<p>Has she had a chance to browse a Fiske Guide and maybe a Colleges that Change Lives? CTCL has a website, but I think the book may be more in depth? Haven’t seen it in a long time, though.</p>
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<p>Carleton is within an hour of the Twin Cities, Wheaton is within an hour of Boston, Ursinus is within an hour of Philadelphia. Otherwise, these schools aren’t too well situated for access to thriving cities. Carleton may be out of reach for 1250 SAT CR/M. Colby and Kenyon are reaches. The others should be realistic admission matches. For her wish list & stats, Wheaton and Ursinus seem to match best. </p>
<p>Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>We now have both a Fiske guide & a CTCL - thank you. A few have suggested women’s colleges. Do you know which of the women’s colleges have easy access to classes at nearby colleges with boys bc I know my D wants the male perspective in the classroom, as well as the social interaction? </p>
<p>Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, and Smith are all part of consortiums where there are lots of boys. </p>
<p>I replied to a question from MommaBear3 privately but I will also post the response here in case any one else is considering the same:</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke and Smith are both part of the 5-college consortium with Amherst College, UMass Amherst, and Hampshire. There is a free bus that makes the rounds and students can take classes at all 5 schools. We did see a few male students on campus at both schools on various visits. I know that the MHC girls use the buses to go to the Amherst library to “study” (meet boys) as well as on weekend nights for parties. Depending on which school you’re going to, it can be a 20-40 minute bus ride I think. But it’s free. And of course you can also go walk around the towns of Amherst and Northampton and meet other students. It’s a really neat area!</p>
<p>Wellesley has cross registration with MIT and some women do take classes there. They also have a shuttle bus into Boston. My understanding is that at Wellesley the women tend to stay on campus during the week and then go to Boston to socialize on weekends. Free bus to Harvard, MIT, etc. Babson College is also in the same town as Wellesley, about 1.5 miles away. </p>
<p>On the west coast, Scripps is part of the Claremont consortium. I guess it’s walking distance to the other schools? So maybe even more integration.</p>
<p>But in our experience, my D is perfectly happy with the amount of male contact she’ll have at MHC. She is really happy about the trade-off of perhaps having to put a bit more effort into meeting boys, but on the other hand not have to deal with drunk boys vomiting in her hall every weekend. That is one thing the MHC women talk about… they like that they can easily go mingle and socialize with men, but at the end of the day they can come home to their relatively quiet, calm, supportive community and not deal with the craziness.</p>
<p>I’ll also add that there are tons of male professors at MHC and Smith. Probably the same ratio as at co-ed schools. So even if there are not men as students in class all the time, it’s not like it’s all-women all-the-time :)</p>
<p>In the end, the things that were important to my D -a high percentage of really engaged, passionate and intellectual students who really WANTED to be there; close contact with supportive professors; small class size; beautiful campus; welcoming; strong sense of community; strong academics; no Greek life/insane drinking culture- seemed easier to find in the women’s colleges. There’s also something about the level of schools we are looking at here. At many of the co-ed ones we visited that were matches for her stats she got a feeling that the schools were second-choice for kids who wished they were going to Yale, UChicago, Tufts, Williams, or whatever, and there was just a higher level of apathy or at least not a real sense of excitement about being there. The women’s colleges are a more self-selecting group. A much higher percentage of students seemed to be really engaged and passionate. That was very appealing to her. Also- the alumni networks at women’s colleges are amazing!</p>