Smith or Barnard??? ?

Question

Im leaning more towards Smith....can anyone tell me the benefits that come with going to Smith? its academic reputation, getting students internships, jobs, into grad school, the town of Northampton, etc.

Answer 1

I go to Mount Holyoke (in the consortium with Smith) so I know a lot about it.

It's in a really great college town. Northampton is a huge arts place, with a great artist community. There are great restaurants, pretty good shopping, and good bars. There's a bus that runs between Smith, Hampshire, UMass Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst (it's free). Smith is a little further away from the others--maybe a 20 minute drive to Amherst, whereas UMass and Amherst are 5 minutes away from each other. But it's still easy to get there. It is a HUGE perk to have all these colleges around. You have lots of opportunities to party with boys (being with women all the time can be kind of stifling), and you can take classes at any of the other colleges, so you have a huge list of course offerings. Students at Smith are dedicated and get good jobs and internships--it really is very highly regarded. They have incredible departments and teachers. There is a huge L*****n presence there--more so than at MHC or Barnard--but if you don't mind that, it's no big deal (obviously). If you go to Smith and do well, you have many job opportunities open to you. The Seven Sisters (of which Smith is one) has a lot of camraderie (though there's some competition between Smith and MHC), and they were once regarded as Ivy equivalents--and that perspective is still very prevalant among older people (ie. employers.)

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Answer 2

Smith and Barnard have very different personalities, and feel entirely different. Which is logical, when you consider their locations.

You asked about Smith. Smith is right in the center of Northampton, which is an extremely funky and fun little city in western Mass. There is a ton to do there, both on campus and off, and Smith students frequently take the bus down to events at the other colleges in the Five College system, like UMass, and students from the other colleges are frequently found in Northampton, so there's a good mix.

Smith has a very strong academic reputation. It's one of the top 20 liberal arts colleges in the US, and it ranks above Barnard. Their career and internship office has a significant number of job and internship listings - in fact, students from some of the other area colleges sometimes go there to use them (I did.) You can also contact companies directly for both jobs and internships, and Smith's strong reputation will certainly help you out there. Likewise with grad school - Smith is strong, and if you do well, grad schools should smile upon you.

Smith has a very, very pretty campus. Their dining halls are also really cool. It's small but not too small, and it has access to the facilities at the other unis. So while no, Rhianna or Metallica (or whatever big act) may not play Smith, you can catch them at UMass, because students  really do use the resources of the other colleges.

If you haven't done a campus tour yet, you really need to see the place. While you're there, spend some time walking through Northampton as well, if for no other reason than because it's so fun.