<p>I went to UVA graduate school for English, graduated with my doctorate; while I enjoyed my time there, I felt the students were not as intelligent as at Dartmouth, where I spent my junior year, and not nearly as interesting, intelligent, and involved as at Smith, where I got my BA. I taught composition to kids who were unhappy at having to take composition, but who could not write a decent paper–but on the other side, as a graduate student, I had a three-hour seminar on teaching composition, and no support, as my background for teaching composition. That is, it was assumed that if you were a graduate student in English, you could teach composition, without any other preparation. We weren’t paid much, either, believe me, and we were supposed to be working on our own coursework and dissertations at the same time. While we did the best we could, and some of us were very good, we were definitely learning on the job. The upper level English courses were, of course, taught by full professors, but for the bigger ones, the grad students still ran the discussion groups–and graded the papers. By contrast, at Smith, my English classes were brilliant from the beginning, not a lemon in the lot, and I still stay in contact with one of my professors there. At Dartmouth, I had great classes–one of the best classes in my life was there, with Nancy Vickers (later president of Bryn Mawr), on Dante–and a couple of not-so-great ones; my husband and sister and brother-in-law, all grads, think it’s the best school ever. My daughter is at Smith, now, and it is a fabulous place for her, but my younger daughter and my son will certainly be urged to consider Dartmouth. UVA–no. Beautiful campus, yes, history, yes, intellectual rigor, not comparable.</p>