@AnimalLover0209 About 25% of the campus is international. I’m not an international student, so I don’t have first-hand experience of what it’s like, but I would be completely flabbergasted to learn that anyone was being mean to international students. The international character of the campus is a big draw for a lot of people. Some of my international friends say that there’s some issue with clustering - i.e., some international students hang out only with people from their home country - but I think that’s mostly a result of culture shock and a relaxing opportunity to speak their native language.
I am also not a springie (spring admit - one thing you’ll discover about MHC is that we love our lingo!), so again, no personal experience, but there’s a full orientation in the spring, all the springies take a first-year seminar just like everyone else, and you’ll be joining clubs and making friends. It feels much more like each semester is its own separate entity than part of the same wider year - people leave to study abroad, people come back, sometimes people move rooms, and everyone is taking new classes. I don’t think integrating the springies is a huge issue, since there’s this transition period for everyone at the new year. You’ll miss some fall traditions, but that’s about it. It’s also totally possible, given good planning and a few semesters of five classes, to graduate in May with your class rather than the December afterwards. A lot of springies do that. Alternately, people who graduate in December have the option to come back in May for the graduation exercises (although for you that would be the class of 2021’s exercises).
The catholic group sounds very active and engaging - are there other groups that offer students that level of involvement and satisfaction, such as choirs, orchestra, science clubs (sorry to geek out), outdoor clubs?
D graduated 3 yrs ago. She is from MA, but her circle of friends included people from the south, midwest, the far west, and 3 different countries. A real melting pot. There is a small group of the uber-uber wealthy, but I’m told they tend to keep to themselves–did not get any reports of “mean girls” behavior while D was at MHC.
I joke with my D that MHC does not need sororities–the place is one big sorority. And by that I mean the positive aspects of sororities–sense of sisterhood, female empowerment, support of each other, etc.
About Spring admits, we visited our daughter’s dorm in early Feb and saw special “welcome springies” signs on the doors of the new girls on her floor.
She has an international student roommate who is part of their close knit friend group (I see this girl in all their FB photos) and there are other internationals whom she’s also good friends with. But she tells me that there are a few other internationals who don’t speak English that well and hang out mostly with people from their own country.
How easy or difficult is it to take classes at the other consortium schools? Is this something many students do? When they do, is it for social reasons, or are there some areas where the other schools just have better options?
@pntbttr My daughter will be a first year in the fall and CS will be her major as well. She chose MHC because of many of the reasons Firefly mentioned above…no gate-keeping, variety of courses available at UMass-Amherst, access to professors and research, etc. She also learned during her interview that CS students have interned at Google, participated and won hack-a-thon events against other schools, etc. She was really impressed with what she learned.
@wetsunshine There’s an outing club for people who enjoy hiking, although I don’t know how close it is. Everything that meets very regularly is going to have a closeness and camaraderie - music groups (symphony, jazz band, choir), the dance groups, etc. I think the religious groups are somewhat unique in that they exist in part specifically to foster a community, so a lot of time and effort goes in to making people feel happy and supported.
@Horde56 It’s pretty easy to take classes at the other schools. I haven’t taken advantage yet, but I’ve had at least a few five college students in most of my classes. Logistically, for people who don’t have a car, it’s much easier to get to Hampsire (~20 min), Amherst (~30 min), or UMass(~35-45 min) than it is to get to Smith (~1hr or more). It’s faster by car. People do it for a variety of reasons. Usually, I think people take 5 College classes because they find that one of the other schools has a class they find interesting. It’s useful to supplement advanced courses, where the limited faculty of a small school means that there will be limited course offerings. The 5 College system means that if, say I was interested in an advanced history seminar on Korea and that wasn’t offered at Mt. Holyoke, I could look for it at the other schools. Since they have different faculty (and, in the case of UMass, a much larger faculty overall), I would be much more likely to find it. I don’t think many people take a huge number of classes at the other schools, but more on occasion, maybe 1 or 2 a year.
@BearHouse It depends. The PVTA will get you where you need to go, generally, but if you want the flexibility to take a lot of classes at the other schools a car is great because you don’t need to wait or deal with the PVTA schedule. It’s useful but not necessary by any means. Most of the people I know who have cars are juniors and seniors. Not all the dorms have parking lots, and the Campus Police are very parking-ticket happy. It’s a personal decision. I don’t really want to deal with the hassle of a car, and since I live so far away it would be a nightmare to either find a place to store it or to drive the ~4-5 days back to my hometown over winter and summer break.
@AnxietyAttack77 I know nothing about the dual-degree programs. I’ve found a page on it on the website, but it unfortunately doesn’t include statistics on admittance rates. Here: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/engineering/dual_degree, and also there’s a Nexus (basically in interdisciplinary minor) in engineering.
@rafunzel28 There is a lot of vegetarian options. For every meal, there is multiply options to select. I’ve never had an issue with finding any vegetarian options and I find them great. In addtion, we have a kosher dinning hall that is fully vegetarian 5 out of 7 days a week.
