This week's college: Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts
Simmons holds a special place in my heart because as a child many of my caretakers were Simmons students. In the 1970s, as my mother returned to the workforce, she looked for young women who were strong role models for my sister and me, and she found them in Simmons students.
Founded in 1899, Simmons was revolutionary from the beginning. Founded by John Simmons its mission was to educate women to be able to support themselves rather than be reliant on someone else, while leading fulfilling, meaningful lives. This is the heart of Simmons’ mission today. They are home to several programs designed specifically with the needs of women in mind first; They have the only MBA program nationally that is designed for women to benefit from. Located in the heart of Boston (near the Longwood Medical Area and Kenmore Square), they are leaders in the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, and help shape the direction of the discussion of 2020 Women on Boards National Conversation on Board Diversity.
An all women’s college can seem like a turn off. It’s easy to remember the all girls’ experiences we’ve had in the past (middle school cliques quickly come to mind, birthday party fiascos, rumors, and social isolation). But an all women’s college isn’t anything like that. Think more about what it’s like to be on a team or to be in a club. These women are your peers, your support system, your cheering section, and your best friends. By the time you get to college, that pettiness of middle school, and its high school cousin has been left behind. At an all women’s college, that garbage has been replaced by a sisterhood that is healthy, vibrant, and rock solid.
At Simmons you won’t just study with women, you’ll learn from them as well. Over 70% of the faculty are women. And while the graduate population is co-education (about 4,000 grad students attend Simmons), there is a focus on female empowerment and development. Classes are around 18 students and the faculty to student ratio is 1:10. This means that students are free to explore their interests even if they have no experience from high school or have never been interested in the subject before.
Simmons’ approach to learning is through what they call their PLAN Program. PLAN stands for Purpose (P) Leadership (L) and Action (A_N). Basically it works like this: Your first year you take The Boston Course, the Leadership Course, and the Simmons Course which will be your transition to college and will focus on introducing students to Simmons, navigation of cultural differences, self-management, and community engagement. There are multiple choices within The Leadership and Boston courses. Boston Courses include things like “Sustainability in Boston,” “Creole Boston,” “From Pumpsie to Papi: Race and Sports in the City of Champions,” or “Virtual Boston.” In your second year, you take the class The Learning Community, and a Simmons Course on academic planning, career planning, financial planning, and self-management. Learning Community classes include topics like “Community Food Systems,” “Medicine and Race in the World of Henrietta Lacks,” “On the High Seas,” and “Choose Your Own Adventure: Coding and Digital Stories.” By 3rd Year, you will submit a trio of classes to your advisor which address a problem or topic of your choosing. They must be interdisciplinary approaches and they must be approved based on a rationale for why this subject should be seen this way. Your last Simmons Course is this year and will cover internship, research, service, planning, and graduate school. Your 4th Year will be devoted to work in your major and the completion of your Capstone Project which will be a cumulation of what you have learned in your major.
One of the best programs at Simmons is their Computer Science Program. Simmons takes a unique approach to Comp Sci and their way of hooking students is female focused. Women have a tendency to be problem solvers. Looking at Comp Sci as a way of problem solving is very different than looking at Comp Sci from a machine or technical perspective. As a result, Simmons turns out incredibly skilled programmers, engineers, and web designers. It’s the kind of shift in thinking that Simmons is known for and the way in which their women centered education is helping to close the gender gaps in our workforce.
Biostatistics, Big Data, Public Health, all of these are also popular majors at Simmons. While we might not think of these as traditionally “female” fields, women are often drawn to caretaking (as so many of my former Simmons babysitters were!). Simmons shows students through relevant hands on, experiential, and perspective shifting ways how these fields are versions of caretaking. And then they teach the heck out of them.
Simmons has 50 different programs you can take advantage of. They are well known for their education program as well as their growing Computer and Data Science programming. Health professions are also extremely popular here. With several important hospitals close by (The Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Brigham and Women’s, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Joslin Diabetes Center) students are able to engage in important research during their undergraduate time. As one of the colleges in the Longwood Medical Area, students can take advantage of internships, fieldwork, research grants, and mentoring alongside students from schools like Harvard and Tufts.
There is an Honors Program at Simmons and it’s one you may want to take part in. Everyone in it receives a scholarship but there are bigger ones available to the Honors Global Scholars and to the D’Angelo Scholarship designed to help students study abroad. Most students apply directly to the Honors program but you can also apply from within the college as well. You will take more rigorous courses, engage in seminars and additional learning experiences, and also be a part of a mentorship cohort.
