<p>Excellent academics, very strong on science but excellent all-around, and there’s tons of cross-registrations, shared curriculum, and joint ECs with Bryn Mawr just a little over a mile away; in some ways the “BiCo” is almost more like two halves of a single school. Kids seem extremely hard-working. It’s traditionally a Quaker school but no longer maintains official ties to the Society of Friends. But it still has a strong Quaker-inspired tradition, with an emphasis on personal integrity, mutual respect, cooperation, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and a strong orientation toward social justice. It’s famous for its student-created and student-administered honor code which extends not only to academic integrity but also to “social” integrity, meaning essentially all one’s interactions with others. Some find that kind of creepy, bordering on totalitarian. Others love it and think it lays the foundation for a unique kind of ethical self-governing community. It matters a great deal to Haverford, which sees its honor code as its central defining characteristic. Every year, the major item on the Haverford Supplement to the Common App is an essay on the honor code. Most kids pretty well know whether they’re really the Haverford “type.” Many conclude they’re not, and don’t apply. Some conclude they are, and if they genuinely are, it should come through on their honor code essays. Some are clueless, and that probably comes through, too. I don’t imagine many of the latter group are offered admission.</p>