I also plan on going pre-med at Holyoke and wanted to learn specifically about the research options available to you and the volunteering options at hospitals nearby. Do you feel that you are getting enough guidance from the health professions counselors? Also, are there weed out intro classes such as Chem or Bio? Overall, how hard do you have to work and what does your workload look like as a pre-med student? Do other pre-med students compete with each other or is it more of a nurturing environment? @FireflyLights
Sorry about the late reply. This week has been crazy, and then (as is the way of things), I got sick.
@hellokitty679 I haven’t personally explored hospital volunteering yet, but I suspect that a car would be important for it. For pre-meds, like everyone, the research opportunities are many and varied. Since it’s a liberal arts college, none of those research slots are being filled by graduate students. From what I’ve observed, getting research is largely about forming relationships with professors and being willing to work hard and show that you’ll be an asset. The pre-health offices are fantastic. They’re incredibly nice, and very informed about the current climate of medical school admissions.
There are no classes where the departments are trying to wash a certain number of people out - this isn’t a big university and there are no caps on how many people can be in each major. That being said, both Bio 200 and Chem 201 are a big step up from Bio 145 and Chem 101. It’s less of a weed-out mentality and more of a “here’s what the workload is like, you can run with it, we’ll support you with help in office hours and in PLUMs (sessions where students who have taken the class and done well will help you out with issues on the homework), but you have to be willing to put in the effort” mentality. I think it’s a really good way to approach things. There’s not much competition - we all chose Mt. Holyoke for a reason, and part of that for a lot of us is that it’s a supportive environment. The fact that other people are doing well is in no way going to cheapen your own success.
Your workload is going to depend on how much you plan. It’s totally possible to be a good planner and not end up needing to do five classes and two labs. (Don’t plan on 3 labs at once, though, since they’re a ton of work and really constrict your schedule - they’re 1:15-4:05 once a week, except Orgo, which goes until 5:05) Personally, I’ve found the workload to be challenging but manageable. Try not to procrastinate. It will make everything 100x worse.
My daughter is in a 3 way tug of war between inexpensive state university, a small STEM university, and MHC. She is focused on psych and bio. I am extremely happy to hear about PLUM. It has been a concern that there doesn’t seem to be as much structured support available if a class is causing difficulties. For example, the STEM has weekly study groups, test reviews, friendly teachers, and certified tutors for one-on-ones. MHC seemed to only have friendly teachers and help in the non-science areas. Are there tutors available through MHC? I did a search and all I found was that MHC provides tutors to the surrounding area. There was nothing about a learning coordinator or how a student that needs one-on-one help can get that help.
@Let’sDance MHC does indeed provide tutors to struggling students. I tutored two students last semester in math, and I know other people who’ve received and done tutoring in other subjects as well, including psychology. I think you just need to email or ask a professor and they’ll help with finding you one. The SAW (speaking, arguing, writing) center isn’t just for humanities. There are people there who are specifically trained in science writing. Like most of the resources on campus, the impetus is on the student to seek them out, but they’re there and they’re extremely useful. Office hours are also great - the professors want to help and make sure you understand concepts, and you can make specific appointments with them if office hours don’t work and you want to go over a particular concept. I believe things go through Accessibility if you have a diagnosed learning disability and need accommodations or extra help related to that.
Thanks for keeping this thread going @FireflyLights - one of the things that comes up on threads elsewhere is the use of drugs/alcohol/pot on other campuses. Do you feel that this is an issue at Mount Holyoke? And if so, is it a big enough issue to be a problem? I would not think this would be an issue but just checking!
@wetsunshine I haven’t personally experienced anything related to drugs or alcohol, but that’s probably as a result of my personal aversion to parties. The way I see it, the presence of alcohol and underage drinking is a fact of life in the undergraduate environment. It occurs, to some extent, everywhere. Mt. Holyoke is no exception. I do think, from what my high school friends at other colleges tell me, that on the sliding scale of drinking Mt Holyoke is on the very low end. It’s much less of a problem here than it is at many places. As for drugs, I think that some people smoke pot, but I haven’t heard of any hard drugs or issues with that. Students who want the party scene tend to find it more off campus. I’ve never felt uncomfortable or pressured at all.
I realize that 14K per year is not negligible as a difference but pleas make your decision based upon where you REALLY want to attend school. I think you are absolutely right that the small college environment will be better for you if you want to study computer science. You should know that big Silicon Valley companies are recruiting at Mount Holyoke and similar women’s colleges in an effort to address the huge gender gap in the field. So, not only will you be happier and learn better at Mount Holyoke but your career options may be enhanced in comparison to the LARGE STATE U. Over a lifetime, the 14 K differential will seem like a pittance so please try to ignore it or figure out how to deal with it in a positive way. Good luck! You’ll love Mount Holyoke.