As a member of the Colleges of the Fenway, Simmons joins forces with Emmanuel College, Mass College of Art and Design, Wheelock College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Mass College of Pharmacy and Health Science. Students can take classes at any of these member schools and can be involved in their activities or events as well. While Simmons has just under 2,000 students in their student body, the women of Simmons can also take advantage of a big school feel by engaging with students in any of the other Colleges of the Fenway in and out of class.
As you might imagine, sports are a big thing at Simmons. Women are the direct beneficiaries of Title IX and Simmons makes the most of that. Their teams work hard and play hard as well. From the softball diamond, to the Charles River where their rowers compete, from the Fens where their Cross Country stars run to the Tennis and Volleyball courts, to the Field Hockey, Lacrosse, and Soccer pitch, Simmons women athletes are top notch.
There are many student groups at Simmons to take part in. Sing a capella with the Sirens, make your dream a reality with your startup and the CEO (Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization), or promote cultural diversity, inclusion, equity, and access with the Like Mind Coalition. Get involved with Model UN, Amnesty International, The Simmons Voice Newspaper, The Concert Choir or Dance Company, Hillel, or Sexuality, Women’s, and Gender Center. Plus, remember you can join any activity at any of the other Colleges of the Fenway as well. Get involved with service learning, go on an alternative spring break, or engage in a work study job related to service. Simmons women are active members of their community.
Housing at Simmons is available (and much more affordable than retail prices in Boston). Rooms are mostly doubles but there are some singles and some larger. Juniors and Seniors have the option to live in the Townhouses which are about 7 minutes from campus, walking. Most of the housing is in the gated area just off the academic campus, where the sports center, dining hall, and health center all are. There is some theme housing (sports pride, foodie, arts, etc.) as well. Simmons’ campus is tobacco free.
Is Simmons for you? Well if you’re a guy, um no. If you’re a gal, yeah it could be. It’s a great place to find out what’s for you and to explore. It’s in a city, but it actually has a campus (unlike BU), seriously in it, like walk to Fenway and see the Sox play. Simmons is a great place to discover what you didn’t know was for you. If you want to have that experience in a small school/big school way with women like you, then give it some thought. It’s a cool place with cool women doing cool things.
Pros:
Cons:
Simmons holds a special place in my heart because as a child many of my caretakers were Simmons students. In the 1970s, as my mother returned to the workforce, she looked for young women who were strong role models for my sister and me, and she found them in Simmons students.
Founded in 1899, Simmons was revolutionary from the beginning. Founded by John Simmons its mission was to educate women to be able to support themselves rather than be reliant on someone else, while leading fulfilling, meaningful lives. This is the heart of Simmons’ mission today. They are home to several programs designed specifically with the needs of women in mind first; They have the only MBA program nationally that is designed for women to benefit from. Located in the heart of Boston (near the Longwood Medical Area and Kenmore Square), they are leaders in the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, and help shape the direction of the discussion of 2020 Women on Boards National Conversation on Board Diversity.
An all women’s college can seem like a turn off. It’s easy to remember the all girls’ experiences we’ve had in the past (middle school cliques quickly come to mind, birthday party fiascos, rumors, and social isolation). But an all women’s college isn’t anything like that. Think more about what it’s like to be on a team or to be in a club. These women are your peers, your support system, your cheering section, and your best friends. By the time you get to college, that pettiness of middle school, and its high school cousin has been left behind. At an all women’s college, that garbage has been replaced by a sisterhood that is healthy, vibrant, and rock solid.
At Simmons you won’t just study with women, you’ll learn from them as well. Over 70% of the faculty are women. And while the graduate population is co-education (about 4,000 grad students attend Simmons), there is a focus on female empowerment and development. Classes are around 18 students and the faculty to student ratio is 1:10. This means that students are free to explore their interests even if they have no experience from high school or have never been interested in the subject before.
Simmons’ approach to learning is through what they call their PLAN Program. PLAN stands for Purpose (P) Leadership (L) and Action (A_N). Basically it works like this: Your first year you take The Boston Course, the Leadership Course, and the Simmons Course which will be your transition to college and will focus on introducing students to Simmons, navigation of cultural differences, self-management, and community engagement. There are multiple choices within The Leadership and Boston courses. Boston Courses include things like “Sustainability in Boston,” “Creole Boston,” “From Pumpsie to Papi: Race and Sports in the City of Champions,” or “Virtual Boston.” In your second year, you take the class The Learning Community, and a Simmons Course on academic planning, career planning, financial planning, and self-management. Learning Community classes include topics like “Community Food Systems,” “Medicine and Race in the World of Henrietta Lacks,” “On the High Seas,” and “Choose Your Own Adventure: Coding and Digital Stories.” By 3rd Year, you will submit a trio of classes to your advisor which address a problem or topic of your choosing. They must be interdisciplinary approaches and they must be approved based on a rationale for why this subject should be seen this way. Your last Simmons Course is this year and will cover internship, research, service, planning, and graduate school. Your 4th Year will be devoted to work in your major and the completion of your Capstone Project which will be a cumulation of what you have learned in your major.
