For Accepted Students
We’re so excited for you to join us this summer! Be sure to read the Precollege Student Handbook.
Required Forms
Program Registration & Checkout Dates
Important Information
Are You Ready to Arrive?
Smith Precollege has a robust residential and academic team with several trained staff on duty at all times.
Our program and staff offer a precollege experience where participants are expected to step into living more independently and take responsibility for their daily lives and schedules. Precollege is a different experience than most high schools and summer camps. We are not a high school or a summer camp, we are Precollege!
If participants do not feel they can meet these basic expectations with some support from our staff, they may want to wait a year to attend.
- Transporting oneself to different locations on- and off-campus, including class and the dining halls
- Managing self-administration of prescribed and over-the-counter medications
- Managing one's own diet within a dining hall setting, unless a reasonable accommodation is requested and granted
- Sleeping and living in a dorm room with or without a roommate
- Waking and preparing for the day
- Participating in optional recreational activities
- Attending class, studying, and completing assignments
What to Bring
Smith has two gymnasiums, indoor and outdoor track, dance studios, and a fitness center. Smith is also home to a distinguished art museum, an award-winning botanic garden and greenhouse, a new library and a rare book room. There is a bookstore and café on campus as well.
New England is famous for its changing weather, but summers in Northampton are usually warm and sunny, with the occasional rainstorm. Rooms are not air-conditioned, but box fans are provided. We have a house laundry service that provides clean linens each week. Each house has washers and dryers that are free of charge. We will provide laundry detergent, to be kept in the laundry rooms of each house. It will be a generic, unscented brand of detergent.
Additional Information
Precollege Slack Workspace
Hello! We’re so excited you’ll be joining us for Precollege Programs. Slack is an organized group chat that helps people work together by bringing conversations and important information into one virtual space. Here’s a quick guide to help you get the most out of the Smith Precollege Programs Slack Workspace.
Slack is monitored from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. before your arrival. You can post messages anytime, but please be aware that staff responses may be delayed.
While you are on campus, Slack is monitored from 8 a.m. to midnight each day.
The Smith Precollege Slack is a public chat forum, operated by Smith College, where academic directors, instructors, managers, staff, and students can see your messages. All platform users must be respectful and thoughtful with what they write and share.
Precollege students should consult the handbook and FAQ channel first.
The Student Handbook is posted and pinned in the #mainchannel24 Channel. It contains a lot of information and answers to common questions.
Before posting a question, please visit our #FAQ or #mainchannel24 Channels to see if it has already been answered.
Alternatively, you can also type a few words reflecting your question in the search bar in Slack to find previous conversations.
Click the join link in your email.
Slack will ask you to verify your email address. This process takes less than a minute. (Slack will send you an email, and you'll click on a link.)
Once verified, Slack will ask you to create a username and password.
Your username is public to everyone else in the group, please use your preferred first name and your last name.
Slack will guide you through a fast tutorial, showing you how to send a message in both a channel and a direct message to another user.
Slack Workspaces have two messaging functions—channels (notated with a “#” or a lock symbol if it’s a private channel) and direct messages.
Channel Messages go out to everyone in the channel, can be public or private (depending upon the channel), and are divided by topic. For example:
Your Course Channel is private (noted by a lock symbol to the left of the channel title). The after-class activities, random, and general channels are public (noted by the “#” to the left of the channel title).
If you have a question about the course material, an assignment, or even a technical issue, post it to the appropriate group channel—someone else may have the same question, and they’d benefit from the answer, too. Or maybe someone from the class can help if your instructor or CA isn’t immediately available.
Direct Messages go out to one or a few members and are private. An example of when to use a direct message is if you have a question that only applies to you—for example, an instructor’s comment on your assignment or letting your instructor know you are ill.
To find a user to directly message, click the “+” symbol next to the Direct Messages label. This will allow you to search for members and start a direct message with up to eight other people.
You can also directly message the Slackbot, Slack’s automated help center. It has a little heart next to its name.
That’s about it! Once you are on the Precollege Slack Workspace, click on the Channel called #mainchannel24. It is on the side panel on the left-hand side of the Slack page. Once you are in that Channel, post a quick introduction of yourself to say hello to the other students and our staff. We can’t wait to meet you!
If you have questions about using Slack, please email summerprecollege@smith.edu.
Contact Office of Precollege Programs
30 Belmont Avenue
Northampton, MA 01063
Phone: 413-585-4455 Email: summerprecollege@smith.edu