<p>So I am considering where to apply for next year.</p>
<p>The women's colleges I am considering are:</p>
<p>Wellesley
Mt. Holyoke
Scripps
Smith</p>
<p>Does anyone have an opinion on which one is 'better', or can characterize their academic culture for me? Anything you could contribute on one or more of these colleges would be great. Thanks!</p>
<p>I looked at all four of these schools and applied/was admitted to two (scripps and smith). </p>
<ul>
<li>Scripps is the smallest, and it sounds like they have an awesome community, from what I've heard. It's also the most tightly connected to other colleges. The Claremonts are literally walking distance away. The town of Claremont isn't exactly amazing, and you probably have to have a car to get to LA. I think there may be a bus or train, but public transit isn't that great around the LA area.</li>
<li>Wellesley is a gorgeous campus located in the dull town of Wellesley. Luckily, it's a 30-ish minute train ride to the city of Boston. If you like Boston, or need to be next to a big city, Wellesley is probably a better bet than the other schools. You can also take classes at some Boston-area colleges, such as MIT. </li>
<li>Smith is in the 5-college consortium of Western Mass. It's located in the large town/small city of Northampton. I personally like Northampton, but it may not be enough for real city types. It's also the biggest of the schools. The housing system is also unique --- you might want to check that out. </li>
<li>MHC is in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and is in the consortium with Smith. It's probably the most isolated of the schools. The town of South Hadley doesn't offer much, but Northampton is a bus ride away. Not a whole lot of convenient big cities. Some people love the peace and quiet while others may get bored.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>I don't think it's really fair to say one is academically better or worse than the others. In terms of "rankings," or reputation, Wellesley has an edge over the others. It's also probably somewhat harder to get into than the others. However, I wouldn't really make a big deal out of this. I've heard great things about the academics at all four of these places, and it really depends on the particular person. First of all, it may depend on the department you're interested in. For instance, Smith is the only one with an engineering department. Wellesley has reputation for being more pre-professional and competitive (however, these are just stereotypes, and you need to visit/research to judge for yourself). Also, the curriculums are somewhat different. Scripps has a core, MHC and Wellesley have distribution requirements, and Smith has an open curriculum.</p>
<p>I recommend that you visit and go with your gut. That's what I did.</p>
<p>I agree with arianneag. I too am applying next year but I'll probably apply to Smith ed. hence the biased tone of this post. </p>
<p>Smith has an open curriculum so you can take whatever classes you'd like. in addition you need less credits for a major than at most colleges. I just came back from teh campus yesterday and I have to say it was amazing. The town is really awesome and the housing system is even better than i imagined. </p>
<p>MHC is isolated as arianneag said. we went there too and the buildings were gorgeous but I felt like it was not as much fun as smith. To get anywhere you need the bus. </p>
<p>I've never been to Wellesley but I've too heard that it's very preprofessional. Most people go to Harvard on the weekends. </p>
<p>I don't really know much about scripps but I've only heard raves about it and the claremont colleges are amazing. </p>
<p><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=CZ1pZjb-YyA%5B/url%5D">http://youtube.com/watch?v=CZ1pZjb-YyA</a></p>
<p>That's a short clip of the simpsons stereotyping the seven sisters. Although it's not extremely accurate it is entertaining. I found it on another thread here.</p>
<p>i don't think there's one that's "better". they are all really great schools so you have to find the one that's "better" for you. i am actually looking into three womens colleges myself: barnard, wellesley, and smith</p>
<p>I would echo what the others have generally said, admitting my Wellesley bias. </p>
<p>So far, it's unanimous: Mount Holyoke has the most isolated campus. Personally, I didn't like either the school or the town's appearance/feeling/atmosphere/whatever, but of course that is a highly personal observation. Reputation wise, MHC is probably the least of the remaining 7 sisters, but that is by no means a mark of an inferior education or experience for any one person. For what it's worth. </p>
<p>Smith has a very strong reputation academically, and benefits from the 5 college consortium. Beyond that, I don't know very much, because I was in Northampton and didn't like it and thus refused to consider ANY of those colleges. </p>
<p>Scripps also has the consortium benefit as part of the Claremonts, and I second the fact that it has a reputation as a very close knit community. Personally, it was way way too small for me--a quarter or less the size of my HS. It is probably also the least well-known of these four schools, but of course well-known/not well-known does not in any way determine the quality of the education. That is a concern for some, though, and so I do think it is worth mentioning. </p>
