<p>I think it is great that Smith has so many enthusiastic participants on this board.</p>
<p>I only wish we had the same kind of input from the other schools.</p>
<p>We really don’t have many CC members representing Bryn Mawr or Mount Holyoke especially.</p>
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Rather, I think posters want subjectiveness that is explicitly tempered by an understanding of that bias. Smith Boosters tend to be a bit overenthusiastic–JMHO. (It’s a good representation of Smith’s “in your face” quality, I suppose.) Smith really is not the best place for everyone looking at women’s colleges, just as Swarthmore isn’t necessarily the best fit for everyone cross-admitted with Williams or Amherst.</p>
<p>For example: WHY is Smith’s alumnae network better than Mt. Holyoke’s? (It may be, I have no idea, or it may not be.) WHY are Bryn Mawr’s classes and resources not MORE “incredible” than Smith’s and Wellesley’s? Biased statements are fine if you back them up with evidence so that other posters can draw their own conclusions.</p>
<p>No, I don’t want random opinions from any cheerleader of any school. I’d really appreciate pros and cons of each, neutrally stated. JHS, for example, laid out some neutral pros and cons earlier on - leading the reader / student to decide which axis is of most importance.</p>
<p>Keil-I think I stated my bias pretty clearly. I never said Smith was right for everyone. I said Smith OR Wellesley would basically catch all the personalities looking at those types of schools</p>
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<p>I never said Smith was tops(except for when I was referring to MYSELF and MY choice)… I said I thought it AND Wellesley were the ones worth most of the OPs attention…once again…just an opinion</p>
<p>and Pizzagirl- I gave the pros and cons in my first post</p>
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<p>So yes, maybe I am biased, but I did try to present the information I knew to the OP about each of the schools</p>
<p>I just sent e-mails to the Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke admissions offices, alerting them to this discussion and inviting their participation.</p>
<p>Hopefully someone will respond.</p>
<p>fendrock- I think that is a GREAT idea…:D</p>
<p>MHC gave my D the best package as well. Money should definitely be a consideration.</p>
<p>Also isn’t there a curriculum difference in that Smith has an open curriculum, MHC has a significant common core and Bryn Mawr is somewhere in between (sorry I know nothing about Wellesely).</p>
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<p>I have been holding back because I am not a recent student (and I have a son, who couldn’t go there for obvious reasons). The benefits of Mount Holyoke’s alumnae network are identical to the benefits SmithieAndProud describes: active local, regional, and international clubs, excellent professional contacts and mentoring, great alumnae support for current students, and committed financial support for the college. I continue to be involved in my class, off and on, as an officer and reunion fundraiser. I have a major reunion coming up, and I look forward to being back on campus–not just to see good friends, but to reconnect with people I haven’t been in touch with and to see what’s happening there. A few years ago I spent an afternoon with two college friends wandering around campus. We made geezer nuisances of ourselves, chatting with students (we had to charm our way into our old dorms, which are securely locked). The diversity of students was impressive. We ran into the president (who is retiring this year) and had a good conversation with her. That kind of interaction wouldn’t happen in many places. I came away with such a good feeling. Trying to decide which women’s college has the smartest, most ambitious, most driven, or ultimately most successful students seems like a futile effort to me. Send an e-mail to the department chairs in English and history (I’ll grudgingly give Smith the edge in art history). My husband, an acting department chair at another college, responds to students like you all the time, especially during April.</p>
<p>I was at MHC during a tumultuous time in the country, on college campuses, and especially for women. In our youthful radical-ness, we pushed hard for change there, and we were heard (in fact, I’m proud that my class was notorious). We are an impressive bunch of women with significant accomplishments in every sector of society. Today’s alumnae have that heritage, and it means a great deal.</p>
<p>It sounds like financial aid might make your decision about MHC for you, and that’s understandable. But have you tried to appeal or negotiate with them? It wouldn’t hurt. And please don’t drop MHC from the running because you’re not hearing much about it here on CC!</p>
<p>Would there be any benefit to a student considering these schools to contact the local alum organizations from the perspective of “are there young alums I could talk to (and see if they are the kind of women I might get along with”? It’s so hard to make judgments off tour guides and superficial observations of students. </p>
