Thoughts/Questions from an Excited Prospie

stacy
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:26:42 +0000

For current students and alums (I’m the latter, having graduated a few years ago):

Why did you pick Smith? Of the places I was accepted, it was the middle point on the see-saw of cost and academic rigor. And I thought I’d make friends there.

Why should we pick Smith? Because you’re ready and excited to learn from your classes, as well as from your peers.

What is your favorite thing about Smith? Oh, so many! I’ll pick three.

a) It’s set up for your success. No matter what you want to do (almost without limit), there are resources available to help you achieve it.
b) It’s so beautiful
c) the people! I made friends there I hope to keep for the rest of my life. I have a connection to thousands of awesome women of all ages (when I moved to a new town after college, I joined the Smith club and had a great time…including going to see Julie & Julia with a dozen women, aged 23-78). And I loved the faculty and staff, too.

(your least favorite thing?): It is freezing cold. And since it is quite liberal and so am I, I didn’t really get the chance to question my beliefs and learn to defend them. In graduate school, I had friends and classmates who were more conservative and I learned a lot from talking with them.

What was the most useful thing you learned at Smith? What I wanted my life to be like. Not just what I wanted to do for a living (though I did realize that there, with the help of some classes and friends), but the kind of people with whom I wanted to surround myself, the values I wanted to practice, and the things I liked doing for fun. Even little things, like some of my favorite foods or musicians, were experienced for the first time at Smith.

What did you major in? Government, with a self-designed minor in social science methodology.

What did you do outside of class? class cabinet, Hillel, semester-in-Washington program, community service, babysitting and dogwalking, research (for professors and on my own), various on-campus jobs and committees, lots of time just hanging out with friends and housemates.

On a side note – have you read Commencement? How accurately does it portray life at Smith? Yes, I have. I think the author tried to take the entire student body’s activities and character traits and incorporate them into four very stereotypical characters. There were things about the book that were incredibly accurate, but overall it felt really overdone to me. Many of the things in the book are probably true of some people at Smith, but most people are far less extreme than any of the characters.

Lastly, do you have any useful tips for us prospies? Try and visit campus if possible. With that said, if you end up at Smith, go in with an open mind–no matter how much research you’ve done, things about it will surprise you (some for the better and some for the worst). Like any new experience, it may take time to settle in and find your niche. But I really believe that if you’re determined to have a good time and be proactive in joining or organizing things, you’ll find a set of college activities and friends that will make your life amazing.