<p>My daughter is now a second-year. She was both shy and a little awkward with other people before she went; she felt welcomed and has made quite a few friends, in-house and out. She says one thing she really values about Smith is that the surface of people is really unimportant–no one cares what you wear, who you were before you came, what your sexual orientation is, any of that stuff. For her, Smith simply accepts you as you are. </p>
<p>As for student competitiveness–well, I think there are very competitive people at any school. They are not the norm at Smith, but they are there, generally (in my own, dated, experience) in the areas that will be more competitive once you’re out of college: i.e., economics, pre-professional-type majors. But it’s not cut-throat, in that while some people are more interested in grades than others, it’s uncommon to be mean about it. (there is another thread about first-group scholars on this board–I had to think about what that meant, even though I was first-group all the way through, I think. It just didn’t really matter at the time, and certainly no one but the people involved knew about it. There wasn’t any fanfare, or posted list, or anything, and as far as I know, there was never any public indication of class standing or anything like that. Even at graduation, I don’t think they announce your latin honors or your prizes, they just list them somewhere on the program.)</p>
<p>The upside is, unlike high school, you can be as smart as you are–no pretense, just a decent amount of humility. Pretty much everyone else is pretty smart, too, so you don’t have to fall over yourself reassuring other people that you’re not really smarter than they are.</p>