What do you know about Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr? What are some traditions and quirks of the schools? What are their overall academic and social atmosphere like? Please tell. 
Bryn Mawr is a little edgier. Mt Holyoke has really large dorm rooms and that beautiful campus. Both have reasonably good diversity, but MHC seems to have more internationals, which I think adds a nice feeling to the campus. I feel like MHC has retained a few more of those “women’s college” type traditions (talked about on tours, but I don’t recall the details).
Not too familiar w/ Mount Holyoke but Bryn Mawr has strong academics, a wonderful location (bucolic campus with easy 15-20 ride on commuter rail into Philly - and school provides free passes!) Bi-college program with Haverford which is 5 minutes away, offering a whole other campus and classes to choose from. Large international population as well. Huge on traditions. The campus is one of the prettiest I’ve seen and I’ve seen many dozens.
http://www.brynmawr.edu/activities/traditions.shtml
I’ve been to both campuses. Bryn Mawr has a very nice campus, but MHC’s is spectacular. Wooded with mature trees, lovely stone buildings (but a great modern science building), and ponds on campus. It is amazing in autumn (and they take full advantage of it in their marketing materials!).
Here is a page on traditions:
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/studentlife/traditions
My D1 (visited both, applied to and admitted to MHC, but ended up attending elsewhere) says the MHC alums she knows still try to take Mountain Day off and go hiking. My D2 was admitted to MHC with great merit aid.
The dorm rooms are large at MHC compared to other colleges.
Traditions at Mount Holyoke include:
“M & Cs” (milk-and-cookies), a study-break, socializing snack time every weeknight in every dorm.
Mountain Day, in the fall, without warning one day the president tolls the campus bell in the morning, all classes are cancelled, and the entire school hikes up the mountain for ice cream at the top
Class Colors and Symbols: every class is either a red pegasus, yellow sphinx, green griffin, or blue lion. There is a divided staircase in the library and its considered bad luck to walk up the one not assigned to your class. More here: red pegasus, yellow sphinx, green griffin, and blue lion
There are many more traditions, that is all I can think of right now!
My daughter reports a lot of lively intellectual/social debates and conversations, a very supportive atmosphere, and great professors who really care and make time for students.
My mother and sister are Mawrters and have nothing but good things to say about it. Even my father took a few classes there when he was dating my mother…One of my Ds was strongly considering it, but it’s a bit farther than she wants to be from home, so her first choice is Mount Holyoke, then BMC. They’re really similar with traditions – tons at both places! In addition to the ones listed above, BMC has lantern night, and a statue of Athena for good luck, and lots I can’t think of.
Some people consider BMC to be a bit more upper-crust, but not in a preppy way. It’s a bit more competitive, admissions-wise, but not significantly. The dorms are just as gorgeous as MHC and the buildings are spectacular. If you’re into organized sports, there seems to be less of it at Bryn Mawr, although their gym facilities are top-notch.
Bryn Mawr has a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy about discussing grades – you’re not supposed to do it. If you gauge yourself against others, this may be hard on you – one of my sister’s friends really struggled with it. I don’t know if MHC has this. It fosters a really warm, non-competitive atmosphere where people help each other.
Both schools have a strong honor code, and at both places, the tour guides said they had no worries leaving their wallets on the table when they got up in the cafeteria, and they leave their dorm rooms unlocked, and they leave their computers unattended when they used the bathroom in the library. Personally, I think that’s amazing, and you won’t see it at many schools. It’s pretty special.
The only negative I’ve encountered with Bryn Mawr – they aren’t always great communicators with prospective students. We scheduled a tour weeks in advance, drove 8 hours to get there, and then found out it had been canceled as they needed all staff for an accepted students program. Fortunately, we were able to schedule one for the next day, but they weren’t at all apologetic. Also, they had a big stack of cheap paper owl masks out on a table in the admissions office that day (with the brochures, etc) and we picked one up, thinking we’d bring it home as a souvenir for my 5-year-old. The person behind the desk nearly snapped my head off telling me they were only for accepted students. My Ds and I, already a tad discombobulated by not being able to go on the tour we were expecting, were mortified. Also, I’ve emailed them a few times with questions – about an open house, food services (one of my Ds is gluten-free) financial aid, and an application (all different emails and departments that I got from the website) and no one has EVER gotten back to me. Yes, I’ve checked my spam folder.
On the other hand, I sent a financial aid question to MHC and someone called me back within 30 minutes, and then kept me on the phone for almost 40 minutes making sure she had answered all of my questions and asking if I had any more. I called a few months later with a follow-up question and got the same degree of helpfulness. It was really nice.
