<p>I'm most interested in hearing thoughts on Bryn Mawr vs. Smith vs. Mount Holyoke. Any major differences, putting location aside? I know there are many similarities (strong sciences, consortium, although with different colleges, obviously). How do the student populations vary? Or, if you've only been to one, what was it like? I have heard Smith can be a bit nose-in-the-air... no offense, Smithies. (:</p>
<p>I have visited BMC twice and really liked it. I think I have a good chance of getting in so long as I get good grades this year (going in as a transfer with 30+ credits). Are any of them notorious for not admitting transfers? I know Vassar is...</p>
<p>All great schools. Two big differences: 1) Smith has a totally open curriculum, others have distributional requirements; 2) Smith is right inside a wonderful town (not 20 minutes away or 40 minutes, etc.) which gives it a very different feel. </p>
<p>Don’t think you’ll find nose in the air at any of them (large parts of their student bodies are interchangeable.)</p>
<p>Have you visited Smith or MHC? You might try to do that if you have the opportunity. Visiting while school is in session would be the best, and would probably give you a good chance to judge for yourself if there’s any nose in the air qualities (I certainly wouldn’t say Smithies were nose in the air, whatever that means). </p>
<p>Smith admits transfers, though I can’t say how it’s admittance rates compare with other schools. Some other notable differences: Smith is the only women’s college with an engineering degree, and if science is your thing they have a new engineering/genetics building that is supposed to be quite amazing. If science isn’t your thing, Smith has amazing archives and is home to the Sophia Smith Collection, a truly amazing archive on the history of women from all over the world. Includes Gloria Steinem’s papers and Jane Fonda’s just to name a couple of the more celebrity-types in there, but it’s a great archive dedicated to preserving the history of women from everywhere. A real goldmine if you’re interested in historical research. Smith also has an awesome English department and a great Poetry Center, it brings a poet to campus each month for a reading and book signing, and maintains the Center all the time as a place for students to write, read, and think poetry. Smith is also home to one of the best collegiate art museums in the country and has really top notch arts facilities. </p>
<p>Smith is larger than the other colleges, and unlike BMC, you’ll be able to take all the classes for your major right on campus if you choose to, you won’t need to go to the consortium schools for classes in art or music for example, though the BMC consortium schools are also a little closer than Smith is to the Five Colleges just geographically. One of the things that attracted me to Smith is that, while I had the option of drawing on the consortium, Smith was also very much a self-contained institution with robust offerings in all the areas I was interested in. </p>
<p>Also, the location is just really great. The town is very cultured, funky, with lots to do and good places to eat right at your doorstep.</p>
<p>I cannot comment on Bryn Mawr, but we did visit, and she was accepted to, Mt. Holyoke as a transfer. Both Smith and MH accept transfers.</p>
<p>She actually liked MH - the culture and campus - better. </p>
<p>The financial aid offer was a little bit better at Smith, but not enough that it would have made a difference. What made the difference, as a transfer, was that Smith offered her a better deal with her credits. She had finished a year at Brooklyn College, but she would have only started at MH as a second semester Freshman. She entered Smith as a Sophomore.</p>
<p>She is happy at Smith and hasn’t found any “nose in the air” atmosphere at all. Her word is that Smith is “chill.” </p>
<p>hehe, to be honest my mom was the one who said Smith was nose-in-the-air (aka, better-than-you attitude.) So I’m not surprised it goes a bit against that… would anyone say Smith is like… a lot of wealthy people? This is also something I have heard.</p>
<p>SmithieandProud: is there still a “campus like” setting despite being right in a town? You know, buildings set apart by picture-esque lawns. That kind of thing. (:</p>
<p>And, no, I have not visited MHC/Smith. Only Bryn Mawr two times and I loved it! I would also describe their atmosphere as “chill,” it just feels so homey and friendly. Would any of you say that BMC is “easier” (respectively!) to get into than Smith or MHC? Or would you say Smith/MHC place a greater emphasis on grades over recommendations/person/essay, etc?</p>
<p>Also, do any have standout psychology programs?</p>
<p>All of these sound like such fabulous schools (: I’m hoping to visit in the next month or so, unfortunately it may be done without parents support. M doesn’t believe in LAC’s, I’m just trying to prove that 1) there is financial aid, 2) that it makes the school affordable, and 3) they are not “roll your own degree” schools. Although Smith may sound like that haha!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>This is not a school dominated by “wealthy kids.” There is a very high percentage of girls getting financial aid including Pell Grants.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes there is a “campus feel.” Lots of green, lots of trees(it is considered an arboretum) and unique buildings.</p></li>
<li><p>The psychology department is strong including the leading authority on “hoarders” who gets a lot of face time on tv and in magazines.</p></li>
<li><p>The financial aid is very generous, including, I believe, to transfers.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Best of luck and I agree you must visit all the schools before making a decision.</p>
<p>My daughter transferred to Smith as a sophomore. When she was looking at schools, Smith stood out as transfer friendly. I didn’t do the research on the colleges she was looking at, but she said that Smith reserves a certain number of spots for transfers. Before applying, she and I flew to Massachusetts and visited Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and Smith. She was turned off by the tour guide at Amherst, who discouraged transfers saying something to the effect of…We figure Amherst is the best so we don’t tend to accept transfer hours. She had a tour and overnight visit to Mount Holyoke and liked it. Her last visit was to Smith, which she absolutely loved from almost the minute she stepped onto campus. She ended up not even applying to Amherst, was accepted at Mount Holyoke, Wellesly, and Smith, and chose Smith. She’s been very happy there, and I’m grateful for the great opportunities that Smith has given her. She’s in Paris this year for a JYA.</p>
