I’m a high school senior and I’m very interested in BMC that it’s practically my first choice next to Wellesley. I’m currently undecided but was wondering if I could major in let’s say Economics at Haverford or Business at UPenn while still being enrolled at BMC. How common is this amongst BMC students?
Bryn Mawr and Haverford (the Bi-Co) are located in close proximity, and students can freely take classes and declare majors at either school. This is particularly common for majors that are only offered at one of the two schools. For example, BMC doesn’t offer a music major, but BMC students can still major in music at Haverford. In the same way, Haverford doesn’t offer a geology major, but Haverford students can still major in geology at BMC.
Other majors, like biology or English or economics, are offered at both schools. It would be less common for a BMC student to major in econ at Haverford, since BMC has its own econ program. However, a BMC student could still choose to major in econ at Haverford, rather than at BMC, if the Haverford program seemed like a better fit.
Bryn Mawr and Haverford students can take classes at Swarthmore or Penn through the Quaker Consortium, but cannot declare majors there. Swarthmore and Penn are much less convenient to BMC than Haverford is. So a BMC student wouldn’t typically go to these other schools except for a class not available in the Bi-Co.
Also, I believe that BMC, Haverford, and Swarthmore (Tri-Co) undergraduates are normally restricted to taking classes in the School of Arts and Sciences at Penn (i.e. the liberal arts division). So a BMC student could take a specialized economics course at Penn, because the Penn School of Arts and Sciences includes an economics department.
But note that Penn handles “business” differently from “economics”. Business is a professional discipline (not liberal arts) handled by the Wharton Business School (i.e a professional school). I doubt that Tri-Co students have access to undergraduate business classes at Wharton.
My D is a BMC grad–she took one course at UPenn and it was a major hassle–getting back and forth took up more time than she expected (as much as 45 minutes). Logistically, it was much easier for her to take courses at Haverford, which she did. Her major was one that was offered only at BMC so there were Haverford students in her classes.
The course she took at UPenn was one that wasn’t offered by her department. I believe there’s a limit on the number of courses that one can take at Penn. Here’s what the current BMC catalog says about the Bi-Co, Tri-Co and Penn:
https://www.brynmawr.edu/academics/bi-co-tri-co-and-penn-0
My D is a first year at BMC (studying econ). Indeed, Haverford classes are completely available to you if you see fit. Other than the BMC freshman writing course (ESem), you will likely find Haverford students in all of your classes at BMC.
You can do your major Haverford and you could even live in their dorms. The real question is will you want to. There are tons of Bi-Co clubs, so you can end up spending lots of time at Haverford or none.
Indeed, you can take classes at Penn, but not at Wharton. As I understand it, sometimes their academic calendars do not line up, so you might need stick around for an extra week after your finals are over.
My daughter is planning to take a Penn class next fall. She’s already planning to be in Philly for something else, so she figures she’ll make good use of her trip.
My daughter is seriously considering Bryn Mawr, but I’m concerned to hear in your comment @arc918 that “you will likely find Haverford students in all of your classes at BMC.” She is really looking for the women’s college experience, both in and out of the classroom.
There are commonly Haverford students in BMC classes (and vice-versa). Keep in mind, though, that Haverford students will normally be a minority in this situation – and also that Haverford students are about 52% female. So while BMC may not have an exclusively female academic environment, it is one in which women clearly predominate.
Also note that a number of other well-known women’s colleges – such as Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard, and Scripps – are involved in similar academic consortiums with coed schools. So there may not be an exclusively female classroom environment at these other schools either, although I suspect that cross-enrollment is particularly common in the Bi-Co.
There are also male professors at BMC. I’m not sure if any of women’s college that are free from men.
My daughter was not looking for women’s college per se, she just happen to find BMC and it seems to be working out nicely for her. I suspect a fair amount of BMC students fall in this category.
Obviously, she’s not trying to find an environment that’s “free of men.” Of course, there are male faculty. That’s ridiculous. She enjoys the collaborative nature of women and she is specifically applying to a women’s college. Your daughter perhaps had other priorities: college size, major… And yes, she is aware of the consortium on other campuses, but it’s one of the questions she specifically asked on her tours and only Barnard admitted that “most of their classes contained Columbia students.” Smith had a small percentage. Mount Holyoke had very few for geographic reasons, as did Wellesley.
I think she would still find Bryn Mawr very much a women’s college experience with a very collaborative, supportive environment.