#smith lyfe

[smith-at-smith-blog]

Hey Abby! What are your thoughts on living on the Quad? I got into Smith ED and I really love the houses there, but I'm really not one for parties. :/

I really love living on the Quad! I would consider myself a fairly introverted person, which made me a little nervous when I filled out my housing form and indicated my preference for the Quad, but the social life and the community really can’t be beat. 

My house, Cushing, is incredibly warm and friendly, so I started making friends and felt at home basically as soon as I arrived. You can choose to party if you want to, but if you aren’t feeling it and just want to sleep, study or hang out with some friends, it’s laid back enough that no one’s going to question that, either. I prefer the Quad because I like the energy it has even when I’m tired and not in the mood to be around people. You get a lot of different people, some introverted, some extroverted, some who really want to party, some who don’t. You find your niche and your natural rhythm pretty fast.  It’s true that the Quad is a little loud on weekends, but I’ve never had any problems with it; I think that  all of the houses have courtesy hours, and as someone who gets chronic migraines, the noise isn’t bad enough to bother me. 

All in all, the Quad houses are beautiful, they have great community within the house and in the area, and we have a whole bunch of really cool traditions! The Quad is a really great place to live whether or not you want to party! 

 I hope this was helpful! If you want to chat more about life at Smith/the Quad, please feel free to message me!

[smith-at-smith-blog]

Hi Abby, I'm a prospective neuroscience major and I was wondering what you thought of the rigor of the science classes that you've taken so far at Smith? How do they compare to the level of detail in AP class (if you've taken a corresponding one)? What are your thoughts on the teaching style and the helpfulness of the professors?

While I didn’t actually take any APs because my high school didn’t offer them, my experience with the chemistry course I’ve taken this last semester was excellent. 

I had a phenomenal professor in lecture who learned all of our names and gave us really personal treatment especially considering there were about eighty people in the lecture. Her office hours were always really casual, so I never felt intimidated or as though I was wasting her time with questions. While I knew a lot of the material we covered in the course from high school (I took the basic chem course, CHM 111), I would say that it was still very rigorous, and we really went into the theory of inorganic chemistry instead of just crunching numbers and equations. 

Lab was also great, although I made the mistake of taking a night lab, which I wouldn’t recommend for your first semester. A lot of labs can kind of end up being the students doing a lot of steps but not understanding why any of the experiment is happening, but the professor for lab really emphasized and ensured that we understood what we were doing and why we were doing it. There was no spoon-feeding- we had to figure it out for ourselves, but it was what I think a good science course should be like. 

I’ll definitely be more help next semester, because I’ll be taking even more STEM courses, but overall, I’ve been really happy with my experience. 

[smith-at-smith-blog]

AHHH I'm so excited to be coming to Smith next year! I just want to keep talking about it! Could I ask what some of your favorite things about Smith are? :D

I’m so excited that you’re coming, too! And of course you can ask me, I love talking about how great Smith is! This short list here is not in any particular order, but here are some of my favorite things:

1. My house. I live in Cushing, which I absolutely love. It’s one of the houses that makes up East Quad, and we have a great house community. We celebrate house birthdays monthly with cake that our wonderful housekeeper Linda buys for us, our house mascot is the bunny, and our house is always beautifully decorated through the efforts of Linda (we really love Linda) and other Cushingites.

2. The professors. My Chem professor recognizes and greets me by name from a lecture of one hundred students. My Greek professor buys our class pizza and other food items weekly. My liberal arts advisor gives me great advice about life at Smith (in case you couldn’t guess) and encourages me greatly with even the few meetings that we’ve had as advisor/advisee. 

3. The Botanic Garden. I work in the Botanic Garden, which is a privilege and honestly the source of a lot of joy in my life (especially seeing as I don’t have to work in the dining hall like other first years). The entire campus is a botanic garden, and our conservatory/greenhouses are absolutely gorgeous. While this winter has been mild, the tropical room is blissfully warm and great to study/relax in. We also have a coffee tree, which makes me very happy as a coffee-drinker. 

I could go on. I really could. It took a lot of effort to stop here!

[smith-at-smith-blog]

Cushing House celebrates Julia Child Day! (I set up my two friends with full plates of food solely for the purpose of taking that first picture). 

Julia Child was an alum of Smith (Class of 1934) best known for her French cookbooks and her hilarious cooking show, but also notable for being a researcher for the OSS during WWII. A pretty awesome lady.

Also, five minutes after that first picture was taken: 

[smith-at-smith-blog]

My first week of classes at Smith is over, my desk is cluttered, and that’s okay. The Bryn Mawr pennant is from my sister (three guesses where she’s attending college), the little glass box is a terrarium, and yes, those are bunny ears from Convocation! The highlights of the week were: Convocation (obviously), being elected to House Council as an HSEC, going out to NoHo to celebrate a friend’s 18th birthday at LimeRed and Sam’s Pizzeria, going to Hampshire on Friday night, shopping at Faces and UO, my X-Files poster arriving, a truly spectacular lunch at Cutter-Z, and the Chapin Lawn plant sale. 

[smith-at-smith-blog]

|| 9/5/15 || This is the dry erase calendar I made with paint chips (ft. my bedspread)! It’s still a little messy but I wanted to show you guys. They’re super easy to make, and they’re super pretty too!

[smith-at-smith-blog]

I would take pictures of my room, but I’m still waiting on two major decorations to arrive because I procrastinated on Amazon. My view of the Quad is super gorgeous and my ceiling is really, really high! It’s been great wandering around campus trying to find different buildings and also trying out the different dining halls. Basically, it is soggy and hot in Northampton, and here’s to hoping that we’ll get a really good cold snap soon (I would take a gradual-to-medium paced descent in temperature too, I’m not picky).

[smith-at-smith-blog]

T-23 hours (!!!)

The car is packed to the brim with bins (I succumbed to overpacking like every other first year I know) and while I will admit that I’m really stressed and a little anxious, there’s this sense of calm clarity to everything that’s happening. I can’t wait to move into Cushing and decorate my room, I can’t wait to meet all of these fantastic people I’ve gotten into contact with, I can’t wait to start my internship at the Botanic Garden. See you in a few hours, Northampton?