<p>Maybe they don’t speak to the academic environment, but they influence it considerably through financial aid, the stability of the community, and the overall maintenance of the institution.}}</p>
<p>Smith has 1.2+ <em>billion</em> in its endowment fund and just completed one of the most successful fund raising event in the colleges history, due in part to an incredable alumnae base. I believe Smith is just fine in the financial strength dept. as witnessed by the fact they give more financial aid than any other LAC, including to internationals.
The most number of students on Pell grants of any LAC attend Smith also. I believe that speaks volumes to Smiths priority to educate our underprivileged but deserving young women both from here and abroad.
70% of the smith students are receiving aid, one of the highest percentages in the country. Contrast that to Colgate that only gives 30% of its students aid. Thats not a value judgment, just a fact.</p>
<p>Smith has the Praxis program that offers financial assistance to those who take an unpaid internship.</p>
<p>Smith regularly finances trips (plane tickets and hotel rooms included) for students to attend conferences or educational meetings in DC and many other cities. </p>
<p>Smith recently gave an addition 1000.00 to a Smith political organization to rent a suite and pay for food, etc at the Marriott on the wharf in Boston, in order to attended educational meetings. How many other colleges give away 1k to students simply b/c they asked and demonstrated it was for a good cause?</p>
<p>Youre correct, ringer ( I like your id btw) the financial stability of a college is imperative and Smith seems to demonstrate in myriad ways they have more than adequate funds to support their students for causes most colleges would scoff at at best or consider ridiculous at the worst</p>
<p>“There is percentage wise, the largest agglomeration of women science students in the U.S.” And ground-breaking will take place on the new multi-million dollar science center this year.</p>
<p>"You look at the 14 Fulbrights at Smith (8 in research) and you can add those at Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, etc. together, or take any of Ivies, UChicago, etc., and <em>you still don’t find as many as Smith was awarded</em></p>
<p>Smith has received more Fulbright awards than any other LAC numerous times in the past 5 years. And as stated more than many top LACs combined</p>
<p>Smith also has the only engineering program at a womens college in the country with guaranteed admission to the graduate engineering programs at Notre Dame, Dartmouth, John Hopkins, tufts and the U Michigan, if the student graduates with a 3.5 gpa. And they have an exchange program with Princeton as well as the aforementioned colleges to allow the women to study their jr yr in the engineering dept at the various universities.`</p>
<p>To date, the graduating students have been accepted into engineering graduate programs at Harvard, MIT, Michigan, Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, Berkeley and Notre Dame"</p>
<p>Of course, there had already been plenty of acclaim for the plan to teach engineering at Smith. The college had been basking in the national spotlight for the past week and a half, ever since the board of trustees, at its spring meeting, had given its blessing to the program. The New York Times had run a laudatory front-page story in which Smith President Ruth J. Simmons, whose strong support for the initiative had been consistent and decisive, spoke of the need for “a critical mass of women moving through engineering together” to topple sexist barriers, explicit or implicit. CNN played up the news, and prominent accounts appeared in newspapers from coast to coast. The San Francisco Chronicle even had an editorial on the subject. “We salute Smith for its bold step into a male-dominated area of study,” it said. “We are confident Smith engineers will be paragons when they begin to graduate in 2004.”</p>
<p>“Yet it is one of Smith’s proudest boasts that its students graduate with science majors at two and a half times the national average for men and women combined, and that Smith science graduates pursue advanced degrees at a rate far above the national average for women.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.smith.edu/newssmith/NSSpring99/cover.html[/url]”>http://www.smith.edu/newssmith/NSSpring99/cover.html</a></p>
<p>I’d say the overall experience at Smith is on par with any LAC and far better than most :)</p>
<p>Wellesley is a fantastic college also. But sometimes its students, as well as those at other LACs can’t see past a US News ranking or beyond the confines of the campus. Im sure many Smith students are guilty of the same transgressions.
The rankings are more than suspect anyway. How can colleges move 5 spots, as some have? Does any sane person honestly believe a college can do something great or egregious enough in 12 months move 4 to 5 spots?—of course not. The numbers are being jury-rigged each year by US News b/c if colleges didnt move constantly in the rankings; no one would buy the magazine. </p>
<p>And colleges that put less weight on SATs and accept students with lower scores because they have shown great potential b/c of their gpa and rank are penalized, even though that many be far brighter than a student who scored 1550. </p>
<p>Some colleges are now playing the SAT game by not requiring them, Holyoke, Middlebury, et al colleges, no longer ask for SATs for admission and Colgate no longer asks for SAT subject tests or an app fee so they can garner more apps and make their admit rate appear lower-- never mind 90% of the students who will now apply dont have a chance. </p>
<p>Speaking of Middlebury, their published SATs scores for US News are for <em>admitted student</em>, not students who matriculated. Thats a about a 100 point too high an average for actual students who matriculated. The top scoring SATs students dont matriculate to Midd.</p>
<p>Only about 50% of Bowdoin or Bates students submit SAT test results, which artificially makes the middle 50% range higher than if all the students scores were tabulated. How intellectually honest is that?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, b/c the colleges are manipulating the stats they report to US News, in the future the ranking will mean nothing more than to demonstrate who can rig the stats to their benefit the most and change the overall score. If you believe no college is below <em>cheating</em>, a well known LAC counts the students who submitted preliminary apps but never followed though followed thorough with the rest of the application paperwork and forms b/c after more thought they decided they didnt want to attend that college. However, even though the student didnt send so much as their SATs or transcript to the college, they were still considered legitimate applicants to push the apps numbers up, admits percentage down. </p>
<p>Bates and Holyoke constantly puts students into the top medical schools at a much higher the Bowdon, Middlebury, Colgate and many other colleges ranked much higher. </p>
<p>Bates and Holyoke who were admitted to Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard et al top colleges over their higher ranked US News schools at a much higher rat. It seems to me, they may be overjoyed and even laughing a bit b/c the rankings meant absolutely nothing when it came to med school admittance</p>
<p>Just some thoughts every student should consider whether theyre considering attending Bryn Mawr, Midd, Bates, Barnard, Wellesley, Smith, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Sorry for the very lengthy post, but maybe some found something useful or interesting.</p>