schools and not be confined to the single gender environment</p>
<p>While Wellesley is close to Boston, Northampton is still a really, really cool area. I mean, Kim Gordon lives there afterall! There are other colleges in the area, as I’m sure you know, but if you’re seeking access bigger concentration of students (and a city), Wellesley might have an upperhand in that arena.</p>
<p>When I was a prospective I wasn’t interested in engineering so I admit I’m unfamiliar with which program might be better. Do you have an opportunity to visit again this spring? That might give you your best clue. I never really considered Bryn Mawr until stepping foot on campus, then I just knew.</p>
<p>I’m responding to your question about location/urban surroundings.
Have you visited both Wellesley and Smith?
Although Wellesley is close to a major, rocking, great-to-be-a-college-student-in city, it’s not all THAT close. Your day-to-day life at Wellesley will be on a bucolic campus that’s fairly isolated from the outside world. The outside world immediately around W. is an upscale commuter town. Boston or Cambridge will be available as weekend destinations. Taking the occasional class at MIT will require a fairly lengthy commute on a shuttle bus - check out the bus schedule. </p>
<p>Smith is in the middle of a vibrant, lively medium-sized town which is the urban center for it’s area. The other colleges in the 5-college system are still a shuttle-bus ride away, but the urban vibe is right out the doorstep. I think that there is more utilization made of the 5-college cross-registration possibilities at Smith than the MIT cross-reg at Wellesley, but you might want to look into that further. </p>
<p>If you haven’t visited yet, I hope you have the chance to do so before deciding.</p>
<p>STRIDE is an amazing opportunity. I’m a STRIDE student at Smith and I love it. You get research from day one, which you will not necessarily get at Wellesley. Furthermore, our engineering program is pretty great. Ford is brand new basically, and there are so many resources available to you (feel free to PM me for specifics)</p>
<p>If location is important, I would say Smith actually has the upper hand. We’re a 2 minute walk from a cool, albeit small town. No riding 30minutes to an hour to go to Boston. You can go to town in minutes, and it really has most of what you’d want. </p>
<p>The 5 College Consortium is what you make of it. I know people who have never taken a 5 College Class, and I know people who take half their classes off campus. The bus system is easy, and it’s pretty feasible to take classes at coed Hampshire or Umass if you want.<br>
I have plenty of friends who choose to party off campus at Amherst/Hampshire/Umass as well. It’s not a super popular thing to do, and most of the going off campus tends to fade away after first year, mostly because there is so much to do at smith. </p>
<p>A word of advice. The single sex thing might seem like a big deal now, but I honestly don’t even notice Smith is a women’s college 95% of the time. It’s a non issue for the most part, because of all the awesome things it offers</p>