5 College Traditions at Smith College Everyone Should Know About

Are you waiting to hear back from Smith College? Or, are you thinking about applying this fall? Either way, here are 5 college traditions at Smith you should know. Chartered: 1871 Location: Northampton, MA Type: Liberal Arts Size: Small Undergraduate Students: 3,033 Campus: Urban Notes:Smith College is apart of the five-college consortium, which includes Amherst College, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire College, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Convocation One of Smith College’s favorite annual traditions is convocation, which signifies the start of a new school year. All the houses create a theme, in which all house members dress up or dress down and on the evening before the first day of classes everyone rally’s together for a big celebration. Each house marches, cheering and chanting house songs to the John M. Green Hall where the President and faculty give a speech welcoming back the students to campus and a good luck on the new school year. Mountain Day Mountain Day happens once a year during the fall semester, where on one nice day the president will ring the bells bright and early in the morning that cancels all classes for the day, allowing students to go out and enjoy the nice weather. Most students take part in house activities such as apple picking, kayaking on paradise pond, or hiking. Julia Child Day As many may know Julia Child, the famous chef is a Smith alumna, class of 1934, and once a year every dining hall will cook one of her world famous recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each dining hall serves a different recipe, so you can imagine there is lots to choose from1 Otelia Cromwell Day Otelia Cromwell was the first African-American student to graduate from Smith. Each year the college cancels afternoon classes so students can take part in workshops focusing on diversity and race. Rally Day Rally Day, which was celebrated to commemorate George Washington’s birthday, is now a celebration for Smith alumnae to be awarded Smith College medals by the president. Rally day is also a day of celebration for the seniors. For the graduating class, Rally day is the first day the seniors publicly sport their graduation caps and gowns and it is also the reveal of who is the commencement speaker at graduation. If you werent considering Smith College before, you should now. Learn more about the college and its student body by browsing our database of 60,000+ successful college application files.