One of the best programs at Simmons is their Computer Science Program. Simmons takes a unique approach to Comp Sci and their way of hooking students is female focused. Women have a tendency to be problem solvers. Looking at Comp Sci as a way of problem solving is very different than looking at Comp Sci from a machine or technical perspective. As a result, Simmons turns out incredibly skilled programmers, engineers, and web designers. It’s the kind of shift in thinking that Simmons is known for and the way in which their women centered education is helping to close the gender gaps in our workforce.
Biostatistics, Big Data, Public Health, all of these are also popular majors at Simmons. While we might not think of these as traditionally “female” fields, women are often drawn to caretaking (as so many of my former Simmons babysitters were!). Simmons shows students through relevant hands on, experiential, and perspective shifting ways how these fields are versions of caretaking. And then they teach the heck out of them.
Simmons has 50 different programs you can take advantage of. They are well known for their education program as well as their growing Computer and Data Science programming. Health professions are also extremely popular here. With several important hospitals close by (The Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Brigham and Women’s, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Joslin Diabetes Center) students are able to engage in important research during their undergraduate time. As one of the colleges in the Longwood Medical Area, students can take advantage of internships, fieldwork, research grants, and mentoring alongside students from schools like Harvard and Tufts.
There is an Honors Program at Simmons and it’s one you may want to take part in. Everyone in it receives a scholarship but there are bigger ones available to the Honors Global Scholars and to the D’Angelo Scholarship designed to help students study abroad. Most students apply directly to the Honors program but you can also apply from within the college as well. You will take more rigorous courses, engage in seminars and additional learning experiences, and also be a part of a mentorship cohort.
As a member of the Colleges of the Fenway, Simmons joins forces with Emmanuel College, Mass College of Art and Design, Wheelock College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Mass College of Pharmacy and Health Science. Students can take classes at any of these member schools and can be involved in their activities or events as well. While Simmons has just under 2,000 students in their student body, the women of Simmons can also take advantage of a big school feel by engaging with students in any of the other Colleges of the Fenway in and out of class.
As you might imagine, sports are a big thing at Simmons. Women are the direct beneficiaries of Title IX and Simmons makes the most of that. Their teams work hard and play hard as well. From the softball diamond, to the Charles River where their rowers compete, from the Fens where their Cross Country stars run to the Tennis and Volleyball courts, to the Field Hockey, Lacrosse, and Soccer pitch, Simmons women athletes are top notch.
There are many student groups at Simmons to take part in. Sing a capella with the Sirens, make your dream a reality with your startup and the CEO (Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization), or promote cultural diversity, inclusion, equity, and access with the Like Mind Coalition. Get involved with Model UN, Amnesty International, The Simmons Voice Newspaper, The Concert Choir or Dance Company, Hillel, or Sexuality, Women’s, and Gender Center. Plus, remember you can join any activity at any of the other Colleges of the Fenway as well. Get involved with service learning, go on an alternative spring break, or engage in a work study job related to service. Simmons women are active members of their community.
Housing at Simmons is available (and much more affordable than retail prices in Boston). Rooms are mostly doubles but there are some singles and some larger. Juniors and Seniors have the option to live in the Townhouses which are about 7 minutes from campus, walking. Most of the housing is in the gated area just off the academic campus, where the sports center, dining hall, and health center all are. There is some theme housing (sports pride, foodie, arts, etc.) as well. Simmons’ campus is tobacco free.
Is Simmons for you? Well if you’re a guy, um no. If you’re a gal, yeah it could be. It’s a great place to find out what’s for you and to explore. It’s in a city, but it actually has a campus (unlike BU), seriously in it, like walk to Fenway and see the Sox play. Simmons is a great place to discover what you didn’t know was for you. If you want to have that experience in a small school/big school way with women like you, then give it some thought. It’s a cool place with cool women doing cool things.
Pros:
- Boston, man, you’re my home!
- Small school/big school
- Great health sciences/comp.sci/data sci.
- Perfect place to explore what you didn’t know you loved
- Single sex
Cons:
- Single sex
- Still relies on testing
- PLAN might be too restrictive
- Private so may cost more