<p>Which do you think has the strongest Art History department? From what I've read, Wellesley focuses more on wall street type departments, with more competitive students than Bryn Mawr, which leans more toward community and more education/public service/law/etc type students/departments. Also, Wellesley's consortium doesn't seem as strong as Bryn Mawr's, but I still really like Wellesley. :) thoughts?</p>
<p>First, congratulations on getting into all these schools! That’s quite an achievement.</p>
<p>Second, your title and your post are a bit mis-matched. It sounds like this is less of a comparison between Bryn Mawr, Smith, Wellesley, and Williams but one of Bryn Mawr vs Wellesley. </p>
<p>As I’ve only attended Wellesley, I can really only speak to them. While Wellesley does have lots of students who go into “wall street type departments” (I think you mean Economics/Political Science here), Art History is a HUGE department – definitely in the top 5, possibly the top 3 with Economics and Psychology being larger departments as well. </p>
<p>I think what sets Wellesley students apart from other schools’ students is that everyone at Wellesley is interested in a variety of departments. A lot of people double major or major and minor and you’ll see a lot of people doing Economics AND Art History or Political Science AND Spanish/English, etc. And from that you’ll see your fair share of students applying for banking jobs, applying to law school or working in law firms, but also working in education, public policy, etc. It’s all there.</p>
<p>What I can say about my friend’s who have studied art history is that 1) they love the department, the professors, everything about it and 2) they’ve found jobs in all sorts of fields: any of the museums (MoMA, Met, Louvre, etc), auction houses (Sotheby’s recruits on-campus as well as some others), etc, or their going to graduate school for painting, drawing, etc. You’ll also find people interested in art but are applying it to different industries – these would be people who want to bring the arts into schools across the US or foreign countries, people who want to make sure the arts is something that political figures care about when determining upcoming laws or bills, and people who want to actually be artists and show their work in galleries or tour the country in the case of musicians. There are also study abroad options you can take advantage of – I’ve had friends work in archaeological digs around the world for art history projects/classes, among other really cool experiences. If professors have projects like that over the summer, they allow students to go on the trips with them to learn about hands-on research; this applies to a variety of departments: art history, chemistry, biology, physics, economics…</p>
<p>As far as the consortium, I’m not sure what you mean by Wellesley’s not being as strong as BM’s. First, Wellesley doesn’t really have a “consortium” a la Williams/Smith and their 5 college consortium. Wellesley does have cross-registration with Olin, Babson, Bentley, and MIT and is a member of the 7 college exchange program, which includes Dartmouth and other schools. I don’t feel like Art History students usually participate in these particular programs since the department at Wellesley is already really strong. Most people I know who cross-register are interested in engineering for example – while students want the well-rounded, broad education that a liberal arts college offers, if they also want a foundation in engineering there’s a Certificate program through Olin College of Engineering and the chance to take any of the courses at MIT. </p>
<p>I believe Bryn Mawr has a similar set-up with UPenn, Haverford, Swarthmore, etc but someone on that board could speak better to that.</p>
<p>Hi 
thanks, but I’m just an overeager high school sophomore trying to figure this out (early, I suppose). And in my mind, I’m basically weighing Bryn Mawr vs. everything else. I find it interesting Wellesley students are involved in multiple areas, as I’d like to major in art history, but also concentrate in French, Spanish, and Italian. As to the arrangements with other colleges, maybe “strong” isn’t the best word…more involved maybe, as BMC students are free to participate in clubs and activities at Haverford, as well. Definitely, I’m still strongly considering Wellesley, but I don’t have to make that decision for almost two years :)</p>
<p>Wellesley can be involved in clubs and organizations at Olin, Babson, Bentley, and MIT too so you’ll have more than enough to do at whatever school.</p>
<p>It’s great you’re doing all this research now! You’ll be really prepared when applications come around :)</p>