Environment of Noho/Smith

rocket6louise
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:59:06 +0000

I’ll first talk about Smith and then Noho.

Yes, the engineering department is “small”, but I would see that as a bonus. Your core classes will have a relatively stable group of people in them, and because of this, most of the engineers I know are pretty close. Also, it’s much easier to get one on one time in office hours if you are struggling. Anecdotally, my friends at schools like Pitt and Cornell have a heck of a time getting to see their profs for personal help.

Most of your classes will not be in the "teens’ more like 20s to be fair. Classes like Calculus, Linear Algebra, Physics are offered by their respective departments and many people take them, so they’ll be reasonably sized. Also, this is a chance to meet/interact with people in different departments, something not all engineering departments allow(many have their own math/science courses)

As far as Noho. While I didn’t come from a big city, I always thought I wanted to do a big city for college. Noho is better than any big city for me. There are always a million things going on, and it has a niche for everyone. Plus, it’s so safe, which is comforting. You can walk downtown for a concert, and walk back late at night no problem.

The bigger plus of the way Northampton is situated is that while it’s so close and accessible, it doesn’t become a substitute for lively campus life. People go to Northampton in addition to doing things on Smith campus, not instead of. I know my friends at school in Boston/New York rarely if ever do things on their home campus. The city is where things are happening which causes you to lose the college campus environment. Don’t get me wrong, they LOVE that about living in a city, but it’s nothing I would have wanted.