@polilib Hi there! Current Haverford frosh here, and as a disclaimer, I absolutely love the school.
I transferred from a very small high school, so no personal experience with downsizing, but a lot of my friends who came from larger places found the difference to be quite enjoyable. I certainly don’t feel like I know everyone on campus already-there are lots of familiar faces, but I’m still meeting new folks even 3/4 of the way through the year. Bryn Mawr events also are great for if you’re feeling a little stifled-there are 2,000 new people whom I rarely see, just five minutes away! To present a more complete picture, I have a friend who strongly dislikes the size because she can’t avoid the people she doesn’t like XD so it’s all up to personal preference. I’d definitely recommend an overnight visit if possible to see how it feels!
I’m not very well informed on music, I’m afraid, but I know that there are pit orchestras for the musicals!!!
Starting a club is definitely easy. A few of my first-year friends revived the debate team this semester and they found it easy to do and they were able to attract a bunch of people. The administration is into supporting whatever initiatives the students want to begin, and clubs and groups aren’t exceptions. Because the campus is so small, though, it may be hard to get a lot of people (depending on what the activity is).
Yes, there really are that many singles! The majority of the freshman class gets singles. I actually didn’t get a one this year (I was in the apartments, which I absolutely love) and I won’t next year either because I’ll be in a community house with mostly doubles. But singles are commonplace and people are really happy to have them. The dorm quality varies quite a bit-another reason I’d recommend you visit if you can so you can check it out for yourself!
Finally, my professors have been AMAZING. It’s not at all weird to drop by office hours just to chat-I keep up going to office hours of two professors I had last semester. They are genuinely interested in talking to students and forming connections. For a concrete example, I regularly visit the office hours for my math professor last semester. She knows I’m taking a half-credit first year math seminar in Knot Theory, which she doesn’t know much about, so she asked me to explain something I’d learned. I then spent ten minutes teaching my prof something, which is a moment I doubt happens at many other schools. In terms of quirkiness, my linguistics professor wears a 4th Doctor scarf (from doctor who) and when we do problems on the board, he draws faces that correspond to how correct the problem is-ecstatically happy ones for right answers, angry ones with dragons if we’re off, etc.
Please feel free to follow up on this thread or message me if you have any more questions/desire for more professorial anecdotes. Haverford was the right place for me, and it’s right for a lot of us, but not for everyone-so anything I can do to help you figure out if it’s the right place for you! 