<p>Wellesley was the only women's college that I applied to, and I am certainly considering it. Personally, the preprofessional thing doesn't really bother me (I didn't find it overwhelming in my visit and my other research about Wellesley), but I would say that Wellesley projects a very driven atmosphere. Not cutthroat, I don't think, but focused. Seems like a work first type of place. Cross registration with MIT is a huge draw for me as a prospective math major, and campus is incredibly beautiful. Even my father, architect and Princeton grad (they have a pretty nice campus, too!!) tells people that you couldn't find a more beautiful campus. </p>
<p>The four schools seem to have pretty different personalities, so like many of these decisions, it would come down to what fits you the best. If at all possible, visit these and other schools--it's the single most helpful way to figure out whether you should apply to a school or not.</p>
<p>what about bryn mawr? its one of the seven sisters (along with MHC, Smith, and Wellseley)</p>
<p>^ Second that Bryn Mawr plug. Granted, I will unfortunately not be attending Bryn Mawr next year due to finances (I'll be attending another women's college, Hollins, which I totally endorse looking into, as well!! :D GO HOLLINS!!), but Bryn Mawr was my first choice and still holds a very special place in my heart.</p>
<p>But all of those schools are really amazing and you can't go wrong if you choose to attend any of them, academically. In terms of personality and fit, that's a different story. I, unfortunately, don't know much about any of those schools except broad, sweeping generalizations that wouldn't help you much. GL when you apply, though :)</p>
<p>Let me be the third to endorse the consideration of Bryn Mawr. My D turned down Hollins for BMC, and will be graduating in '08. Hasn't the slightest regret.</p>
<p>I believe that Mount Holyoke has the smoothest pathway into a public or private teaching career for secondary or elementary ages. All 5 years are under Moho's roof. I went from Oberlin to a silly teachers' college for the masters degree. That was an intellectual let-down, not to mention a nuisance to move just for one year of a masters degree.
In retrospect, I'd rather have been taught Education courses by quality professors with no need to relocate for that 5th year, ending up with a masters and certification to teach in Massachusetts.
It's just one small program there, but I admire it.
I met some powerful dance majors from Moho; they were in Amherst productions. I heard that Smith is great for ballet.</p>
<p>Smith has a beautiful campus designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, America's foremost landscape architect, who also did NYC's Central Park. Walking that campus is a very dynamic, kinesthetic experience at every turn, with land, buildings and water all revealing themselves and unfolding as you walk. It's more than pretty, it's brilliant. </p>
<p>Study Moho and Smith in context of the Five College Consortium, noting that they have shuttle busses constantly between those two places, or Amherst, UMass at Amherst, adn Hampshire. So they are small but within so many students it has the advantage of a large university.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about the other 2; no direct experience.</p>
<p>This is OT here, but FWIW I think Oberlin now actually has, or is now starting, that 5th year teaching program; didn't then I know.</p>
<p>I'll fourth Bryn Mawr! It has the reputation of being the most "intellectual" of the Seven Sisters (basically meaning that a huge number of grads end up getting PhDs, not that the others aren't intellectual, too). Like many of the Seven Sisters, it's well-respected by people who know academia and virtually unknown by many others.
BMC has a teaching credential program and education minor.</p>
<p>True that, Oberlin's 5th year for teachers starts next year with its first l0 students and will expand. To keep thread on topic, obviously OP's posting is being read by many families, but I'm wary of veering off topic too far. Seems that she's committed to all-women's education.</p>
<p>Correcting my info re: Moho + Education: if you pursue that idea (anywhere!) please make double-sure I'm right that it's "secondary and elementary" since many fine LAC's
are creating 5-year degrees but for secondary, not elementary, teaching! And you must major in that subject area, too. In other words, don't assume elementary at MoHo without checking beyond my paragraph. Hehe, maybe it's furthest from your mind, OP!! But I admire Mount Holyoke for doing this some years back.</p>
<p>To add something very WISE I heard from a Smithie when D toured her campus 5 years ago, unsure how to assess whether all-women's was right for her: "Consider who is your friendship circle is in high school as a baseline. If all your h.s. friends now are women, you won't miss the presence of men [as campus colleagues]. But if your close h.s. friends include women and men, then you'll miss men at college and have to deal with that issue." THAT was the most helpful thing anybody ever said to us on that famous subject!! </p>
<p>OP, you have a very worthy list of colleges there. We'll all look forward to hearing more about your favorite original choices. And others are suggesting Bryn Mawr, too. YOu had sought more info on: </p>
<pre><code> Wellesley
Mt. Holyoke
Scripps
Smith
</code></pre>