<p>My d is a first year student, not a transfer, but I just wanted to say that from what I have seen, “nose in the air” attitude is farthest from the truth about Smith. It has an amazing open, warm and welcoming feeling. In my opinion the school and the students go out of their way to facilitate a positive transition to college and to Smith. It has a gorgeous campus within walking distance to Noho and unique housing system.</p>
<p>Just curious… all of you saying you transferred in/know someone who transferred in… did you have OUTSTANDING applications? I fully understand that the schools are prestigious, but I’m wondering if transfers, to be accepted, have to be “above and beyond” the average applicant pool (above & beyond what they say the average gpa/standardized test scores are, etc).</p>
<p>And you’ve all been so fantastic with answering questions: What are the academic atmospheres like at each school?</p>
<p>I don’t know that anyone can really comment on the academic atmospheres at all three schools unless they attended all three (did you ask this question on the other boards for BMC and MHC?). </p>
<p>Just re: Smith, for me I found the atmosphere to be supportive, but like everything else about Smith, it’s intense. Smithies hold themselves to pretty high standards, they’re much tougher on themselves then they are on their classmates. On the one hand, this is great, because by and large students really care and are invested in their classes and their studies because they want to do the best they can, for themselves. They’re also very supportive of fellow students. I spent hours at Smith reading and critiquing other peoples’ papers, for example (my grammar on CC might not show it, but I’m a pretty decent writer). I would always go to my friends for help with my econ problem sets. We’d share notes and ideas and sometimes just encouragement. And if we didn’t meet the personal standards we had set for ourselves (which, to be honest, were sometimes too much), it was great to have a community of women to fall back on. People that can prop you up, and tell you its going to be ok, and console you with ice cream and a worn-out DVD of “10 Things I Hate About You”. Or a bottle of vodka and a really good party mix (for those over 21, naturally). </p>
<p>Smith and Smithies are intense. They care a lot about the world and each other. Sometimes that’s great, sometimes its challenging. But overall, there are lots of campus resources to help you reach your goal. Some of those are tangible and official, like the Writing Center or the Quantitative Skills Center or Office Hours, some are less official and equally important, like having a great group of women who understand why you’re upset that you couldn’t quite express the moral quandary of King Lear the way you wanted to.</p>
<p>Notorious? Vassar doesn’t have some nefarious motive for admitting very few transfer students. The low percentage of transfer applicants admitted is due to nothing more than math. Vassar has low attrition; ergo, very few openings become available.</p>
<p>I would say that out of the three, Bryn Mawr has the largest percentage of wealthy students, although that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its share of those on FA. Bryn Mawr is located on the Philadelphia Main Line in an extremely exclusive suburb of Philadelphia. The train to Philadelphia stops a couple of blocks from the campus. I don’t know how many go into the city, but it’s much easier than going to Amherst from Smith.</p>
<p>Another unique aspect of Bryn Mawr is its association with Haverford. The two colleges, which are about 15 minutes apart and which are connected by frequent bus service, have combined their course catalogues so that course selection is larger than other small schools, although it’s probably comparable to Smith’s since Smith is roughly equal in number of students to Haverford and Bryn Mawr combined. My daughter discovered that if she went to Bryn Mawr or Haverford, she would have to take French at Bryn Mawr and Japanese at Haverford. IIRC, the sciences are divided similarly.</p>
<p>Although the Bryn Mawr/Haverford association would seem to make Bryn Mawr more coed in the classroom, the ratio of women to men in both colleges makes it strongly female. Last I looked, Haverford was 60% women. Add that to Bryn Mawr’s 100% women, and you still have a female-dominated academic setting.</p>
<p>I hope that adds some information to the Bryn Mawr side of things. Although my daughter chose Smith over MHC and Bryn Mawr, she almost went for Bryn Mawr. She has always said that she would have been happy there if she hadn’t gotten into Smith.</p>
<p>Thanks! I do know tons about Bryn Mawr (visiting, emailing with a few people, etc), I just want a place to compare them. I suppose this should be more like MHC/Smith since I know very little about those two. I think I will be able to visit soon to judge for myself though.</p>
<p>For anyone who knows Swarthmore: would you compare Smith to Swarthmore? I am afraid that Smith, or MHC’s, atmosphere will be Swat like. IMO, Swatties are too stressed out and overworked for my personality. I need a good balance, but still a challenging academic workload. I just don’t want 95% of my time (the other 5% used for sleeping haha) devoted ONLY to academics. Here’s a better way of putting it: do Smithies or MHC students have a “fun factor” at school?? Bryn Mawr literally made it a requirement (not sure how it works) for the students to have a “fun factor” in their education. Visiting is clearly the best idea, I’m just trying to get a feel before going! All three sound amazing. I think whichever gives me the best Fin Aid will be the winner.</p>
<p>And CrewDad, this is true. Notorious was probably a poor choice–but Vassar IS known not to take transfers regardless of the reason, which is why I’m not really interested in it… that, and it’s <em>too</em> close for me at about 20 minutes away.</p>
<p>My impression from BMC was always that they’re called the “Mawrters” because they spend pretty much all of their time studying. That’s a generalization of course, but that is what I’ve been told several times.</p>
<p>My D didn’t apply to Vassar when she transferred because they are very clear that they are need aware for transfers, whereas they are need blind for first year students (very much like Brown).</p>
<p>Students seem to have fun at all three in addition to studying hard. None of the three are party schools, but their students have extracurricular passions. MHC is the odd one out in that it is much more isolated than Smith or Bryn Mawr.</p>
Vassar doesn’t have some nefarious motive for admitting very few transfer students. The low percentage of transfer applicants admitted is due to nothing more than math. Vassar has low attrition; ergo, very few openings become available.</p>