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Introducing the Class of 2001
 
By Winston Smith
 
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They've arrived. The 657 first-year students who currently make up Smith College's class of 2001 are now on campus and showing all the savvy and verve that have set Smith women apart for the past 122 years. That these traits are largely inborn became obvious in comments three of the newcomers made to NewsSmith this summer, several weeks before setting off for Northampton.
 
Native Minnesotan Stephanie Faith Wiens said that one of the first things she planned to do after settling in on campus was to form a "girlie rock band."
 
"I'm into every kind of music," she said. She added she wanted to dance, try horseback riding and "do some photography and theatre"-though she conceded that "I'm not going to have enough time to do everything I want."
Stephanie chose to attend Smith because of its history of excellence in educating women and its track record in encouraging diversity and looking after the well-being of all of its students. "I attended an inner-city high school," she explained. "A lot of times I was in the minority as the only white."
Dania V. Frank of Gardena, California, spent parts of the summer of 1996 helping her coworkers learn Japanese when she interned at a local Nissan plant. She had actually been hired to troubleshoot bugs in equipment.
"Employees were expected to take Japanese," Frank explained. "So people who worked there asked me to help with their homework." She fell into the role of tutor because she had studied the language for two and a half years in high school.
Frank is planning to continue studying Japanese at Smith. She said she likes the language because of its simplicity and elegance. Ultimately, she would like to get to Japan through Smith's Junior Year Abroad Program in Kyoto, she noted.
Seneca Rachel Nelson Rosenberg of Muncie, Indiana, knew even before arriving on campus that she'd be joining the Smith chapter of Students for a Free Tibet. "That's one of my priorities," she said, explaining that she first got involved with the parent organization last year while helping to bunk members of the New York chapter who had come to Indiana to hear the Dalai Lama speak at a nearby conference. She became fast friends with one of the New Yorkers and almost decided to attend Bard College, which he was entering as a freshman. But even with other options, she ultimately chose Smith. Its strong science program is a good fit for Seneca, who was described by one of her high school guidance counselors as an "exceptional science student."
 
The college received approximately 27,000 inquiries from students interested in joining the Smith ranks. According to Nanci Tessier, director of admission, some 2,996 students applied for admission for the class of 2001, and of those, 1,647 received acceptance letters. By the time of Opening Convocation in early September, some 657 new students had settled in.
 
"Most students who apply to Smith would do well here; they're bright and talented. They've also done their homework and know that Smith would be a good fit for them,'' Tessier says.
 
Two admission officers are assigned to read and evaluate each application received. The first reader reviews applications from across the country in order to get an overview of the entire applicant pool. The second reader reads by geographic area. She is able to develop a strong understanding of school systems in various parts of the United States and the world. Students are evaluated within the context of opportunities available to them at their own high schools and are not compared to students from other schools or other parts of the country.
 
In determining who would make the cut into the class of 2001, Tessier says, college preparatory work and performance, standardized test scores, extracurricular activity and letters of recommendation were the key criteria.
 
"We're looking at the rigor of an applicant's course work and, obviously, how well she did," she notes. "And we're looking for potential to be successful at Smith."
 
This is all the more true, Tessier explains, in that the faculty have high expectations of students in terms of their abilities to express their opinions and contribute to classroom discussion. "You want a student to be in a place where she is going to be challenged, where she is going to grow but where she is not going to be overwhelmed," she says.
 
So, when reviewing the application folder created for each student, admission officers "look far beyond the surface and give each individual folder much more than a glance. We really dig into these folders," Tessier says.
 
With more than 3,000 colleges in the country, adds Tessier, "there's a good fit for every student, and maybe more than one good fit. Our challenge," she continues, "is to determine who we believe will not only benefit from a Smith education, but also will contribute to the college and the community."

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