Admitted Student Questions

Hi! I'm a current HS senior who's been admitted to Smith, and in aid of my college decision I'm wondering some things about Smith's social and student life scene so I can determine if it would be a good fit for me. I appreciate if current students could weigh in!

1. What would you say are the pros and cons of being at a women's college? Does it make dating guys more difficult? I did a summer program at Barnard and overall people were pretty nice, though I didn't have great experiences in the class I took.

2. Smith is a pretty small school and I've heard it's overwhelmingly liberal politically, so do discussions ever become echo-chamber-y? I'd say I'm left-leaning moderate (not from the US so I have a different background on a lot of issues), but I'd like an environment in which ideas can be politely challenged and things are open for discussion, which I felt wasn't the case in my Barnard course).

3. What do people typically do for fun on campus? How do people mostly meet their friends? I'm not necessarily the most outgoing and I come from a bit more reserved culture, especially with strangers, and I'm a little afraid of being socially excluded.

4. What do you feel about your professors? Are the classes more practical, more theoretical, more info-based or more discussion based, or a good mix of all? I've had classes before where I felt I didn't learn any actual knowledge to broaden my worldview and the entire class discussion-based to the point where people were just repeating their existing opinions ad infinitum, which I hope isn't the case at college.

5. How common are spiders and mosquitoes in the area? I ask because I'm terribly arachnophobic and everyone hates mosquitoes.