Smith College is a liberal arts women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts, and a member of the Seven Sisters colleges, the group of women’s colleges created to rival the (at the time) all-male Ivies. They also partner with Mount Holyoke, Amherst, Hampshire, and UMass Amherst to allow students to take classes at any of these other institutions.
If you’re thinking about transferring to Smith, keep in mind that it is competitive. Over the last few years, their first-year admit rate has nearly halved, going from 31% in 2021 to 19% in 2023. For transfers, the admit rate is similarly competitive, with an acceptance rate of 20.5% for transfers last cycle.
However, they are pretty pro-transfer, and say so themselves: “While many colleges and universities consider transfer applicants only after the first-year class is selected, Smith reserves a number of places especially for transfers because we believe they enrich our community. Each year, more than 50 transfer students enter Smith either in January or September.” Don’t fear, we have some tips for you to maximize your transfer app!
Smith’s Requirements
Smith has pretty simple eligibility requirements:
“Transfer students must have completed at least one semester at an accredited institution, including four-year private and public colleges and universities, community and junior colleges, and international institutions. Smith College will not consider applications from students seeking a second bachelor's degree or who have completed more than 64 transferable credits.”
You simply have to have one semester under your belt! Nice! Smith also accepts both spring and fall transfers.
Here are their other requirements:
Transfer Common App
Essays (more on that later)
Two faculty recommendations (can be professor or TA)
School/College report
Midterm report
Official Transcripts (college + high school)
Course Descriptions
Optional requirements:
Test scores
Interviews
More on their requirements and process for transfer applicants here.
Pick the Right Classes
If you know you want to transfer to Smith, there are things you can do in terms of choosing your classes that can help boost your application. Let’s pretend (for the sake of the blog post) that you want to study psychology, their most popular major. Maybe you’re specifically interested in abnormal psych, so you should focus the (probably) one elective class you have on… abnormal psych.
Most freshmen in college must take some prereq classes, and we encourage you to take those. Especially since if you don’t get into Smith, you won’t impact your degree progress at your current school.
Get Really Good Grades
Let’s put Smith’s 20% transfer acceptance rate into perspective: 312 women applied, and 64 got in. So while yes, you’re facing less competition in terms of pure numbers, you’re also fighting for waaaaaay fewer spots, which means you need to stand out. The average GPA for first years is a 4.0, so we can assume you need excellent grades in college to help you bolster your app.
So, when you're thinking about the classes you wanna sign up for, especially if you gotta tackle some prereqs in subjects you're not crazy about, steer clear of the super tough ones or the ones you nearly bungled in high school. If calculus made you cry, maybe go for stats or algebra instead. No need to mess up your GPA and confidence with classes you don't really have to take, ya dig?
P.S., go to office hours. All of them! Those connections with professors can help you get better grades and it’ll help when it comes to getting rec letters.
Develop Your Niche
You can’t just take a few psych classes and call it a day. You need to show Smith you’ve done the work to know that psych is your true calling. There are a myriad of ways to do this, including, but not limited to:
Research with a professor
Joining (or starting) clubs
Writing for an on-campus publication
Getting an internship
Getting a paying job
Volunteering (in something related to your major)
Having these things on your resume is cool and all, but there's a little extra perk too. By getting involved in your current school's scene, you're basically adding an extra layer of support just in case those transfer applications don't pan out.
Write Good Essays
Smith has three essay questions:
Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve. You can type directly into the box, or you can paste text from another source. (Approximately 500 words).
This is a standard transfer essay that almost every school will ask you. Since Smith is also asking you a Why Smith question, you need to get a little more creative with it.
In this essay, you will delve into why you're eyeing the exit at your current school. We get it – there could be a bunch of non-academic, downright tough reasons for wanting to leave, and we're sorry if that's the case. For this essay, though, let's stick to the academic side. If there's been some heavy stuff affecting your decision to leave, hit us up. Also, it might be a good move to drop that info in the Additional Information section on the main Common App. When you're talking about the academic reasons for peacing out, try not to trash-talk your current school.
There are probably a lot of things that draw you to Smith besides the classes and professors you’ll mention in the Why essay, like access to the Five College Consortium, the all-women’s thing, class sizes, availability of majors, overall culture, etc. More on how to write this essay here.
What specific aspects of Smith college will better meet your academic goals? (Approximately 200 words).
This is a why Smith essay. The formula is easy:
Origin Story (why do you wanna study what you want to study, the lightbulb moment)
Declare your major
1-2 upper-level Smith classes that work with your origin story/niche
1-2 Professors doing research in what you want to do
An academic extracurricular (could be a club or a research opportunity, for example)
With only 200 words, you’re going to want to cut the prose and keep it straightforward. More instructions on this type of prompt here.
Smith has a unique housing system, where students of all class years live together in 41 different houses. With our Residential Curriculum, students will become critically aware global neighbors, exploring their self-identity by living in community, engaging in reflection and challenging their own beliefs. What personal experiences, background or abilities would you bring to this residential environment to share with your neighbors and what would you hope your neighbors would share with you? (Approximately 250 words)
This is the same question they ask first-year students. And we have a whole blog post on just this question! Can you believe it?? Make sure to do a lot of research on the Smith Housing System, because they care about it – a lot.
We hope these tips help you a) prepare to transfer and b) make that transfer application happen. Good luck with your Smith application and make sure to keep your grades up, get plugged into your community, and dive into your passions.
If you need help with your transfer applications, reach out to us today.