<p>I am an international student. I plan to major in Chemistry. I plan to attend graduate school. I know chemstry major is quite strong at Haverford. A Haverford student told me there is a big difference between the chemistry major at these two schools. But Bryn Mawr students can still choose classes at Haverford. </p>
<p>Is there really a big difference between the student body and professors? Is it possible to major in chemistry at Haverford while I am a BMC student? </p>
<p>I am worrying that if the time between two classes is only a short period of time, is it possible for me to trasport to another campus to attend mt next class? </p>
<p>I do not care whether it is a single-sex or coed school the most important factor may be academics and friend network.</p>
<p>$120K seems like a lot of money. If it is, you should go to BMC IMO. Technically, what you write is accurate but I’m not sure it’s going to be feasible for you to major in chemistry at HC as a BMC student. HC’s chemistry is one of its strong suites but as a BMC grad, you’ll still be competitive with grad schools as a BMC chem. major.</p>
<p>HC’s chemistry track starts 1st year with placement into either General Chem or Organic Chem if you place out of Gen Chem. Most other colleges don’t have this option and “orgo” is normally a sophomore/2nd year class. The majority of HC’s chemistry majors take the accelerated track so during their 2nd year take Quantum and physical chemistry which are normally junior/3rd year classes elsewhere. A few chemistry majors don’t do the accelerated track so they do some catching up 3rd year when they take Quantum/physical chemistry in addition to the junior year laboratory. Ouch. Thus, if you want to major in chemistry at HC, it’s best to start 1st year. If I remember freshman year correctly, “orgo” met either 730AM or 8AM… whatever it was, it seemed (at the time) ridiculously early for a college student to get out of bed. You would need to leave even earlier to get to HC.</p>
<p>Unlike non-science departments, such as Cities, art history, archeology, ect which are very Bi-Co, many of the core classes in the sciences have in addition to their lecture time labs as well which make planning a Bi-co schedule more challenging… chemical reactions don’t happen according to the Blue Bus schedule.</p>
<p>Also, HC has specific summer funding through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Beckman Foundation to fund students for summer research in the chemistry department. I’m not sure if those awards can be given to BMC students by HC. Faculty also win private grants to use as they wish as well. BMC has its own Hughes funding but I imagine BMC professors would want to fund students to help with their own research.</p>
<p>As a BMC chemistry major, if you want, you can also take some of the senior year chemistry seminars (which are basically grad school level seminars according to the professor who taught some of them (he did his sabbaticals at Yale) and some of my friends who wound up going to grad school). The caveat with this though based on one interaction with a senior BMC chemistry major who took Bioinorganic Chemistry 400 with me is that the pace and topics covered may be a leap from what is taught at BMC or at least that’s what she told me.</p>
<p>I think you gave solid advice that Bryn Mawr students who want to major in a science at Haverford should follow the Haverford sequences from the get-go. That certainly agrees with my own experience in math/physics/computer science: the curricula and pedagogies at the two colleges drift apart and it gets increasingly harder to make the jump. I will have to disagree with a few of the other things you said though.</p>
<p>Scheduling conflicts: What would prevent a Bryn Mawr student from taking most of her classes at Haverford, like a regular Haverford student? I would be thrilled to take a 10-minute bus ride to class in the morning in exchange for $120,000!! Heck, I have taken 80% of all my classes off campus with no tangible financial benefits in return. The only annoyance would be if students had to check up on their lab experiments at 3am in the morning, but I don’t think that’s usually the case?</p>
<p>Summer funding: In my own experience, Haverford professors are happy to work with Bryn Mawr students and Bryn Mawr professors are happy to work with Haverford students. (At least in math/physics/computer science. Maybe the chemistry departments are less accommodating in that regard?) Most of the time students are funded directly by the “receiving college”, but Bryn Mawr also has internal funding for students to work off campus: there’s ~5 Howard Hughes grants for science students to do research off campus, ~100 general-purpose Dean’s Office fellowships for off-campus endeavors, and ~40 fellowships for science majors to work with faculty on campus. The Howard Hughes funding is competitive because the stipend is higher, but the other two funding sources are practically guaranteed to anyone who applies.</p>
<p>In summary, I think that yyw1030 can get an Haverford education as a Bryn Mawr student if that’s what she wants. $120,000 is hefty price tag for the name on a diploma.</p>
<p>I don’t think we’re really disagreeing on anything </p>
<p>I never said it is impossible to X-major in a lab science in the Bi-co as there are always exceptions… I just wanted the poster to recognize the very real and unique logistical issues she has to overcome to do this. And yes, sometimes, one does not get out of junior/senior year chemistry or bio lab until 11p-12AM as experiments may not go right or experiments require babysitting and that is why seniors have 24 hour building access. I read some of the posts on the other thread with this topic that really glossed over some of these challenges that I think the poster should know and prepare for if this is her plan. </p>
<p>At HC, the Hughes and Beckman programs fund on-campus research and work with specific professors with a curriculum that continues during the year (some students don’t do these programs because the want to get off campus for the summer and explore). Students who get these grants have 1st dibs on campus summer research projects. I don’t know if BMC students can apply to these HC specific funding sources (for example, BMC students may work through the CPGC but I think their funding comes from BMC) and if BMC students are not eligible for HC Beckman/Hughes awards, then if the poster wants to do summer research at HC, this must come after placement of the HC Hughes and Beckman awardees. It’s not that HC professors aren’t accommodating or won’t be happy to work with BMC majors but rather I think the issue is logistical… there are only so many interesting projects lab faculty have over the summertime and priority goes to the Hughes/Beckman awardees. Whether a science major spends their summers doing research on campus or off campus isn’t a big deal. I actually think it’s a good idea to explore off campus and the application process prepares you for the real world/job hunt rather than just hitting up a HC professor who already knows you…</p>