<p>Oh and another question. In the upper elm houses, what is a general evening like? Do people leave their doors open? Are people walking around visiting others? Not is it totally crazy or something, just is it…active?</p>
<p>I’m sorry I can’t comment on the Elm or Quad areas except to echo the Quad’s reputation for being the more livelier, louder housing area. </p>
<p>My quiet, studious first-year daughter lives in Tyler House on Green Street. It has been the ideal house and environment for her. It happens to be situated near many of her classes and music buildings where she also practices, takes lessons, and performs. Tyler is situated on a gradual rise overlooking the river and walking path that runs along the border of campus. There is a swing at one end of the expansive porch where we spent several sunny afternoons, taking in the lovely Fall foliage. It has been an optimal setting for a student who takes her studies very seriously.</p>
<p>My D was indeed on Green St.</p>
<p>Whilst in an extended wait during graduation weekend, I confess that I started cross-referencing Latin Honors with what House/Area students were in, bearing in mind this oft repeated line of questioning. I didn’t finish even the Magna Cum Laude and I lost the motivation to complete the cursory look of House/Area vs. Honors upon returning home…I really do have something resembling a life despite what inferences you might draw from my appearances on CC…but prompted by this thread I just looked up my notes on summar cum laude:</p>
<p>Eleven awarded:</p>
<p>1 on the Quad
2 on Green St plus 2 from the now-demolished Hampshire House for commuting students, also on Green St
2 on Lower Elm
4 on either Center Campus or Upper Elm, depending on how Park/Haven/Wesley/Hopkins are treated.</p>
<p>Small sample size, would feel better if Magna had been included (30 awarded) but considering the proportion of the population housed in the Quad, but with only 1 the Quad is definitely under-represented.</p>
<p>TheDad, now you’ve got me curious! If you have access to that information, that could prove enlightening. Would it be that hard to compile it? There are so many houses, anything to provide some clarity regarding my D’s choices would be really helpful. I don’t know how much leeway the first-years have in choice, but if you can put the numbers together, we’d all really appreciate it.</p>
<p>I really think that the difference between the quietest houses and the loudest ones are so minimal, and that each house can change so much year-to-year (after all, a quarter of the house graduates and a lot of the juniors go abroad), that there is relatively little point in focusing on a particular house. Any given house has a pretty wide range of people. </p>
<p>In my own experience, I am definitely a quieter type and it would have made sense to live on Green Street or Lower Elm, but I decided to turn over a slightly new leaf and ask for the Quad (it helped that a girl I knew in high school was living there). I only stayed a year there because I moved into a co-op, but I made some awesome friends, few of whom were huge partiers (there were big partiers, but there were a few in pretty much all the houses!) and many of whom got great grades. I remember a semester when a third of the residents of my co-op were First Group Scholars (essentially top 10% of the class) so I think that there are academically strong students all over the place. </p>
<p>With that said, some houses are closer to particular things (the gym, the science quad, downtown, etc.) and some have more singles or an elevator or in-house dining or stay open during breaks, which may be of interest.</p>
<p>TD, it might be interesting along with the Latin Honors data to look at the houses of Fulbright winners…I bet the Quad is more highly represented there. If you do 2008, I’ll try and dig up my 2006 program…just finished finals and have some time to kill before bar prep starts!</p>
<p>CB, I can compile it but given the format it’s a tedious process and I can tell it will be at least the weekend before I could devote cycles to it.</p>
<p>Stacy, they have the Fulbright’s listed in the program but, since many are for those who were students 1-5 years previously, there’s no cross-check on the House data. (Program has list of graduates by House, list of Awards honorees by alpha, have to do a lot of flipping back and forth, because there are lots of Houses to check.)
But I was also going to look at PBK who weren’t Latin Honors and Departmental Honors ditto to cast the widest net possible. You’d never guess that one of my interests in Political Science was survey research, would you? But, yeah, if you’re doing 2006 then I’ll do 2008.</p>
<p>Btw, CB, there’s still so many variables that I wouldn’t advise your D to over-think House selection. House chemistry changes from year to year even. Quad has more singles, more parties; Green St. closer to many classrooms, performing arts, athletics; Lower Elm closer to the student center and downtown. Beyond that, you can gain precision which provides the illusion of accuracy but not really. House & Area rivalry is probably one of the bigger recurring theological arguments at Smith…just wait until you see a group of current students at a prospect party if you ever get the chance! (And I’m not non-partisan, either.) (But do recall that arguing is the biggest Smith intramural activity.)</p>
<p>What are the housing rivalries at Smith? Is it between specific houses or areas, and what are they like? Any specific traditions with that?</p>
<p>Mainly Green St. vs. the Quad. There’s probably enough hints in this thread. Quad residents think that Green St. students study for fun. Green St. thinks the Quad is full of party animals. (Cf., “Quad Bunnies.”) Take stereotypes, mix well with blanket generalizations, add a pinch of hyperbolic characterization and caricature. Serves 2700. </p>
