<p>Cranebird, are you a graduating senior or a transfer student? I can’t tell from your post whether you need this information right away for the May 1st deadline. As a mom of a first-year, I’m not very knowledgeable about econ at Smith, other than what I have heard on this forum from others. It’s well regarded and popular and it provides a strong background for the real world (see Jyber209’s comments in the Smith “Just need to convince the parents now…” thread). More qualified people will eventually respond so just be patient. I know that as a related department, government as a major is among Smith’s largest and most popular majors. I see that TheDad has already posted. Perhaps Jyber209 (whose daughter majored in econ, I believe) and SmithieandProud (a government major) will post soon. Often people comment on their experiences with econ or government departments within various threads, so you could look up Jyber209 and SmithieandProud’s responses on other threads until you hear from them. Unfortunately, no recent questions have addressed the specific departments. Sorry but I can’t comment on econ at MHC. </p>
<p>All I can say is that when my humanities-loving daughter had to choose between Smith and MHC, even though MHC gave her more money, she chose Smith because the two Smith classes she sat in on were fantastic and the four classes she attended at MHC were very disappointing with unresponsive students and mixed abilities with profs. We felt a sampling of four classes was reasonable. To be fair, she also was given a Smith STRIDE research opportunity for two years so that was a real draw as well. I hope this is helpful.</p>