Special-Interest Housing
In addition to offering traditional houses, Smith has a variety of special-interest housing options, including food co-ops and apartments. Students must apply each year they wish to reside in one of the Special-Interest houses. Information about the lottery is available on the Special-Interest Housing Lottery page. Students interested in recommending a new Special-Interest housing option should contact Residence Life.
Special Interest Options
Like many residential colleges, Smith College offers affinity housing options to students who wish to live together in an intentional community guided by shared values, goals, and activities.
During the 2019-20 academic year, following the recommendation of the Residential Experience Working Group, the college launched a two-year pilot program that designated Parsons Annex and Park Annex as affinity houses that cultivate and foster a sense of belonging for, respectively, Black students and other students of color. Currently, these affinity houses are available to all Smith students through our residence life housing application process. The application to live in an affinity house is available on your Self Service page. Information about the lottery is available on the Special-Interest Housing Lottery page.
Applications neither request nor are judged by a student’s racial or ethnic identity. In accordance with federal and state law, housing at Smith College does not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity or national origin.
Park Annex
Park Annex is identified as a Special-Interest Housing location.
Park Annex was a house that once belonged to members of the Look family who gave Look Park to the city of Northampton. It was also rented as off-campus housing to Smith students before it was acquired by the college in 1920.
Park Annex is in a scenic spot, near the president's house and Paradise Pond. It is a 5-minute walk to the central campus area—with the libraries, classrooms and administrative buildings—and about a 10-minute walk to downtown Northampton.
Parsons Annex
Parsons Annex is identified as a Special-Interest Housing location.
Parsons Annex has been part of its Round Hill neighborhood for more than a century and still reflects the quality of old Northampton. It was purchased by the college in 1968. It is removed from the noise and bustle of center campus, yet only a 10- to 15-minute walk to academic buildings and downtown Northampton.
Tenney and Hopkins are the two cooperative houses on campus. Residents of these houses live collectively and share responsibility for buying food, cooking and cleaning. Being part of a co-op involves taking on a bit more responsibility than is required by traditional living options at Smith, and taking that responsibility seriously is an important part of cooperative living.
- Residents are not on the meal plan and pay $200–$700 sliding scale in house dues every semester to cover food costs. Tenney is vegetarian; Hopkins is not.
- Residents are responsible for regular cooking and cleaning chores. These include one or more of the following: weekly shopping for the house; planning and cooking a meal for the entire house at least once a week; and completing a significant cleaning task weekly according to a chore chart.
- Residents attend a weekly house meeting.
- Residents actively shape and participate in house community, which is a challenging and rewarding experience.
Co-ops are open to all students except first-years. All levels of cooking experience are welcome, and the co-ops are committed to supporting and fostering a diverse community of Smith students.
If you have further questions about what living in a co-op is like, please contact Dana Olivo, assistant director for residential education, at dolivo@smith.edu.
NOTE: Before considering co-op living, students should communicate with Student Financial Services to determine if and how living in a non-meal plan house will impact their financial aid or grants.
If you are interested in joining or returning to the Tenney and Hopkins food cooperatives, you must complete the application(s) on your Self-Service page. You must complete the application to rejoin these communities.
A committee composed of Residence Life professional and student staff will review applications and make decisions mid-late February. We will reach out to students who have been approved to join the cooperatives with more information about the lottery process.
The college offers a a substance-free living area in Chase House. Alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs are not allowed.
If you are interested in joining or returning to the Chase House Substance-Free community, you must complete the relevant application on your Self-Service page. You must complete the application to rejoin the Chase Substance-Free community.
A committee composed of Residence Life professional and student staff will review applications and make decisions mid-late February. We will reach out to students who have been approved to join Chase Substance-Free with more information about the online room draw process.
If you wish to remain in Chase but not live within the Substance Free community, you will need to instead submit the "Room Draw House Request" form (available on your Self-Service in late February to early March). You will then pick your room during online room draw in April.
If you are a rising senior who is interested in living off-campus in non-Smith housing accommodations, then you must complete the Off-Campus Lottery application on your Self-Service page. We will assign lottery numbers based on how many spaces are open and how many applications we receive. We will email you to confirm if your lottery number was high enough to be granted permission to live off-campus. You must be a rising senior to participate (with a current class year of 2024 or 2024J). We will verify class years based on the first day of class this semester.
NOTE: Before considering living off campus, students should communicate with Student Financial Services to determine if and how living off campus will impact their financial aid or grants.