<p>Also, which of the four would still have the greatest contingent of the “traditional upper crust preppy student”? I have my own guess based on observation but am interested to hear thoughts.</p>
<p>^^ That’s a great idea–the best yet. Call the alumnae association or check the website for the local/regional contact, and look for the young alumnae group if they have one. My observation and knowledge of current students is that MHC is not the one with the substantial “traditional upper-crust preppy” contingent, and never has been.</p>
<p>This is a very interesting thread with a lot of activity. I had started a thread a few days
ago but it received only a few very excellent responses. </p>
<p>Thank you to all for sharing your knowledge, your insights, your thoughts, as well as your opinions. Our daughter, my husband and I have been following this thread and are finding it very helpful in trying to make a very difficult decision. </p>
<p>Our daughter was accepted at Virginia Commonwealth University, Boston University, Bryn Mawr and Smith College. She is waitlisted at New York University, Connecticut College and Emerson College. We have not been able to visit any of the colleges mainly because of time. So we have been looking at the videos and information here and on the internet. </p>
<p>Our daughter is leaning towards Smith and Bryn Mawr. Can anyone give us information regarding the quality of the art departments at Smith and Bryn Mawr / Haverford. We understand that if you go to Bryn Mawr classes for art (other than art history courses) have to be taken at Haverford. Also film studies? Psychology? Our daughter is leaning towards these areas of study. She is not really certain at this time what she wants to major in but in high school has continued to express interest in these.</p>
<p>Also has anyone had any experience trying to get credit for IB courses/exams taken in high school? From Smith College? From Bryn Mawr?</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl and others - See, this is why I hate these threads, they really bring out the ugly side in people. This all started out so civilly, it seems like we can get along in the spirit of sister hood without trashing each other and getting annoyed or upset? </p>
<p>I honestly think that you can’t present comparisons of other colleges you haven’t been to yet. You can give some surface comparisons based on visits if you’ve been recently, but you can’t give an honest evaluation of a school if you haven’t been there. So the honest thing to do is to present your own school as you know it to be, and let others present their schools, and then let the OP decide which sounds like the best fit to them. That’s all I’ve tried to do, and I think that’s all most others have tried to do. I don’t really see the purpose in snarking at people. </p>
<p>I don’t agree that there’s a Smith mafia on these boards or in this thread. There are a lot of active Smithies who are CC’ers but we mostly keep to the Smith thread or the women’s college thread. I"ve been in here, and I know rocket, who is a newly accepted Smithie has been in here, perhaps one or two others, but I don’t know where the accusations are coming from. Also, posting is not an exclusive resource. Someone posting on their school in no way stops others from posting on a different school. </p>
<p>Rocket just got accepted to Smith. If it seems like she’s cheerleading it’s becasue she’s proud and excited and has every right to be about her new college. I honestly think she’s just presenting the Smith that she knows. As she goes through her four years, she’ll see and learn about other sides of Smith too, as I did, but she can’t present honestly an aspect of the college she doesn’t know about.</p>
<p>@Carriebythebay - In keeping with my above post, let me just state off the bat I know nothing about the BMC art department or how it compares. </p>
<p>Smith has a large art department, including art history (an area it’s noted for), and architecture. The art facilities are in one of the newer buildings (circa early 2000s/late 90s I believe), which is also where the art library is housed. The facilities are quite nice, there’s the usual painting/sculpture/metalworking studios, also dark rooms and a large woodworking studio (where, beyond wood art, students can make their own frames and where math students come to make a bunch of wooden models). Also, this is a bit more unusual I think, Smith has a large and very nice print making studio, and offers courses in all kinds of different styles of print making. </p>
<p>As you probably know already, Smith has its own art museum, it’s actually the second best collegiate art collection in the country (Oberlin is number 1). I think someone else noted that at BMC though you have easy access to Philadelphia’s museums, but I think having your own museum on campus has its own benefits as well. Smith just started a concentration in museum studies and also offers a Summer institute in museum studies that is coed and open to juniors and seniors. So if she’s interested in curation as well as art creation, that might be of interest to her. </p>
