Smith College Top Questions

a lot of people can't dress themselves. it's kind of pathetic. sweatpants to class is okay once in a while, but honestly, pick up a copy of vogue and get your shit together. this is one of my biggest issues with the smith student body: i just want to put them on What Not To Wear and have tim gunn beat the crap out of them. i mean, what are we, twelve? can we stop shopping at hot topic? we're adults now, let's start acting and DRESSING like them. on a more positive, note, however: one thing about any smithie is that you should never make any assumptions about her(/him if applicable, you shouldn't even assume a gender). everyone will surprise you in one way or another.

There are many different types of Smithies, but I think we all manage to find some common ground. The administration often tries to force celebrations and discussions about diversity to increase their own profile, but aside from this publicity stunt-type behavior, the campus seems relatively serene. Every once in a while there will be grumbling about "that girl whose clothes are so expensive", or whatever.

The people at Smith are, for the most part, awesome. Many of them are incredibly active in promoting positive social change. The campus, as a whole, is also quite environmentally conscious and actively involved in trying to be as ecologically friendly as possible. Most people here are warm, nice and friendly. There is a lot of cool unique style at Smith. There is also a probably higher-than-average proportion of "hipsters" on this campus, for whatever reason. The population here is far more in touch with the fluidity of sexual orientation and free of the traditional perceptions and stigmas about gender. I'd say that the subset of students here who identify as female AND are 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} absolutely straight is a minority. It's superfun. Smith students are from all over the country and the world. Smith prides itself on its racially/ethnically diverse student body and is INCREDIBLY aware about race-related issues. There is no visibly predominant religion on campus. Political leanings at Smith would best be described as leftward. Smith is expensive, so many students are fairly well-off, but lots get financial aid, and money clearly isn't the main priority or goal of most students here. The type of student who would feel out of place at Smith is someone who is very conservative and tight-laced, judgmental, homophobic, materialistic or superficial, intolerant, or just generally someone who can't handle people who are different from them.

I am a friendly person, so I have many friends, from many racial, socioeconomic, ethnic backgrounds, of many sexualities, from all over the U.S. and the world. It's great that this is possible at Smith. What's also possible is finding a big group of friends exactly like yourself, which many people do (for instance rich white hippy girls). So if you look around the dining room, there are some segregated tables, and some mixed tables, for different reasons. Smith students all say they're liberal (in my opinion that's debatable). They think they're politically aware. Students who feel out of place are conservative, corporately-minded, white and rich (must be combination of all 4).

See above - I've met lots of different kinds of people here and have learned a lot about human diversity. There's good mix between kids that put themselves through school and those that have a trust fund... most students are passionate about something (at least learning...) and we have great student organizations that put on numerous events for the student body.

Sometimes I feel that the Unity organizations don't really unify anybody. I think someone who is conservative or even Republican will feel out of place. there are some here who already do sometimes. Most students that I see wear sweatpants and jeans and T-shirts. I think that different types of students do interact but most of the time people stay around others that are the same ( either by race or class or something else). I feel that Smith is very politically aware it is just that no one has time or cares about what is going on, but Some people are active. I have never heard anyone talk about how much they will earn one day unless it is to mourn their anticipated state of poverty.

I would say Smith's student body is fairly diverse with regard to student backgrounds. But socio-economic diversity is now changing since admissions is no longer need-blind. As for (attitudes toward) religious diversity, I think the Smith community is fairly open and accepting of different religious backgrounds, unless you're Christian. The campus is fairly secularist, so as a liberal who has come to terms with her Christian roots, I occassionally made uncomfortable when people cringe at the mention of God or talk dismissively of anyone who holds Christian beliefs.

The students at Smith are from a wide variety of backgrounds and geographic locations. Smith however is a very accepting place and even if someone has different religious, political, ect. views as another person that would not stop any sort of friendship or relationship between the two people. People here tend to look past all of those things (race, religion, sexual orientation, soci-economic) and just see people for the kind of person they are. There are a great number of students here from the east coast, mainly Massachusetts and New York.

Smith is mostly white, pretty much like any other East Coast liberal arts college, with its percentages of minorities, that I could not name or even try to guess at so just think typical liberal arts mix of students. There are some really rich people, but Smith also gives amazing financial aid so there are a good number of students from lower socio-economic groups. Its pretty overwhelmingly democratic thought there is a republican population. People are very PC here so heated political talks are rare- people are to scared to actually discuss or argue about touchy subjects. Smith is also pretty politically apathetic, ok, almost completely politically apathetic, I don't know if thats just us or our generation or what but ya. Students where pretty much whatever they want to class, some girls dress up in heals and pearls everyday and others go around eternally in pjs and sweat suits. Since there are no guys you'd there would be less aesthetic competition among girls but that actually really isn't the case. There's still a good deal of self-consciousness and a fair share of eating disorders etc. I think that students tend to interact with others very well, groups definitely form around similarities like race, religion, socio-economic status, but from my experience no one is exclusive and I have never felt unwelcomed by a group. Most people form the closes bonds with people from their houses or extra-curriculars. Smith students are primarily from the coasts I would say but there is definitely a smattering from everything in between and from out of the country as well. Though not many western Europeans.

LGBTs make sure they are well known at Smith and in Northampton in general. I feel like everyone can be comfortable at Smith even if they don't fit the mold because Smith is such an accepting community. Most students wear jeans or what every they want to class. There are eccentric cape wearing students and prissy/preppy girls in dresses and sweater sets. It's a good mix of everyone. Smithies are from all over, but a lot of them have money, since Smith is gosh darn expensive. They are predominantly left but there are certainly right wing clubs and orgs on campus.