Thoughts/Questions from an Excited Prospie

SmithieandProud
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:06:08 +0000

I was recently a current student, now a new alum.

I chose Smith for a lot of reasons. I knew I wanted to attend an East Coast college with a sense of history and tradition, but that was still vibrant and relevant. I wanted to attend a school with a strong English/History/or political science program that was not too small, not too rural, no sororities, and not too hard on the eyes. I fell in love with Smith because when I visited I felt innately connected to it. A lot of Smithies will echo this experience, something about it just “felt right”, I knew this was the place for me.

You should pick Smith because you like to work hard, you’re ambitious and excited about making a difference, you want to be immersed in tight-knit community of awesome women, and because you really want to go there. You know your own reasons best.

My favorite thing about Smith was the community and the support of the alums. I never felt so supported, so safe, so happy, so loved, so cared for, so challenged as I did when I went to college. My least favorite thing is the red tape. It’s not always easy to do what you want and the rules and regulations can be rigid. You have to perservere through the paperwork.

What was the most useful thing I learned at Smith? Alcohol does not actually make you write better papers. Nor does it make it easier to memorize Arabic vocabulary. No matter what your friends say.

I majored in Government, outside of class I was a tour guide, I was involved in political clubs, the newspaper, semester-in-Washington program, I dabbled in theater, I rented canoes at the boathouse, and I was in house government.

I have read Commencement, and I have my issues with it. For one thing, the plot is totally preposterous (please, why does every student in a pop culture representation of women’s colleges lust after their professors? why?). But some of the oberservations in it about Smithies really hit home for me. The one that was most moving was when she wrote something to the effect of few of the girls had made close female friends after leaving Smith, and how Smith women relate to each other differently. I think the quote was “sometimes you couldn’t tell where one woman left off and the other began.”

That was one of those “How does she know that?” moments.