<p>I am interested in pursuing a career in public health, specifically international environmental health when I graduate. (Though I might consider a pre-medical path) I am a complete fan of the interdisciplinary and would like to major in biology and anthropology or environmental sciences and international affairs. I am waitlisted at Wellesley and would love to attend but I'm not going to hold my breath. Can anyone advise me on which college (Bryn Mawr or Mount Holyoke) might best suit my interests? I have a feeling BMC is stronger in the humanities but has a better overall academic reputation. It also lacks an independent environmental sciences major and only has an international studies minor. I don't know- I love them both! Thank you for your time.</p>
<p>WAHHHHH Hey girl, we really have the same interest… global health, maybe environment. would like to major in biology and anthropology or environmental study…I also want to minor in spanish… struggling between MHC and Macalester… Hope someone can share some info about MHC.
Nice to meet you!!
Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Neither one of you can make a mistake where ever you choose to go.</p>
<p>FYI, MHC just received a donation of $5million from an alumna for use in envirnmental studies, science, interning, teaching, etc. Check out the MHC web site for the announcement of about 2 weeks ago. My D has had some interest in Environmental Sciences, so this caught my attention. I suspect that MHC will soon have new developments in the environmental sciences arena over the next few months and years due to the generous ear-marked donation.</p>
<p>As a disclaimer, I’m an MHC student, so I’m a little biased, but…</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke is easily the better of the two in sciences. We have world-renowned facilities and faculty, and a brand new Environmental Sciences center has just been opened. One of my best friends is an Environmental Studies/Biology major, and has been getting job offers from all over the place. Mount Holyoke is also in one of the most studied ecosystems in the country, the Pioneer Valley, where resources and study topics are ENDLESS!</p>
<p>Thank you for your help everybody! I still cannot decide. Mount Holyoke seems to attract more fun-loving types and Bryn Mawr seems a little more subdued. Could students or graduates share their favorite memories of each school? What they loved and what they couldn’t stand? </p>
<p>Sincerely,
“losing sleep” 
caterpillar14</p>
<p>There is a long thread in the Parents’ Forum page regarding the Seven Sisters which might help, in case you have not yet see it:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/906947-got-seven-sisters-choose.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/906947-got-seven-sisters-choose.html</a></p>
<p>You are not alone in your dilemma.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr definitely has plenty of fun-loving types! Sure, we’re serious about our work, but we also like to let loose with our friends. Some of my best experiences at Bryn Mawr were playing drinking games (with just a few friends) to Mulan and other Disney classics. Other great experiences can be found off-campus, if you start feeling claustrophobic on our small-ish campus. I’m from Northampton, MA (right near MHC) and it is easier to get between schools in the tri-co than it is in the 5 college consortium, as well as easier to get into a large city. I went to so many awesome concerts in Philadelphia my freshman year. I would never have been able to attend those concerts during high school because those bands, for the most part, didn’t play Northampton (though Northampton has some great venues). Philadelphia also has great Vietnamese cuisine in Chinatown – another great experience: my friend, an international student from china, took a few of us to a Vietnamese noodle restaurant in Chinatown that served “better noodles than places in China” and we ate noodles, and watched vietnamese soap operas playing in the restaurant, till we could barely walk back to the train station. </p>
<p>Still, Northampton and the five college area has a great vibe that I find myself really missing at times. It was wonderful growing up there. Sometimes I wish I had considered Smith and MHC, instead of just crossing them off my list because they were, as I thought at the time, “too close to home.”</p>
<p>Regardless, which ever school you attend will afford you a billion opportunities that you can take advantage of (or not). </p>
<p>Also, I’m a huge fan of women’s colleges in general. High school social scenes encourage girls to have social lives that revolve around boys, or to base their sense of self-worth on how desirable men find them. Going to a women’s college can, if anything, disrupt the sometimes destructive patterns that high school social scenes foster. I’ve found I can exist, that life goes on, without men around! This is an empowering feeling.</p>
<p>MadWoman; great, richly descriptive post, I’m glad to hear of the life beyond books. Proximity to Philadelphia is a huge draw; the food, the entertainment, the culture, the food (yes, I have that twice)! When we attended the “Bryn Mawr Experience” recently, there were some amazing speakers. One terrific alum was a lawyer specializing in public health issues. A current student spoke of her research on the effects of dance therapy in the rehabilitation treatment of child solders from Sudan (I might have the country wrong). We were blown away by the incredible comparative complexity of what the students & alum were up to.</p>