I know this was long, hope it helps somewhat!
The woman behind the admissions desk at BMC must be the same one we encountered when visiting a few years ago. I thought at the time that it would behoove the college to put a friendlier person in that spot… you can’t judge a college by the people you meet in admissions, though, as you will never see them again after admission in most cases!
MCH has the Laurel Parade Saturday morning before graduation, canoe sing night before graduation.
MHC Fin aid office and other administrative offices have spoiled me. Rarely, if ever, will you receive the same degree of professional helpful authentic concern from an institution.
MHC is tradition. At parents weekend, I felt the history in my daughters dorm room over looking the green, at Sunday brunch, climbing the stairs in the library, canoeing on the lake. My daughter, pretty special on her own right, walks the MHC campus supported by century old sisterhood of accomplished women .
I think if you’re interested in these two colleges, you need to visit each campus and judge for yourself. Posters can tell you about their experience or their child’s experience but you are the one who will be making a decision about applying to these school so you are the one who should experience each environment and judge for yourself.
I’ve never been to Bryn Mawr, but I can speak a bit on MH. I toured both Smith and MH, and frankly I wasn’t a huge fan of the latter (the former is super cool, I would say to check it out), but keep in mind that’s just my own preference. This is super subjective, but I felt that MH was quiet to a fault (and I’m no partier, it just didn’t seem very lively). My tour guide was lovely, and the buildings are beautiful, but the “town” (if you can call it that) is all of three stores, and it’s a 30 minute drive to the far superior Northampton. That being said, I’m a small town girl from CT who is itching to get out into the city for college, so take my evaluation with a grain of salt–the gorgeous campus and New England charm might do it for you, as I can’t really appreciate it. To address your second criterion, MH has some really great traditions, like Mountain Day, milk and cookies, May Day, and my personal favorite, class colors. Super tight knit community and strong tradition. I can give you this–to me, Mount Holyoke is the collegiate embodiment of its most famous alumna, Emily Dickinson. Quaint, intellectual, but a bit on the boring side (sorry, Em!). Like the previous posters said, TOUR! It’s totally necessary to get an opinion for yourself (and not listen to my biased drivel 
) Best of luck!
EDIT: I’m also looking for an uber-liberal, hyper-politically engaged school, and I didn’t immediately get that from MH like I did at Smith and Barnard. If that’s not a deal breaker for you, again, please disregard my opinion and don’t let it color your decision!
Not to be that girl, but if you have the chance, could you possibly chance me? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1834047-chance-me-for-barnard-and-chances-are-ill-reciprocate.html#latest
MHC traditions include elfing (sophomores make anonymous gifts to a specific first year student for a week), Big Sisters/Little Sisters (junior class bonds with first years), and ice cream served by the trustees on Founders Day in November. A relatively recent tradition is that the 50 year reunion class adopts the graduating class as its granddaughter class and a scarfing ceremony is held in conjunction with graduation when each graduating senior is given a silk scarf in the class color adorned with the class animal as a symbol of the enduring bond between the two classes. My class (1970) is already hard at work planning special things for our granddaughter class (2020) which is going through the admissions process now.
We visited both schools and DD is applying to both. Both campuses are gorgeous. Both have wonderful traditions. Agree that the administrators at MHC seems superior. I thought the admissions officer who did the info session at BMC was not very bright (found myself hoping she was not an alum.) and the woman at the front desk was not helpful at all. The tour guide seemed only to know the words cool and awesome (again the admissions office is at fault, they should train their guides better). MHC seemed to have have the most supportive environment. We liked the Honor Code and Quaker consortium at BMC and the boys from Haverford 
The proximity to Philly was a nice plus. DD was intimidated by the wealth of the town of Bryn Mawr, you drive in and the first thing you see are high end car dealerships followed by pricey boutiques. Got the impression that the science teaching at MHC was better, but not sure whether that’s true or not. Finally, my DD is doing an unusual path for her senior year. MHC was very supportive of this and BMC was not at all. It will be interesting to see how they view her application.
I agree. I have been sending MHC questions about fin aid non-stop and have been replied to for every question.
With respect to science at BMC–BMC has a post-bac program that is for college grads who want to go to med school but didn’t take the necessary courses as undergrads. It is a higjly regarded program; students in it, whose grades/MCAT are high, are automatically admitted to a “consort group” of medical schools. These students take the same pre-med classes as BMC undergrads, which would speak to the strenght of sciences courses at BMC.something like 98% of post-bacs go onto medical school.
My D (BMC '11) dated a guy in the program.