<p>I can add about my perceptions of the 3 towns of South Hadley (home of MoHo) Northampton ("NoHo" home of Smith) and Amherst (home of Amherst, UMass at Amherst, and Hampshire). These are the 3 College towns of the "Five College Consortium." </p>
<p>Source credibility: My S attended Amherst and graduated 2 years ago; I lived in Northampton 25 years ago and took a masters degree in planning at UMass Amherst. With the 4 years of visiting son, we got to update my view of Northampton and get a glimpse of how the Consortium worked for S. So I can only report what I know as a recent parent and area alumna, and WELCOME UPDATES, obviously! I think it's important to understand Five College Consortium, if you are considering either Mt. Holyoke or Smith.</p>
<p>Don't just look at the individual college's course catlogue or events listing; also consult the Five College Events calendar each day, and the courses of all 5 colleges, to see what's avaiable to you. My S certainly checked his "5-college-events" even before his "Amherst College events" daily before deciding which 3 things to do each evening/</p>
<p>The Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts is beautiful, rural, very clean/crisp suburban but with historic underpinnings. Jonathan Edwards founded Northampton in the 1620's, and I think it was the very next place after Plimoth Colony, so it goes way back historically. It is also very progressive politcally, academically, culturally. What was farmland 30 years ago is now suburban but there are still many vestiges of the farm architecture and land patterns, the central New England village greens all well preserved in the towns. Great appreciation there locally of the history. So they kind of pushed all the "box stores" onto one strip of highway called "Route 9" in Hadley (which is NOT South Hadley). It's there in the area, and available by shuttle bus, but sits in between the 3 college towns themselves. </p>
<p>Imagine a triangle between South Hadley, Amherst and Northampton, with free shuttle busses connecting them all. Stats say that the average student takes one course on another campus per year for four years. Enrolment is open, and each student weighs the course scheduling and extra time to get to campus against all the postive gains to get a change-of-scene, enjoy a different course/language/prof from another campus, participate in an EC which are often shared between campuses, or just socialize. As just one example, my Amherst S found it very worthwhile to take the Smith playwriting course b/c of a great prof (and he already liked his prof at Amherst in same subject, just wanted another persepctive); met people from Hillel which is joint between Smith and Amherst; ran over to UMass on rare occasion to hear a speaker or
perform a musical; met many from MoHo and Smith in Amherst College theater productions on his home campus. I could see that his friends had friends on every campus. Heads-up: I've read one complaint from a MoHo Freshman on CC that it wasn't working well for her, this 5-College Consortium so you'd have to look at that with care to determine if it's structural or just her freshman hesitancy. She wrote in that MoHo people went to everyone else's campus, but nobody came to theirs, but I can't evaluate that; others maybe can.</p>
<p>South Hadley (Mt. Holyoke's town) is picturesque, classic New England town with no visual trace of suburbia. Maybe a few blocks long, your folks could stay in a Bed-n-Breakfast, have scones, eat in a cafe with you, buy books, all that, right across the road from the college entrance, which has beautiful architecture.</p>
<p>Northampton (Smith) is a small city with important history, as the second place colonized soon after Plimoth Colony (yes I'm spelling it correctly) by Jonathan Edwards in the 1620's. Most of the visible architecture in the city today is from the late 1900's or early 20th century. It is Safe, Clean, Lively, Dynamic, Pleasant to walk anywhere on the streets of Northampton. I've never been West, but I imagine it's akin to San Francisco. NoHo is chock full of cafes, bookstores, renovated theater lofts on second floors above shoppes, and bulletin boards plastered with community grass-roots events related to the arts, culture and politics. NoHo is extremely family-friendly and gay-friendly, a very positive experience. I love it. The Smith campus itself is so beautiful, but it's all behind gates so many from Northampton just see it from the outside. But I recall seeing an large inner courtyard between brick buildings, then walks around ponds and hills all sculpted by Frederick Law Olmstead, some botantical buildings, and even a horse-and-rider galloped by. I learned that you can board your HORSE at Smith, so somebody was enjoying her morning equestrian thing around the campus, I guess. Always a surprise.</p>
<p>The Town of Amherst is also worth describing, since you'd hopefully go over there too, for a course or EC or friends. It's much like Northampton but more small-town-modern; a resident there described her town's main street like this: cafe, cafe, bookstore, craft shop, restaurant, bank, bookstore, cafe. It's lovely.</p>
<p>The road between Northampton and Amherst is called "Route 9" with all the box stores. chain restaurants and so on. It was formerly a great farming community (called Hadley) but many of the farms sold off to residential development in the late 20th century, so now it's a suburban strip along Route 9. It can't always handle all that college traffic, so at times even though it's just 8 miles (estimate) between Smith and Amherst, it can take 30 minutes if you hit the region's rush hour. The shuttle bus stops in the middle at those mall stores (target, friendly's, etc) , in case you need something from there not avaialble in the town stores. Route 9 also has the national hotel chains so your folks can make a reservation and stay there if they come by car. </p>
