Haverford

College Search & Selection
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<p>Umm . . . ever heard of Philadelphia? It’s the nation’s 6th-largest city and centerpiece of the nation’s 5th-largest metropolitan area.</p>

<p>Seriously, students at Haverford and the other Tri-Co colleges go into Philadelphia all the time for entertainment, on weekends especially. Many Haverford students also do community service projects in Philadelphia, sometimes for academic credit, through Haverford’s 8th Dimension program. As I said, a quick 20 minute train ride and you’re right in the heart of the city. Heck, most neighborhoods in New York City are farther away from midtown or downtown Manhattan.</p>

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<p>The size is what it is, but I guarantee you, it doesn’t feel like a high school. It’s got a gorgeous 200-acre campus. Besides, with Bryn Mawr a mile away and students at each school cross-registering for classes on the other campus in large numbers and many ECs and even entire academic programs conducted jointly (my Haverford D is on the Bryn Mawr women’s rugby team, for example), you’ll know a ton of people at Bryn Mawr. In many ways it feels like two halves of a single school, which immediately more than doubles the size. Plus many students have friends at Swat, Penn, or others of the numerous colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area (Villanova, for example, is less than 4 miles away from Haverford), and attend each other’s parties and social events. It’s not like being stuck in a small town far from everything, at a place like Williams, Middlebury, Colgate, Hamilton, Colby. etc. The Philadelphia metropolitan area claims to have 300,000 college students. With that many students in and around one city there’s always going to be tons of stuff to do.</p>

<p>As for “closer”–I don’t know which part of Connecticut you’re from, but some parts of Connecticut are actually closer to Philadelphia (and Haverford) than to Boston. Stamford, for example, is closer to Philadelphia. Bridgeport is about equidistant, New Haven slightly closer to Boston, Hartford definitely closer to Boston, but we’re not talking great distances here. My D can hop a train to center city Philadelphia (20 minutes) and get on the Megabus which can get her to New York City in as little as 90 minutes. Call it 2 hours with the transfer, and sometimes it’s available for $10.</p>

<p>OK, enough of my sales pitch. It’s nothing to me either way, really.</p>

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<p>Ouch?</p>

<p>It’s also about relatives living near the schools. </p>

<p>Is haverford IN Philly or close to it, because that makes a difference too?</p>

<p>But as you said… It doesn’t matter to you either way</p>

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<p>Haverford is in a “Main Line” suburb (on the “main line” of the old Pennsylvania Railroad) immediately west of the City of Philadelphia. So it’s definitely a suburban location. But it’s closer both in miles and travel time to the center of the city than many neighborhoods in the City of Philadelphia itself, because of the way Philadelphia is configured—roughly 8 miles from Haverford College to the Philadelphia City Hall at Broad and Market, 20 minutes by train or (except in rush hour traffic) by car.</p>

<p>I say “suburban” but it doesn’t at all have the feel of late 20th century suburban tract/strip mall development. The Main Line suburbs are a string of older towns lined up along the route of the railroad, each with its own walkable downtown and generally older (but for the most part upscale) housing stock. I find them quite charming, and I’m someone who usually hates suburbs. But it’s definitely not Philadelphia proper.</p>

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<p>In my opinion, you won’t find a better place for undergraduate education in the country, and the number of equivalent places could be counted on two hands.</p>

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<p>thank you pointoforder, it just doesn’t fit the “make or break” criteria that i have, but im sure it’s great!</p>