SMITH COLLEGE, an institution for the higher education of women, at Northampton, Mass. It was founded by the will of Sophia Smith (1796-187o) of Hatfield, who chose the neigh bouring town of Northampton as the site of the college, and selected the first trustees. The college was chartered in 1871 and opened in 1875.
The equipment of the college in 1937 consisted of a campus of i2oac., including thirty acres for athletics; 46 dwelling houses for students, laboratories for zoology, botany, geology, physics, chemistry, psychology and phonetics, the Lyman plant houses and a botanic garden, and astronomical observatory, a library of 24o,000vols., the Hillyer and Tryon art galleries, a swimming pool, an infirmary, a students' building, an auditorium seating 2,40o, two gymnasiums, Sage Hall for music, and two boat houses.
All students enter by the examinations of the college entrance examination board. The undergraduate courses which are chiefly elective, lead to the degree of bachelor of arts. Since 1920 an honours system has been in operation, by which selected students in their last two years concentrate on a special field of study under the direction of tutors, and are relieved from the routine of courses and class examinations. Graduate courses lead to the degree of master of arts and, more rarely, to that of doctor of philosophy. The Smith college School for Social Work, with an eight weeks' summer session and supervised field work in various cities in win ter, trains social workers with a special equipment in psychiatry and prepares for the degree of master of social science. In 1936— 37 the college had 225 teachers, 1980 undergraduates, 90 graduate students, 334 in the School for Social Work, 73 in the Summer School of Music. The fees for tuition are $500 a year for under
graduates, $25o for graduates. Board and room cost $500. About $175,000 is distributed annually in scholarships and fellowships. The invested funds of the college total (1928) $6,266,000 and the land, buildings and equipment have cost $8,262,000. In 1925 a scheme was initiated of sending students specializing in modern languages to spend their junior year in study abroad under the direction of members of the college faculty. Students of French go to the universities of Dijon and Paris, of Italian to Perugia and Florence, of Spanish to Mexico City (beginning in 1937). Be tween 4o and so students now take advantage of this annually. The college also sends students to Munich under the German Junior Year, Inc. The department of education conducts a Nurs ery school (in co-operation with a Parents' Association) and a progressive day school. The Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture is an affiliated graduate school of Smith college. The college publishes the Smith College Studies in history, classics and modern languages, a series of volumes issued in celebration of its loth anniversary, and in the field of zoological science an internationally edited Catalogue of the Hemiptera.
The college is governed by a board of 15 trustees, four of whom are nominated by the alumnae (now numbering and serve for eight years, the others, with the exception of the president, serving for ten years and retiring in rotation. The first president was Laurenus Clark Seelye (1875-191o) ; the second, Marion LeRoy Burton (1910-17) ; and the third William Allan Neilson (1917— ). (W. A. N.)