I really should have posted this school last week in honor of International Women's Day, but we are still in March and still celebrating women so we are all good and ready to spotlight an all women's college! This week, I am sharing information about Smith College, one of the Seven Sisters, a consortium of highly selective liberal arts colleges in the Northeast, of which five today remain women's colleges. If you like the idea of attending an all women's college but want access to some co-education, Smith could be an excellent choice.
Here are 5 Fun Facts about Smith College:
1) As a member of the Five Colleges, Inc., Smith students have access to take courses at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and UMass - Amherst, in addition to Smith, of course. Female students can get the best of both worlds - an all women's primary college with cross-registration at both women's and co-ed colleges, both private and public.
2) Smith is the first women's college to offer engineering. Smith students looking for engineering within a liberal arts college can pursue the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science, a degree that is accredited by the ABET. The S.B. degree is considered a first step towards professional licensure as an engineer and often is a step before additional graduate study.
3) Smith is a great place for students who want a lot of freedom in course selection. They ascribe to an open curriculum model, allowing students to choose from over 1,000 courses and only requiring one writing course. Of 128 credit hours required for graduation, 36-48 will be in a major and 64 must be from outside the major department. Each student is assigned a faculty advisor to assist with course planning.
4) Smith was the first women's college to join the NCAA and is home to the Division III Pioneers. In 2018, Smith's field hockey team won their first NEWMAC (New England Women and Men's Athletic Conference) title. Smith has impressive fitness facilities, including an indoor tennis and track complex, a climbing wall/fitness studio and a six-lane swimming pool.
5) Smith students live in houses, not dorms, in neighborhoods called Garden, Ivy, Mountain and Paradise. 95% of students live on campus in one of 41 houses, that may accommodate anywhere between 10 and 100 students, depending on the housing assignment.
Smith's is located in funky Northampton, Massachusetts, named a "#1 Best Small Arts Town in America" by author John Villani. This town of 30,000 is located two hours from Boston and 45 minutes from the Hartford Bradley International Airport.
Smith is offering numerous virtual visit opportunities and has some tentative dates on the calendar starting this spring for on-campus events.