<p>Though sometimes I think there’s also a side plot of Cutter-Ziskind against the world. (“Man, that dorm is UG-ly.” “It’s a <em>great</em> dorm!” “Tastes great! Less filling!”)</p>
<p>I’ll bet that the stats linking Latin Honors/Phi Beta Kappa with specific housing areas aren’t conclusive.</p>
<p>TD, all this rivalry stuff is delightful! If you and stacy really want to crunch the numbers, it would be fun and possibly instructive to see what you come up with. There’s certainly no rush as they’re hardly choosing and moving in tomorrow. (I’m hoping we’ll get to hear from our D some of the fun stories and sillinesses that go on at Smith as I will miss all the good-hearted joshing and antics at our twins’ high school.)</p>
<p>MWFN, I expect you’re right…notice I wasn’t motivated to crunch numbers once I returned home. But there was data in front of me that brought to mind this very topic, and this is not the first, second, or fourteenth time the question about various parts of campus has been raised on CC. Did we get to Ivy Day and Graduation absurdly early? Not as absurdly early as many but we still got decent seats. (A hint to the wise.) Which left plenty of time… See, when I’m confronted with data, I want to crunch it.</p>
<p>CB, I’ll see what I can do this weekend though it will most likely go into next week before I’m done. The advantage of doing it here at home is that looking it over during breaks during the day doesn’t carry the same anti-social stigma that it did whilst sitting with TheMom and two of D’s aunts. Not to mention D’s eye-rolling when she heard about it…though I bet her that I’m less competitive than she is.</p>
<p>I’ll work on it this weekend or next week…my mom’s bringing the graduation program when she comes tomorrow (for my grad school graduation!!)</p>
<p>it’s going to have to wait a few weeks til I go to my parents’ house–I forgot to ask for the commencement program itselft, so now I know who got honors but not what houses they lived in!</p>
<p>LOL at Fate, Stacy. Hope you had a good graduation.</p>
<p>Anyone have a quick and dirty guide as to which Houses are counted in what area? (Looking for consistent methodology eventually.)</p>
<p>Never mind…a quick Google away:</p>
<p>Green Street and Center Campus</p>
<p>Green Street and Center Campus houses are some of the oldest houses on the Smith campus. Houses in these areas provide proximity to classroom buildings and the Green Street shops. Houses range in size from 43 to 71 students.</p>
<p>GREEN STREET</p>
<p>Chapin House</p>
<p>Hubbard House</p>
<p>Lawrence House</p>
<p>Morris House</p>
<p>Tyler House</p>
<p>Washburn House</p>
<p>CENTER CAMPUS</p>
<p>Cutter House</p>
<p>Friedman Apartments</p>
<p>Haven/Wesley</p>
<p>Hopkins</p>
<p>Park Complex</p>
<p>Sessions Complex</p>
<p>Tenney House</p>
<p>Ziskind House</p>
<p>The Quadrangle</p>
<p>“The Quad” houses more students than any other area on campus. Houses in the Quad are larger in size, ranging from 64 to 100 students. The Quad is a 10-minute walk to the center of campus, providing students with a beautiful view of the pond during all seasons. </p>
<p>Cushing House</p>
<p>Emerson House</p>
<p>Jordan House</p>
<p>King House</p>
<p>Scales House</p>
<p>Comstock House</p>
<p>Gardiner House</p>
<p>Morrow House</p>
<p>Wilder House</p>
<p>Wilson House</p>
<p>Upper and Lower Elm Street</p>
<p>Upper and Lower Elm Street have the largest number of Smith houses and the greatest range in architectural design and house size. Houses range from former inns and boardinghouses to large brick buildings created specifically as Smith residences. While the walk to class may be five or six minutes, being on the east side of Elm Street places you closer to downtown and the shops and services provided there. Houses range in size from 13 to 80 students. </p>
<p>UPPER ELM</p>
<p>Capen House</p>
<p>Dawes House</p>
<p>Lamont House</p>
<p>Northrop House</p>
<p>Parsons Complex</p>
<p>Talbot House</p>
<p>LOWER ELM</p>
<p>Albright House</p>
<p>Baldwin House</p>
<p>Chase House</p>
<p>Conway House</p>
<p>Duckett House</p>
<p>Gillett House</p>
<p>150 Elm</p>
<p>12 Bedford Terrace</p>
<p>26 Bedford Terrace</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>Now, anyone have an idea of percentages of students housed in each area?</p>
<p>Green Street</p>
<p>Chapin -70
Morris -68
Hubbard -53
Tyler -69
Lawrence -67
Washburn -43
TOTAL: 370</p>
<p>Center Campus</p>
<p>Cutter -81
Park -66
Friedman -51
Sessions -52
Haven/Wesley -71
Tenney -14
Hopkins -18
Ziskind -81
TOTAL:434</p>
<p>The Quad</p>
<p>East</p>
<p>Cushing -79
King -78
Scales -74
Emerson -87
Jordan -84
TOTAL:402</p>
<p>West</p>
<p>Comstock -81
Wilder -82
Gardiner -83
Wilson -102
Morrow -84
TOTAL:432</p>
<p>Upper Elm</p>
<p>Capen -73
Northrop -80
Dawes -18
Parsons -64
Lamont -83
Talbot -80
TOTAL:398</p>
<p>Lower Elm</p>
<p>Albright -73
Duckett -37
Baldwin -77
Gillett -80
Chase -57
150 Elm -12
TOTAL:336</p>
<p>Green Street 370-15.6%
Center Campus 434-18.3%
Elm Street 734-30.9%
The Quad 834-35.2%</p>
<p>Total 2372-100%</p>
<p>This is based off of the numbers on the Smith website.</p>
<p>Note: A couple houses on lower elm did not have links.</p>
<p>Thank you, MP.</p>
<p>I believe the two Bedford Terrace houses and Conway House are apartments used primarily by Ada’s with children and not “regular” students. Note: Many Ada’s graduate as “Ada’s” as opposed to with traditional houses and are listed as “Ada Comstock Students” in the programs. Net effect on stats = minimal.</p>
<p>ha, i live in gardiner.</p>
<p>What is your opinion of Gardiner, Mangopeachsalsa?</p>