Simmons College

From a parent: Dropped off my daughter for her first year. Simmons really has the whole thing down to a science. Plenty of volunteers helping, answering questions, etc. Boston is not easy to navigate. Especially, if you’re not familiar with the area. They made it seamless. Bringing your walking shoes, though. Much easier to get around.

I’m about to start my second year in the GSLIS (library school) program.
After a terrible undergad experience at the corporation calling itself Boston University, I really do enjoy attending Simmons. The classes are relatively small, the professors are all very friendly, and the program itself, while not easy (I go full time), is rewarding. I actually feel like I am learning useful things for my future career, unlike my useless undergraduate degree.
Also, if you are in the graduate program, there are boys! haha. not many, but they are there.

Graduating today after spending 2 years in the Library Science program and have had a wonderful experience. The teachers are great, very active in their fields and willing to help you/​talk to you about things, the library is awesome (though people really hate it if you even make a little noise), and it is one of the best library schools in the country. I especially found it helpful that they find the internships for you and then you get to pick 3 out of a huge number (I think about 50 – 70).
Great school!

Don’t get turned off by the lack of boys here. You are paying for an education, not a frat party. I love all the professors here, they are very caring and want you to do well. If you have any difficulties, just talk to them and they will try to help you in whatever way they can. All the professors I have encountered here check their emails daily and the school is small enough that they will remember you.
I love the new library. Its clean, nice, and organized. There is a quiet area and outlets on all the tables if you need to use your laptop. Even the students from MCPHS study at our library.
Java City is always fun too. They have really good coffee drinks for when you need to study.
I majored in Chemistry and minored in Biology and MGMT so I dabbled in a bit of everything here. It is a liberal arts school so you have to take one class from each dept to get that well rounded education. Take a class with Professor Liu (east asian studies) or go take their study abroad programs. They are WORTH IT!

I’m biased because I go here (obviously!), but I’ve gotta hand it to John Simmons — the all-women’s education is something that I never would have thought would benefit me in the long run. At first, I was so opposed to attending a single-​sex college, but after visiting and doing an overnight, I was hooked. Don’t be turned off by same-​sex education; it’s less of a distraction and you can concentrate on your studies much better than a co-​ed environment (at least that’s what I’ve found 99% of the time). Besides, there’s opportunity to meet lots of people, considering that the college is 10 minutes away from Northeastern, and surrounded by Emmanuel, Wentworth, Wheelock, MassArt, and MCP.
Simmons is definitely moving up in the world. No matter where I go, I’ve found alumna or people who’ve heard of the school. And those people will go out of their way to take care of you!
It is a private school, so tuition is pricey, but it’s not as bad as that of Bentley, BU, BC, Harvard, etc. I was able to get scholarships and grants for about ¾ of my tuition (and luckily, I can afford to pay the rest by working a ridiculous amount of hours a week).
As Vanessa said, make sure you keep a paper trail of everything so that you can prove whatever you need to prove in the future.
Campus life is pretty good — there’s an organization for everyone to join. The faculty are always available, via email, phone, text message, IM — you name it, they’re on it. The staff are reliable and always willing to help you out if you need it. There’s opportunities for service learning and study abroad, both of which I recommend doing before graduating. And what’s better than going to school in Boston?

Simmons has the usual quirks of higher education. The biggest thing I have learned is that one can not assume that administrative matters will be taken care of by faculty etc. just because the tuition is expensive. Stay on top of everything, ask a lot of questions (ask if you are asking the right questions even), and keep a paper/​electronic RECORD OF ALL communications.