<p>I am trying to decide which of these Liberal Arts Colleges sound like a fit for me, and whether or not I want to apply to one of these schools. Would anyone mind comparing Colgate, Bryn Mawr, & Haverford, in the areas of:</p>
<p>-selectivity
-academics
-activities
-beauty of the campus
-quality of the dorms
-student body
-safety of the campus...
...and any other factors you think might be important for comparison. Thanks!</p>
<p>allie,</p>
<p>Colgate is very different from BMC & Haverford (other than the coed aspect, those two are pretty similar.)</p>
<p>Colgate is much more rural/remote, colder, sportier (D1 as opposed to D3), preppier, and more of a 'party school' than the other two. </p>
<p>In terms of intellectual level of students, selectivity, & quality of education, they are similar.</p>
<p>I would offer that all three schools have excellent faculties and facilities, but that Haverford, and to a lesser extent, Bryn Mawr, both have a more uniformly intellectual student body than is found at Colgate. </p>
<p>In a rural location, Colgate is much larger than the other two schools, with 2800 students vs 1300 and 1100, respectively, at the suburban Bryn Mawr and Haverford campuses.</p>
<p>Colgate is indeed larger than the others and more focused on varsity sports in the Div 1 Patriot League.</p>
<p>i'm a student at haverford and i absolutely love it. i guess i'll try and address issues that no one else has touched on here yet. oh also, I believe haverford is more selective than colgate and bryn mawr... i could be wrong though - i couldn't find the exact numbers anywhere...if someone could help me out on that. if it is, it's probably only by a little bit anyhow.
campus safety: i'd like to think that we have a really safe campus, even though it's open. everyone leaves their bags, coats, etc. at the front of the dining center at every meal; lots of wide open and/or unlocked doors (but keycard-access only dorms).
pretty school...it is, after all, an arboretum. nice buildings (stokes, widely considered the ugliest building on campus, is an anomaly); lots of grass and trees...and the famed duck pond. </p>
<p>the dorms are nice. lots of good options. a lot of freshmen get singles (i want to say about half, but i could be wrong). there's a whole dorm of all singles for frosh (gummere). freshmen also have the option of living in the apartments, where the benefits are having a kitchen and a living room, and the downside is that you'll be guaranteed a roommate (some people want one, i guess), and that you're like, 2 seconds farther from classes than everyone else. also, most of the upperclassmen housing is singles (lloyd, leeds, north dorms = all singles). and as a sidenote, while we're on the topic of freshmen: haverford knows how to take care of its freshmen. you'll learn more about the customs program as you look into the school.</p>
<p>academics are tough. there's also extensive cooperation between haverford and bryn mawr (and to a lesser extent between those two and swarthmore...and upenn). i did the full IB program at a competitive n and received my IB diploma, which is to say that it's not like i wasn't prepared,and still it's nothing compared to college. i've never worked so hard in my life. whatever, work hard, play hard is a good saying to live by. ;) </p>
<p>my suggestion (as if this were news to you :) ): go to all three campuses, or, you know, at least if you're gonna be at haverford go see bryn mawr too, and vice versa. that's obviously the best way to compare them. hope this all helps and it wasn't too much to read... im just home for the summer so i'm bored and at work and i miss school, so writing about it makes me happy.lol i'm lame. good luck.</p>
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<p>That's correct.</p>
<p>All three schools are very safe. If you do basic things like lock your laptop, you don't have to worry at all. I lost some possessions to theft at Bryn Mawr because I was lulled by the honor code into thinking that nothing would ever be stolen no matter what, so I could just let a valuable formal dress air out in the laundry room for a week. Oops.</p>
<p>Academics -- I'd put H & BMC above Colgate here. Since H & BMC students can major on each other's campuses, comparing them academically is kind of a wash.</p>
<p>All three have lovely campuses; to my eyes, BMC is the most breathtaking, and the dorms are palatial, mostly singles and like living in a castle. The food is slightly better than Haverford, but I've never eaten at Colgate.</p>
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<p>Colgate is much more rural/remote, colder, sportier (D1 as opposed to D3), preppier, and more of a 'party school' than the other two. </p>
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<p>I strongly agree with this, and also think there's way more intellectual investment among the student body at H/BMC. Almost no one at those schools does just enough to pass.</p>
