Smith College Academic Programs

Smith’s open curriculum, based in the humanities, arts, social sciences and the natural sciences, promotes a vigorous culture of scholarship, inquiry and discovery. Choose your academic path and shape your education in an intentional way. Because of the Five-College Community Consortium, Smith students can also select an additional 4,500 undergraduate courses offered at Amherst, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke colleges, along with the University of Massachusetts.

The Ada Comstock Scholars Program was established in 1975 under President Jill Ker Conway to enable women of nontraditional college age to complete their undergraduate degree. The program was designed to accommodate women at all stages of life, offering the opportunity to complete their education on a flexible schedule and providing special academic and social supports. Named for Ada Comstock 1897, the first dean of the college at Smith, Ada Comstock Scholars enrich the Smith community in myriad ways. Learn more about this unique program and the diverse women in the class.

In 2014, the Summer Science and Engineering Program at Smith hosted 128 high school girls, who took courses with faculty in physics, computer science, biology, neuroscience and geology. In the “The History of Earth and Life,” led by Sara Pruss, associate professor of geological sciences, students explored Mount Tom, composed of volcanic rock formed toward the end of the Triassic Period, some 200 million years ago.

The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Smith College are excited to launch the Smith-Tuck Business Bridge Program, to be held on the Smith campus in May 2015. While primarily for Smith students, the program will also be open to women studying at other institutions.

Under an innovative initiative called Achieving Excellence in Mathematics, Engineering and Sciences (AEMES), Smith College reaches out to students who have expressed interest in those fields to increase their chances of success. AEMES scholars are selected as first years and are supported by the program all four years of their college experience. During those years, the scholars conduct research with a faculty adviser and participate in a peer mentoring program. Here's what two members of the research team have to say about the lab work they are doing with Laura Katz, Elsie Damon Simonds Professor of Biological Sciences.