Founded in 1871, Smith College opened in 1875 with 14 students. Today, Smith is among the largest women’s colleges in the United States, with students from 48 states and 78 countries. An independent, nondenominational college, Smith remains strongly committed to the education of women at the undergraduate level, but admits both men and women as graduate students.

Smith College is a distinguished liberal arts college committed to providing the highest quality undergraduate education for women to enable them to develop their intellects and talents and to participate effectively and fully in society.

The college began more than 140 years ago in the mind and conscience of a New England woman. The sum of money used to buy the first land (on what had traditionally been the ancestral homelands of the Nonotuck people), erect the first buildings and begin the endowment was the bequest of Sophia Smith.