<p>The Bryn Mawr student body is a strange animal that's difficult to describe -- you absolutely have to visit, preferably overnight. Be sure to ask some upperclassmen about traditions.</p>
<p>I didn't look at Bryn Mawr, but I visited Haverford and know a goood deal about Colgate.</p>
<p>Colgate is extremely safe. People write the door codes outside the doors, bikes are left unlocked, people can walk alone at night, etc. Colgate can be as academically rigorous as you want it to be, but as someone said above, Haverford is more intellectual and more people want to challenge themselves. </p>
<p>Colgate is, however, the most beautiful campus I know of. </p>
<p>Students tend to be preppy, pretty people. I don't know how to say this, but there are very few ugly Colgate students. </p>
<p>As far as activities on campus, there are always parties, theatre things, dance recitals, a capella concerts, the usual. The administration is making a real effort to offer non-alcoholic alternatives to students. Sports are big too. From what I saw, Colgate might be slightly more diverse than Hford, but that could just be due to the larger student body.</p>
<p>while i love haverford to death and will recommend it to anybody who will stand still long enough, i have to say that the food at haverford isn't neeeaaarly as good as the food at bmc... unfortunately, i only discovered my last week of school. whatever, 3 years left to hit up the bryn mawr dining centers. :)</p>
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<p>the food at haverford isn't neeeaaarly as good as the food at bmc</p>
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<p>Which is kind of mysterious, since the menus/recipes are generally the same, and they're run by the same company on (IIRC) the same budget. The standard explanation is that the BMC dining halls each cook for a smaller group of diners. Maybe so.</p>
<p>thanks for all the replies!</p>
<p>If interested in a balance of academics and social life Holy Cross, Bucknell and Davidson are similar to Colgate. HC has a better location-1 hour from Boston. If interested in limited social life would add Wesleyan to the Haverford side.</p>
<p>The problem with the Boston schools is that most of the partying tends to be off-campus and a car is a must once the subways shut down.</p>
<p>Colgate - a bit of a trade-off; you can really blow the wheels off practically any night of the week; there are no neighbors with bushes to pee in, lawns to leave beer bottles strewn across. And noise is not that big a deal when you're in the middle of nowhere. But, that's the downside--you're in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>Wesleyan - Wesleyan students will invent just about any excuse you can think of to have a party and seniors are especially generous about throwing their university-owned, neighborhood houses open to hordes of guests for the weekend. The difference is that, like Haverford and BMC, they have to live with real live people with families (often faculty) next door, so don't expect that you can turn the speakers out into the street and scream "Who let the dogs out?" to your hearts content. The real world doesn't work like that.</p>
<p>A few years ago, the mayor of Hamilton was fed up with Colgate students' loud partying and kicked in a speaker of one of the frats. He actually ended up getting arrested and fined.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr campus I thought was like a bad art gallery, horrible mix of architecture, chipped paint, rusted metal, for a school that's up there with the likes of Wellesley, I thought it would look a whole lot better than it did. Breathtaking is the last thing I'd use to describe it.</p>
<p>If you're looking a Bryn Mawr, I would definentley look at Wellesley first.</p>
<p>Personally of three, I'd lean towards Haverford, but all three are excellent academically.</p>
<p>D, a California girl to the max is a rising sophomore at Colgate. Applied to several schools large and small. Thought she wanted to attend UCSD (Revelle) until she spent two nights. Classes were enormous and housing less than desirable. Only promised housing for freshman year. Visited Colgate and fell in love. The campus is awesome, the dorms were nice but not palatial, and the students were warm and welcoming. After completing her freshman year, which she found quite rigorous, she just glows when she speaks of her professors, classes, activities, and friends. Does not mind the cold or the remote location which I find hard to believe considering her birthplace. Freshman advisor was tremendously involved with her class selection and spent a large amount of time keeping abreast of her progress. She is 100% happy with her selection and is looking forward to the end of August to be reunited with her friends. She claims never ever felt unsafe, even when she was first to return from holiday and found only two people in the entire dorm. I can go on and on about her love for Colgate but I'm sure you've got the idea. If you have any questions, please ask and I shall ask her.</p>