<p>The required GPA to get into those graduate programs was a 3.5, pretty high for engineering, male or female. Engineering remains one of the most grad deflated majors across the board at any institution.</p>
<p>The automatic acceptance had a real use at first because the Picker Engineering Program started out as unaccredited. It had not yet been established nor visited by an ABET accreditation team. Smith needed first-rate engineering schools to agree to accept their students or else no serious engineering student would have enrolled. After two years (if I remember correctly), accreditation came through retroactively (that is, those who graduated without an accredited degree were granted it after the fact.) </p>
<p>The automatic acceptance was a program marketing tool. Potential students (and more importantly, perhaps, their parents) were assured that entering a new program and doing well would gain them entry into a top flight program. And it wasn’t one way, not just to Smith’s benefit. Engineering graduate programs are always trying to attract quality female students, and this connection to Smith fed such students to the involved institutions. Their only worry was that the students be properly prepared for high-level graduate work; I’m sure they worked with Smith to make sure of that. And once several Smithies went to, say, Dartmouth, then the link of future applicants became established: sophomore Mary knows another student who went to Dartmouth engineering and loves it, so she’ll apply, too. </p>
<p>Picker offers something that no other program in the country does: a female engineering culture. Unless you’ve seen engineering at other schools, you have no idea how very male it is. Some engineering classes might have only one or two women. This tends to skew not just the gender statistics but also the attitude and atmosphere. While this will be true in both the graduate and working worlds, it’s tough for a young woman to adapt to that while struggling to keep up with a strenuous workload. Yes, it can be done, but it has to be much more enjoyable to have female friends in your classes.</p>