<p>My daughter has been accepted at bryn mawr, mount holyoke, scripps, bates , and sarah lawrence. Is an international and interested in eco with pol sc or philososphy. Can you help us decide. Thanks</p>
<p>What are the pluses and minuses of each, as your D sees them?</p>
<p>Your child (daughter, I presume, eh?) has some interesting choices. All are smallish LACs, and several are women's colleges, which I will presume she is ok with. Some points to consider:</p>
<p>1) How big is each school? Will she prefer the small size or be stifled?
2) Where is each school - what is around it? How far to mid-size city, major city? Can she do internships or have other off campus experiences?
3) What other schools are around it? Is it in a group where she can take courses at other schools?
4) How cold can she stand to be? Really, really cold for a lot of months? or just tepid?
5) Are they all equally far from home? Does she prefer the 3 hour drive rule? or want the parents at least 5 hours away by air? </p>
<p>I think they group as follows:
In a consortium with other schools:
- Scripps - with the other 4 colleges in Claremont - basically make up a 5200 person mid-size university with campuses that run into each other. I believe that S teams up with Harvey Mudd and maybe Claremont for intercollegiate sports. She can take classes at a lot of the other Claremont colleges - a big plus for specialization. Weather is generally gorgeous. LA is near-ish.
- Mt Holyoke - in consortium with the NE five colleges, but a bus ride back and forth for some. UMass is part of the mix - something like 15,000 kids. Neat school, have friends kids who go there and love it. It can get cold. Biggest near town is Northampton (college town USA, New England version), boston a 90 minute trip by car.
- Bryn Mawr - in consortum with Haverford and and Swarthmore. Great schools, a hyper-intellectual environment, wonderful tradisition - but all three are small. A fast train ride to center city Philly, and access to U Penn to hang out. Gets coldish in winter.
- Bates - Coed, way up in Maine, no schools in consortium nearby. Nice place, but it gets really really really cold. Lots of winter activities, etc - in the NESCAC for athletics and competitive sports teams.
- Sarah Lawrence - smaller (1300 students), no consortium that I can recall, and frankly a less competitive school. She can find better teachers and better students a little further up the list.</p>
<p>So, I ranked them in my order. If she wants Lotusland, go for Scripps. If she wants a huge array of choices among different schools, and a great intellectual environment for independent women, then Holyoke or Bryn Mawr. Personally, I don't see Bates at quite the level of Holyoke or Bbryn Mawr when it comes time for grad school - but there are others out there who will disagree with me violently.</p>
<p>Visit the schools, if you can - if not, then get her busy diving the web sites and using Face Book to link up with other kids. She has some great choices.</p>
<p>thanks, very well summed up</p>