<p>One thing I will say about the visual art program is that it’s not all that flexible. She’ll have to take painting 1, photo 1, drawing 1 etc before she can get to the higher classes. They’re big on giving you a strong foundation in traditional disciplines before letting you run wild.</p>
<p>I won’t speak to the idea of a Smith Mafia because it is a bit insulting and rude on the face of it, though I know the poster who used that term didn’t mean to be rude. I think she was just frustrated.</p>
<p>However, I will say that since I’ve been reading CC there does seem to be a decided effort on the part of some posters (I wouldn’t say the older, more balanced posters posting here) to say that Smith and Wellesley are better than the other three sisters. I have read it often, as in “everyone knows we’re the best.”</p>
<p>I have also statements like, “Smith is just below a school like Yale, and Mt. Holyoke a notch lower.”</p>
<p>Smith’s location is probably more attractive to most folks than Mt. Holyoke’s (though not to all) which is part of the reason that Smith has a slightly lower admit rate. However the stats on the two schools are so close (SAT, GPA, admit rates) as to make them identical, which I know they are not.</p>
<p>I have also read many comments that “Barnard doesn’t really count because of Columbia. It used to be good before Columbia was coed.” This is very insulted to Barnard women who can match any of the others stat for stat, have a rigorous curriculum and a senior thesis, which Columbia doesn’t.</p>
<p>How amazing that the Pioneer Valley has two outstanding women’s colleges. All five of these colleges offers a rigorous education, great alum networks, and sisterhood.</p>
<p>I think they should extend that sisterhood to each other, because each attracts the kind of strong woman who has the confidence and insight to choose a woman’s college.</p>
<p>To the OP, you have had much input, but his is a highly personal decision. I think each school is strong enough across the board to offer a great education and a wealth of opportunity. Go with what your gut says, even if your reasons seem silly to someone else.</p>
<p>I know that in her “Why Mt. Holyoke essay?” my D wrote: in two words, Emily Dickinson, and she proceeded to talk about why ED meant so much to her.</p>
<p>Silly reason? Maybe, but hers. So Smithies, Mohos, Wendy Wellesleys and Bryn Mawters, I salute all of you.</p>
<p>OP: These are incredible women. Enjoy the wealth of opportunity you have been given, give yourself a cut-off date, and enjoy making your decision. I wish you well. I know you cannot go wrong.</p>
<p>Could not agree with mythmom more. And Emily Dickinson is not a silly reason, I wanted to go to Bryn Mawr because of Katharine Hepburn. It ended up not being a good fit for me, but it’s as good a reason as any other if it has truth and passion behind it.</p>
<p>Re the “Smith mafia” (or any mafia, for that matter): CC consists of primarily anecdotal information, and I appreciate students and recent alums who come on these boards and extoll the virtues of their colleges. (And sometimes they do the opposite, as is their right.) But we can only give our own personal opinions. Mine is from another era (albeit a great one!) so I’ve held back a little, and kept my more competitive comments to myself ;)</p>
<p>The challenge with the OP’s question is that the choice among these colleges is highly personal. They are all great schools to those of us who went there and value the experience. So to sum up some of the recommendations:
E-mail department chairs.
Contact and meet up with some local alums.
Revisit financial aid if that would help.
Make a spreadsheet of pros and cons–academic, social, geographic–assuming that some things, like alumnae networks, will be identical.
Decide what’s most important to you, and go with your instincts.
Take the leap (flip a coin if you need to).</p>
<p>Edit after reading more posts: Thanks, mythmom. I think we are all “uncommon women.” By the way, I chose Mount Holyoke sight unseen because the photos in the catalogue made it look prettier than the others. I was not disappointed.</p>
<p>This is from a reception held by all five schools together, and show cases and gives info on each school by following the menu at the left.</p>
<p>[The</a> Sisters](<a href=“http://www.thesistercolleges.org/flash/video.php]The”>http://www.thesistercolleges.org/flash/video.php)</p>
<p>^^ I love this! Please stop, or I’m going to make a bigger reunion-year gift than I can afford!</p>
<p>mythmom, excellent link. Lays out a lot of factors in an easy to access format. Very helpful.</p>
<p>I do not know exactly what the all-womens schools are doign right but I know that the odds a women I find terrifc (whether that be the national figure like Hillary Clinton or the dynamo Mom from school) went to an all-women’s school are astronomically disproportionate … so many articulate, self-assured, sucessfull (broad definition) women I know went to all-women’s schools. At 18 I would have argued an all women’s envrionment was a crutch … at 48 I was psyched when my daugher applied ED to Barnard after years of meeting terrific grads of all-womens schools.</p>