<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>Take the money! Go to Bryn Mawr! The biggest different between the student bodies of these to colleges is that at Bryn Mawr they are all girls. Both schools have well respected faculties. The schools work together in many areas. Since they are small some of the departments have specialized, such as one school has a micro biology department and the other has a macro biology department. I do not know if that holds true in chemistry as well. It is less than 2 miles from one campus to the other and there is a shuttle between them so it is very practicle to take classes at the other campus. [Blue</a> Bus (Bi-Co) - Bryn Mawr College Transportation](<a href=“http://www.brynmawr.edu/transportation/bico.shtml]Blue”>http://www.brynmawr.edu/transportation/bico.shtml)
As a matter of fact there is just one course catalog. It is actually a 3 college consortium with Swarthmore being the 3rd school. Swat is further away and there is less interaction with them. You can attend any social event at any of the 3 schools. Take the money!</p>
<p>Dude, something very similar happened to me. Got 20k a year at Bryn Mawr and 0 at Swarthmore. It was a very hard decision but I possibly stupidly decided on Swarthmore. It’s a hard call. If your family can afford full pay, I’d go with the school that fits you best. If you are going into chemistry, you will easily be able to grad school funded.</p>
<p>Unless your family can pay for Haverford, this one is a no-brainer. As long as you fulfill the BMC graduation requirements, you can take as many classes at Haverford as you want. If you like their Chemistry department better, you can complete your major there. Personally, it seems silly to me for you to contemplate spending an extra $120,000 just so that your diploma reads “Haverford College”.</p>
<p>Grad school placement out of both of these institutions is excellent. You have no worries there.</p>
<p>Haverford students as a group have considerably stronger stats and the Haverford chemistry curriculum is famously rigorous, but unless you’re so wealthy that money is truly of no concern it would be silly to turn down the FA at Bryn Mawr. Both are excellent schools, and the best thing from a student’s perspective is that they have a fully integrated course registration system. You can attend Bryn Mawr and take ALL of your classes at Haverford if you like, or any lesser number of them. As a Bryn Mawr student you can even take your major in chemistry at Haverford, if you decide you like their department better. Heck, it’s even possible to live on the other campus if they have space available (though few people take it to this extreme). And keep in mind that if you take all or a good portion of Haverford’s chemistry curriculum, it will be Haverford professors who will be writing your grad school recommendations, just the same as if you were a Haverford student.</p>
<p>Yes, it really is possible to divide your time between the two campuses, which are only about 1.5 miles apart and served by a free shuttle that takes about 5 minutes. The classes are staggered so all classes start on the hour on one campus and on the half hour on the other campus, leaving 35 minutes or so between classes to walk to the shuttle, take the shuttle to the other campus, and walk from the shuttle to your next class. Generally, though, it may be easiest if you can schedule mornings on one campus and afternoons on the other; or certain days on one campus and other days on the other, so as to minimize total travel time. My D who is a freshman at Haverford this year (and loving it) has taken some classes at Bryn Mawr and has done some ECs at Bryn Mawr; she complains the evening and weekend shuttle service has been cut back somewhat, but I think it still works fine for classes.</p>
<p>As for peer interactions and friend networks, that’s what you make of it. Some HC students spend almost all their time at HC and their peer interactions and friend networks are centered there; similarly, some BMC students spend almost all their time at BMC. But many students at both schools make full use of the entire BiCo by taking classes on the other campus, forming friendships with students at the other school, spending social time (including some meals) on the other campus, and participating in some of the many joint ECs or single-campus ECs that are open to students from the other campus. I’d say socially my D’s social interactions are somewhat tilted toward HC, but maybe in about a 60-40 split; she has many friends and acquaintances on the BMC campus, and she values those friendships equally with those from HC. </p>
<p>Added bonus: the food is better at Bryn Mawr. On the other hand, your meal plan from either school works on either campus; a simple card swipe gets you in.</p>
general education requirements that better fit the needs of graduate school-bound students (Haverford students are required to take 19/32 courses outside of their major; no such requirement exists at Bryn Mawr)
a graduate program in chemistry, with an AB/MA option for ambitious undergraduates
more summer funding for students, for research - both on campus and off campus - as well as corporate and non-profit internships (funding from Bryn Mawr also allows you to take off-campus jobs without touching your precious OPT, in case that’s something you care about)</p>
<p>You wouldn’t want to pass up these opportunities at Bryn Mawr!! You could still major in chemistry at Haverford if you like their department better, although I am not aware of their curriculum being so much stronger than ours. (This might be true in a couple of other sciences, but not I have never heard chemistry come up in the are-Bryn-Mawr-sciences-as-rigorous-as-they-should-be discussions.)</p>
<p>b@r!um,
I won’t dispute that Bryn Mawr’s graduation requirements are more flexible, but there’s no evidence that Haverford’s requirements hold anyone back from grad school. They claim, at least, that roughly 1/3 of their chemistry grads go on to top Ph.D. programs, another third go to medical school, and the remaining third go directly to jobs after college, primarily in the private sector. If true, that’s a tremendously high rate going to graduate and professional programs, so they must be doing something right!</p>
<p>As for academic rigor, I don’t think anyone is suggesting Bryn Mawr is sub-standard. I just think Haverford has earned a reputation for outstanding sciences, and that includes chemistry. Lots of emphasis on biochemistry, though, which could be a plus or minus depending on the OP’s interests.</p>
<p>bclintonk, I can’t speak for chemistry on the graduation requirements but it is a HUGE factor for the math majors. That doesn’t mean that Haverford math majors don’t go to graduate school. What it does mean is that they have to settle for less selective graduate programs than math majors at Bryn Mawr, even though the Haverford students are “better” by any other standard (e.g. more competitive Math Subject GRE scores, higher Putnam scores, their courses are arguably more challenging, etc). </p>
<p>I would be happy to elaborate on this point (for math) if you are interested, but I don’t want to take this discussion too far off topic.</p>
<p>Grad school chances aside, if the OP wants to have the option of taking more than 1.5 chemistry courses per semester, she would be better off at Bryn Mawr.</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>Haverford with $0 aid v. Bryn Mawr with $30K/year in aid? Is that the choice? If so, I agree with happymom1. This is hardly worth debating.</p>
<p>As an added benefit, BMC has a reputation for some of the best dorm rooms in the country. As I recall from what students told us on a Haverford tour, the food is much better at BMC, too.</p>