Smith has 50 academic departments and programs and is structured around an open curriculum, with requirements being a writing intensive class during the first year and the fulfillment of a major.

[13] When Smith inherited a fortune from her father aged 65, she decided that leaving her inheritance to found a women's college was the best way for her to fulfill the moral obligation she expressed in her will:[14] I hereby make the following provisions for the establishment and maintenance of an Institution for the higher education of young women, with the design to furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now in our colleges to young men.The campus was planned and planted in the 1890s as a botanical garden and arboretum, designed by noted American landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted.

Smith was lauded for many of the indicator categories, including student involvement, green building, and transportation, but was marked down for endowment transparency.

Junior math majors from other undergraduate institutions are invited to study at Smith College for one year through the Center for Women in Mathematics.

[34] The Louise W. and Edmund J. Kahn Liberal Arts Institute supports collaborative research without regard to the traditional boundaries of academic departments and programs.

Each year the institute supports long-term and short-term projects proposed, planned, and organized by members of the Smith College faculty.

By becoming Kahn Fellows, students get involved in interdisciplinary research projects and work alongside faculty and visiting scholars for a year.

This program enables students to access interesting self-generated internship positions in social welfare and human services, the arts, media, health, education, and other fields.

Ada Comstock Scholars attend the same classes as traditional undergraduates, either full or part-time, and participate fully in a variety of extracurricular activities.

In January 1975, the Ada Comstock Scholars Program has formally established under President Jill Ker Conway and in the fall of that year, forty-five women were enrolled.

Smith’s applicant pool has increased 36 percent over the past year, which the college attributes to the decision to move to ‘loan-free’ financial aid.

These are often served at the traditional Friday afternoon tea held in each house, where students, faculty and staff members, and alumnae socialize.

According to the Smith College website, Ford Hall is a "...facility that will intentionally blur the boundaries between traditional disciplines, creating an optimum environment for students and faculty to address key scientific and technological developments of our time."

[69] This new policy also affirms that any student who, once admitted, transitions to another identity other than "female" and, who completes the college's graduation requirements, will be awarded a Smith degree.

The coalition presented a broad list of demands to the administration, proposing reform to many sectors of campus life, including curriculum, health and counseling services, accessibility, policing, admissions policies, and affinity housing.

"[79] On February 24, 2021, the New York Times reported on worsening tensions between students, staff, and administrators around issues of racial justice and the college's diversity training.

A former janitor told the paper that he had gone through numerous training sessions in race and intersectionality at Smith and that they had left staff workers cynical.

In 2019, the college shifted from officially recognizing the four main areas of campus to instead categorizing houses in four neighborhoods: Ivy, Paradise, Mountain, and Garden.

[97] One such tale holds Sessions House is inhabited by the ghost of Lucy Hunt, who died of a broken heart after being separated from her lover, General Burgoyne.

Likewise, for some returning students, the annual event is like a big, welcome-home party as well as an occasion for celebration and an opportunity for creative attire.

Traditional observance of Mountain Day by students might involve New England road trips or outdoor pursuits, and college dining services provides box lunches to be taken off-campus.

Afternoon classes are canceled, and students are invited to participate in lectures, workshops, symposia, and cultural events focused on a different theme each year.

In 1944, seniors made Rally Day the first public wearing of their graduation caps and gowns; since then, mortarboards have been replaced by wacky, often homemade hats.

Today, the Rally Day Convocation is centered on a historical theme and features a distinguished keynote speaker and the awarding of Smith College Medals to accomplished alumnae.

Traditional reunion and Commencement events are linked, and celebrate the close ties between Smith's alumnae and its graduating seniors and their families.

Junior ushers lead a parade through campus, carrying vines of ivy to be planted by the departing seniors as a symbol of their lifelong connection to the college.

Seniors line up nearest the end of the parade route, wearing traditional white outfits and each carrying a single red rose.

Illumination Night, beginning at dusk on the Saturday evening before Commencement, is a celebration of the campus and a send-off of sorts for graduating seniors.

Throughout the central campus, electric street lights are replaced for one night by multicolored Japanese-style paper lanterns, lit with real candles.

This was chronicled in a book (The Scarlet Professor—Newton Arvin: A Literary Life Shattered by Scandal (Doubleday, 2001), by Barry Werth), and the PBS Independent Lens film, The Great Pink Scare.