Implications of Wait list

TheDad
Sat, 12 May 2012 19:37:26 +0000

WF, D was a Gov major (along with Math) and we visited all the DC schools: G’town, GW, American. Understand the allure.

The Smith Gov department is very good. One tell tale: a discussion section was taught by the department head. By all means, if you go to Smith, you should do the Picker Program (semester in DC). D spent Summer + Fall on a US Senate staff, there are lots of other options, like CNN’s Washington Bureau, etc. Based on input from the local program coordinator, she wound up applying to a DC think tank for a job upon graduation. (If your interests have anything to do with Public Policy economic, the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities would be a great place to intern.) Applied for only the one job, got it, worked there for three years before going off to grad school. Found herself on the other side of the table, reviewing apps and being on the interview team for interns & RA’s.

On the “campus experience” side, Smith just kills American. And the administrative attitude at American towards students is pretty authoritarian. As they made their info session presentation, I reverse engineered their outline. There were seven major items, including how proud they were about keeping the campus safe by expelling students who caught with marijuana, before they said a word about academics. Really. Really?