Smith College Top Questions

It is very diverse (not sure how much of that is driven by the school's mission to increase diversity). I love the mix of people from varied backgrounds, ages, races, socio-economic status, etc. I think there is a decided lack of political action on campus; it is surpising considering the state of the country at this time.

Lesbians are very common, there have been some troubles on campus concerning transgendered folks. Race: there is generally some tension. Students of color feel like Smith needs to educate the general student body more. Homophobics, republicans, slackers might feel out of place. Student wear whatever to class - very informal. Different types of students do interact in class and at events, there could be more. Smith students are from: Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, New York City, Oregon and Asia. Middle class backgrounds, generally.

Smith's student body is diverse, in terms of race, class, sexual orientation, religion, geographic origin, etc. It stills has steps to go but its on its way. Smith is constantly trying to open up dialogues about diversity and multicultural affairs to increase awareness and acceptance. The Unity orgs on campus are also very active and they strive to increase awareness about different cultures, as well as provide support group for students.

A diverse group of people. I love the friends I have made on this campus. You have to be careful about what you say on this campus, because people are very easily offended.

they're generally full of themselves and care too much.

Smith is a place that prides itself on diversity of all kinds, and we have a huge number of organizations geared towards acceptance and education about different types of social justice. I would like to believe that students of all kinds can find resources at Smith to make themselves comfortable. We certainly trend towards open-mindedness, and coming to Smith can be a shock for some people who are not used to this level of diversity. There are resources present to help with this transition. Students tend to be very socially aware, and bring this consciousness into their friendships and academic life alike.

The diversity of the Smith student body ranks better than most schools, as well as I can recall (something like 10{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} Afro Am.), and there is a very active LGBT community. For the most part, Smith is very generous with financial aid, but the majority of students I have met are of upper-middle class origin. I don't think this has a huge impact on who interacts with who, unless the person is a snob. Most people interact based on their extracurriculars or where they live. Smith is fairly liberal politically, but there is an active Republicans club. Most Smithies are politically aware but you will get the occasional "do-nothing liberal" or raving Neo-con.

Smith has a very diverse student body. The LGBT culture is very prominent.

Smith is incredibly liberal and open to all LGBTQ folks. Republicans generally feel out of place, though there is a strong Republican Club that brings many speakers each semester.

I think that Smith it one of the more racially diverse liberal arts colleges you'll find. Of course, I'm white, and the perspective of most of the people of color I've talked to is that there aren't enough people of color here. My group of friends talks about racial issues a lot; unfortunately, it's often triggered by some racist incident that just happened on campus. The campus is very, very queer. You'll have a hard time here as a homophobe. You don't have to be gay to go here, obviously, but it does help to be comfortable with issues of sexuality. Smithies are really ambitious and driven. So many of us go on to have high powered jobs because we work for it. Some people do talk about making lots of money-- a lot want to go in to I-Banking. Others want to go the do-gooder route and work for Amnesty International or the ACLU. Either way, Smithies aim high.