Boston was once known as, “the Athens of America,” and the city, like San Francisco, seems somehow more cultivated than other urban areas. Those of us who know Boston with some degree of familiarity will quickly acknowledge that much of it is a mess and occasionally unlovely. But, for the most part, tourists and college students find the city appealing.
After all, there are approximately 250,000 college students in the greater Boston area.
Think about it. How lame can any city be with a quarter of a million fun-seeking, moderately intelligent, tuition paying kids standing ready to hit the clubs and pubs on any night of the week?
I start with the collective mass of studentdom because Simmons is a college for women (at the undergraduate level), and there is still a lingering antipathy towards the single-sex option in some applicants.
So, Simmons is a fairly large liberal arts college for women located in what many people would consider Boston’s prime real estate.
Peter Arango has been working in the field of college admissions for forty years, during which time he has counseled hundreds of students and families. He is an editor of the Houghton Mifflin Guide to U.S. Colleges and Universities, a contributor to numerous publications, and a frequent presenter at workshops on preparing for the college search. Currently, Peter Arango lives in Carpinteria, California where he holds the Littlefield Chair in Humanities at Cate School.
While Boston itself is fairly large, the greatest thing about going to a small liberal arts school is that we get a personal feel, while not being isolated from the rest of the world. I am a small town girl, who always dreamed of that ‘big city life’, and I was able to get that without sacrificing an ounce of that personal attention I require as part of my education here at Simmons College!