<p>So basically, whichever of the 3 towns you are in, you can experience the historic architecture and layout of old New England communities, with progressive college feel, and know that the box-stores are in the triangle but not imposing on you constantly. They are in this spaghetti strip called Route 9. </p>
<p>There's a small range of "mountains" (hills if you're from the West) called the Holyoke Range that runs East-to-West across the region and it somewhat separates Mount Holyoke (on the south side) from the other 4 campuses on the north side. So if you go home by bus from Smith to MoHo, you'd mostly just see the rolling hills, and no Route 9.</p>
<p>It's not that Route 9 is ugly, it's just ordinary. But it serves a functional role for modern shopping for all 5 colleges.</p>
<p>You generally will bump into UMass Amherst kids in the Town of Amherst or attending various 5-college events. Even though there are 20,000 of them, they are mostly very busy on their own campus which is located on the other side of the Town of Amherst from Amherst College. So you see, the Town becomes the meeting ground more so than the campus.</p>
<p>Hampshire students add a good dimension to the whole region. Their school was founded in the l960's by the other 4 schools, and curriculum designed to have students take advantage of all the offerings of the other 4. Although there are some Hampshire campus courses, mostly those students are encouared to be adventurous and come onto other campuses often to carry out their Big Projects (there's another name, but they all have integrating huge projects to pursue, cross the disciplines). So they kind of tuck into every corner of every campus and add some interest. Very creative souls, often. They were all over the theater EC's, choirs, a-cappella groups, etc.</p>
<p>My son[s only real gripe in 4 years was ground transpo to the airport, but after a while he got to know friends with cars. The greyhound and Amtrak (train) connections are good for the Northeast. There's also a (free??) shuttle daily from the UMass campus center to and from Boston, 2 hours to the east.</p>
<p>The only way the region is "unfair" is that straight males at Amherst have way too much attention, IMHO, because the odds are so in their favor. But that's not the only story in the region, obviously. It was just my perception, y'know, coming off of OBerlin with its 50-50 coed thing all the time since the Civil War.</p>
<p>i DEFINITELYYY think you should consider BRYN MAWR!</p>
<p>undoubtedly, there are many who dont know about it because it is usually overshadowed by wellesley and smith. However, Bryn Mawr is great in terms of being one of the top feeder schools into the top grad schools (according to Wall Street Journal, it ranked right below cornell) and i was surprised smith wasn't there.</p>
<p>also, bryn mawr has one of the best dorms EVER and has great food. students also have cross registration rights at Haverford, Swarthmore and UPENN. students can take classes at those schools</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr is also extremely close to Philadelphia (for those who really want to be near a big city) </p>
<p>:) seriously consider bmc</p>
<p>I didn't end up applying, but I was also very impressed with Bryn Mawr's academic record and lovely (from what I could see) campus. </p>
<p>Now that I've decided, though, I'm going to unabashedly plug Wellesley, especially since we've gotten the Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Bryn Mawr perspective more. Though the town of Wellesley is only okay (it's really pretty, but not really college town atmosphere), the campus itself is absolutely gorgeous--also designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted (junior, I believe)--it was definitely the most beautiful campus that I personally visited. Though it is a <em>bit</em> of a commute (30-45 min), they make it very convienient to get into Boston and to get to Cambridge to visit Harvard and MIT and cross-register at MIT. There is also cross-registration at Olin, Brandeis, and Babson. The Bus that makes these trips leaves every hour, and is free during the week and $2 on weekends (about as cheap as you could possibly, possibly get into a major city). Wellesley, of course, has excellent academics, but so do all of these other schools. Wellesley also has an incredible, supportive (not annoying) alumnae network that pretty much everyone associated with the College cannot say enough about. Wellesley is also in the happy position of presiding over a huge endowment that makes for incredible resources for the students. The support system seems great, as well--I can't wait to have all my advisors helping me out. </p>
<p>Wellesley isn't for everyone, of course, and I certainly have nothing bad to say about these other schools, which are all fabulous in their own right. It really comes down to personality and fit and which school feels right.</p>
<p>If you want an urban setting, Barnard college. New York City, connection to Columbia, NYU downtown…everything and anything at your fingertips.</p>