<p>Well, I have to admit that most of the things Dara complains of in the article have a degree of truth to them. The teas are fun and I love them, but they may not be quite what they sound like in the literature. The dining is good – a lot better than comparable schools, but perhaps not as great as advertised. Yes, candle light dinners are basically tea lights on the table with an otherwise “non-special” meal. But they did go from 2 tea lights to 4 this year and we use them to roast marshmallows and make s’mores :-). I expected more academic rigor and better professors – again very good, but not as good as I anticipated. House community can be a hit or miss thing year by year and it isn’t an automatic thing that happens in every house. Even so, though I’m not a really outgoing, socially skilled person, and live about as far from the infamous quad (socially speaking) as you can get, I’ve made a lot a very good friends in and outside of my house – friends I expect to have forever.</p>
<p>What I don’t agree with about the article is that these things are so bad that they cause a lot of people to have a such a miserable experience that they end up leaving. Despite wishing that the “truth in advertising” Dara speaks of were closer to the truth, I still LOVE – oh wait, not enough emphasis – <strong><em>LOVE IT</em></strong> here. Even though some things like teas, dining, house community and academics may not be exactly what I expected, there are so many good things about being here that I can’t imagine being at any other school. I know so many people who feel the same. I and many of my friends are really excited about going abroad next year. But the one reservation I hear most is that it means we will have one year less to spend at Smith.</p>
<p>I don’t have time to go into all of the things I love about Smith. Academics may not be as rigorous as I anticipated, but they aren’t a cake-walk by any means and I have a ton of studying to do. 
But, you can get a good idea from the earlier posts on this forum what people really love about Smith. </p>
<p>I don’t doubt that there are people who transfer for some of the reasons stated in the article – TMP says that was at least part of the reason for her. But I don’t think that is the reason in the majority of cases. Some people transfer because they find they really do want a co-ed school, some want a larger environment, a few (please don’t stone me people) aren’t comfortable with the level of gay culture (not huge, but fairly well represented), some say that for them, the political environment is too “PC” and too homogenous. But as Mini said, given the number of lower income students at Smith and the correlation of income to first year retention, our retention rate is actually very good.</p>