Smith Women
Smith is one of the very few great women’s colleges in the world, and it has earned its place, attending personally to the possibility in each student. Smith meets its students individually. It attends to them in an expansive model, believing that each student is exceptional and that each can discover her exceptional talent at Smith. At Smith, the individuality of each student emerges. Students graduate confident in their academic and personal accomplishments, the product of an enduring culture. Smith is not for everyone. A particularly strong-minded young woman, often with a more academic or intellectual orientation than her peers and a commitment to public or civic issues, is attracted to the college. She is self-willed and independent and, increasingly, diverse in both socioeconomic and ethnic/racial terms. The 694 entering first-year students from the class of 2015 came from 591 different high schools. That trend has been consistent for some time. Smith women choose Smith for opportunity. They understand the strength of the program, and they sense the possibility for themselves.
The skills of highly educated women have proven especially successful. Women’s cumulative strength in demanding academics, their competence, their broadened sense of self and their prominence in pioneering roles have served them well. Smith graduates, among other highly educated women, have become increasingly competitive in the fluid, creative world of the global economy.
While half of the matriculants select Smith despite its status as a women’s college the majority
of students are attracted to Smith because of its curriculum, faculty, and status as a leading
educator of women. Once at Smith, most students join the energetic Smith culture, come to understand
the power of the place and become committed advocates.
Applications to Smith have improved notably in recent years, climbing from 3,047 in 2002 to 4,340 in the fall of 2011, a 30 percent improvement. The admit rate has improved from 53 percent in 2002 to 45 percent in 2011, and is currently at 40 percent (as of April 27, 2012). Yield has followed suit and was 37 percent for the fall of 2011, a 3 percent improvement over the previous year. Smith is more selective today than it has ever been.
Smith has become intentionally and significantly diverse, leading most of the academy, especially in socioeconomic diversity. Smith has always opened the door for women. Diversity today grows naturally from the college’s historic mission and adds impressively to its accomplishment. In the tradition of Sophia Smith, Smith has made a particular commitment to talented women from the full range of socioeconomic classes. Selective American higher education is famously class-based, with tiny representation from the lower two quartiles of income. At Smith, women of promise who are first-generation college students represent 17 percent of the entering class, and fully 24 percent of Smith students receive Pell grants, a number significantly greater than the average of its peers.
The college has made socioeconomic diversity possible through impressive financial aid, growing the financial aid budget to $49 million, a growth of 74 percent over the last ten years. In 2011, 59 percent of the student body received need-based financial aid, with an average package of $33,487. Financial aid students graduate with an average loan of only $19,000 for their four years at Smith. Every student admitted has need fully met. The college’s combined tuition, housing and meals, and other fees cost full-pay students $55,320 in FY 2011. By remaining “need aware” rather than “need blind,” Smith carefully manages its discount rate, which has not moved in the last several years from roughly 37 percent, a financially responsible number for the college.
The college is proud of its record and eager to improve it. Thirty-two percent of this year’s class are domestic students of color, with an increasing number of Hispanic matriculants. These students are joined by a particularly large and growing cadre of international students. Smith, along with just a few other U.S. institutions, offers financial aid to approximately 150 international students. The international applicant pool has grown from 18 percent in 2002 to 30 percent in 2011. International students now account for 14 percent of the 2011 entering class, roughly double of what it was 10 years ago and significantly larger than that of most of its peers. These students are the academically strongest part of the applicant pool. A highly branded women’s college has very considerable appeal in emerging, developing countries, for both full-pay and financial aid families. Smith has graduated an impressive cadre of leaders, in the U.S. and in emerging nations of the world, and with its increased international appeal, the college expects to see an even larger group emerge. Today at Smith, the full range of diversity approaches half of the student body, a competitive strength for any great academic institution.
Unusually, for a liberal arts college, Smith has made a special effort to admit older, adult students. In 1975, the college established the Ada Comstock Scholars Program to admit women of nontraditional age as either full- or part-time students. There are 100 women enrolled in the program. Their motivation and the diversity of their life experiences enrich the classroom.
Smith educates women for leadership opportunities that are unique to our time. The world requires rigorously and globally educated women, equipped with the skills of critical reasoning and effective expression, technically and scientifically adroit, and capable as exemplars for women’s education, both globally and domestically. The combination of women’s leadership skill and global knowledge has emerged as a driving theme in the world and for the college itself. Smith is impressively positioned to argue that the most ambitious young women should attend the college to prepare themselves for influence and success. The work of the world and the capacity of the college have never been better aligned.
