Environment of Noho/Smith

SmithieandProud
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:57:23 +0000

I came to Smith from a big city (and having grown up in the center of the city, not the suburbs). I was a little worried about being bored, but I found that at Smith I never was. There was always something going on campus, and as I was very involved in the Smith Democrats, I travelled to neighboring states and cities frequently for campaigning. Northampton is basically like a very cool neighborhood from a large city, it’s got a vibrant arts scene, good restaurants, and really, really amazing music scene. The Iron Horse Entertainment Group, which owns most of the venues in town, brings in awesome bands, and then Smith has a couple of major acts per year (Vampire Weekend, Feist, the Decemberists etc), in addition to other concerts and events.

If you prefer MIT, you prefer MIT. Smith’s engineering department is certainly smaller compared to MIT’s, though it has the benefit of being specifically designed to encourage and educate female engineers. Smith doesn’t have fraternities and the accompanying party scene that you can find at MIT, and while it does have the Five College Consortium, at MIT you can cross register with other schools in Cambridge. They’re very, very different places, apples and oranges really. So if you find yourself strongly drawn to one, that may be indicative about your feelings about the other. Good luck with your choice.