<p>I have a couple questions about Haverford. I know that the academics in my prospective majors (math and political science) are fantastic, but I have a few questions about the non-academic qualities of Haverford.</p>
<p>I haven't found any topics on the quality of Haverford food and dorms. I'm a vegetarian and I try to eat relatively low fat, healthy foods. How are the dining options for this? </p>
<p>Also, what are Haverford dorms like? How difficult is it to get a chem free dorm as a freshman? I'm a pretty quiet and reserved person. I go to bed early (for a teenager) and I love mornings. I know that this will be odd no matter where I go to college. However, I am looking for a place where I can wake up at 6 or 7 and see people up. When I visited Big State U, I stayed in a dorm, woke up at around 7:30, and the entire dorm (8 floors) was literally silent - I could not find anyone. Also, how well would you say roommates are matched?</p>
<p>I want a school where most people are really proud/excited about going/having gone there. Not sports school spirit, but a close community and an automatic connection to other people who have gone there. Is this at Haverford?</p>
<p>How would a nerdy, quiet, midwestern girl fit in at Haverford? I don't like to party, and I think reading, watching movies, ice skating, hanging out with friends, etc. is more fun than partying any day.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! I'm so excited to actually be able to be asking these questions - I never would have imagined being accepted!</p>
<p>Those videos on the admissions page are actually fairly accurate. Did you check them out? </p>
<p>How I remember these old discussions/threads is beyond me but check these out as I think pointoforder and some recent alumni (who aren’t me!) answer many of your questions.</p>
<p>I am the parent of a senior who has lived 3 years in the apts. and one year in a North dorm. Generally speaking, Haverford is not known for its great food, although there are certainly veg options. There has been alot of controversy surrounding the person who runs the food service and many, many students and parents have complained. My hunch is that it will improve. Haverford apts. are to put it honestly, pretty run down, although some have been improved and the quality of the apt. varies. I will say though, that I have been much more bothered by this than my son has. Haverford dorms are old and so are really not all that nice, however one great thing is that most students living in dorms on campus will have a small single. Also, they are building a new dorm.</p>
<p>I don’t know about chem free dorms but I do know that students are very tolerant about one another’s choice to drink or not drink. While the food and housing is not 5 star, the education at HC certainly is. I think it sounds like you will fit in very well. Congratulations!</p>
<p>Thank you very much! I’ve looked at the Haverford housing plans, and they seem quite nice to me. As long as the food isn’t terrible, I’m okay with it. </p>
<p>I’m looking forward to visiting Haverford. The more I read, the more I realize it is a very good fit for me. The big decision maker will be the financial aid package! I hope it arrives soon.</p>
<p>Speaking of food: Haverford serves the same menu as Bryn Mawr’s main dining hall but in a much more vegetarian-friendly way. For example, Haverford’s potato salad is vegetarian while Bryn Mawr’s is made with Bacon. Haverford’s salad station generally serves fresh veggies, while Bryn Mawr’s aren’t always edible. Given a choice between Haverford and Bryn Mawr, I always eat at Haverford!!!</p>
<p>If you go to Haverford, I also highly recommend occasional food trips to Swarthmore and Haffner dining hall at Bryn Mawr. Swarthmore’s dining center has some really fancy vegetarian options, and Haffner - depending on the theme - might have good vegetarian food too. Haffner serves the same food for an entire quarter at a time, so it’s kind of hit-or-miss.</p>
<p>I’m so happy about the vegetarian options! It is such a relief. I’ve been a veg for practically my entire life, so I living without edible veg food would be rough. Thanks for sharing your experiences.</p>
<h2>Double check this if you want, but I recall reading somewhere between 20-30% of students identify as vegetarian in any given year. </h2>
<p>The 2 links I provided contain a lot of useful insight from different people regarding some of your questions. In particular, 2 comments from thesquirrel85 seem pretty spot-on when understanding the HC experience.</p>
<p>Compared to dining centers at other schools…the options are a little more “homey” (which can be good or bad) and more like high school cafeteria food than what you’d typically think of in college. However, I almost feel as though the meh food at Haverford is part of the charm and culture of living there.</p>
<p>Haverford has never really been a flashy school and I think it’s a sort of character building experience to live in a place that doesn’t look like a five star hotel. Cushy isn’t always better.</p>
<p>@HC Alum
In one of those threads you pointed out it tells us that the food service functions at HC and Bryn Mawr will be combined effective fall of 2011. Do you know any more about this? We had heard that the food at BM was outstanding for a college (this came from many of my nieces and nephews who went to schools in the Philadelphia area). Is the implication the the BM model will rule or that there will be a movement toward the middle?</p>
<p>Ya I’m a freshman here now and there are like five vegetarians in my apt alone.</p>
<p>And speaking of the apartments: they are AWESOME! They’re a bit old and can be a bit run down- but not in any significant way, and not in any way Facilities wont fix within a few days. Of all my friends at other schools I know the apts just blow their freshman housing away. The space is just ridiculous.</p>
<p>Therein lies the difference bewteen a parent and student’s point of view! I think the apts. are really pretty crummy yet my son chose to live there 3 out of his 4 years. Any where you live though, HC is a great school.</p>
Haverford’s dining hall serves basically the same menu as Bryn Mawr’s main dining hall. The difference between Haverford and Bryn Mawr is that Bryn Mawr has a second smaller dining hall which serves a different menu (ethnically-themed, with a different theme each quarter). While I have no privileged information on this, it seems unlikely that Haverford’s dining hall would significantly expand their menu to match the options of Bryn Mawr’s two dining halls combined. And I sure hope that Haverford will get to keep their own recipes because they’d lose a lot of vegetarian options if they adapted Bryn Mawr’s. (Do soups and salads <em>really</em> need to be made with bacon and tuna?) </p>
<p>That aside, I honestly don’t know how Bryn Mawr got such a great reputation for their food. Out of the four colleges where I have eaten somewhat regularly (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore and Cornell), Bryn Mawr had the lowest-quality food in my opinion. Then again, I am vegetarian and stuck with French fries, mustard-rubbed tofu, frozen lettuce and fermented grape tomatoes while my friends are having salmon for dinner. Not cool.</p>
<p>^I’m not vegetarian, and have only eaten a few meals at Haffner and Haverford’s dining hall (does it have a name?), but I would definitely say that the food goes Bryn Mawr > Swarthmore > Haverford in quality and selection. Bryn Mawr has much better cheese and bread (on a daily basis) than Swat, for instance. Admittedly I’ve never been to Erdman.</p>
I totally agree with you that Haffner is great! Unfortunately it’s not set up to feed a lot of students. Most Bryn Mawr students eat in Erdman most of the time, and Erdman has some catching up to do to the other dining halls in the Tri-Co.</p>
<p>I know I am late to this thread but wanted to add a comment about the food at Haverford. We ate at Haverford last week. My son was there for an interview. We decided to give The Coop at try. I understand that it is not the main dining hall but we were very pleased with the quality of the food served. It also seemed very reasonable. My son had a great milkshake from a self serve machine - (he was rather enthralled with the this)! We were a party of three and we ate very well for about $20</p>
<p>I know other schools try to dazzle you with fancy dorms, dining options that include everything under the sun, washing machines that text you when your laundry is done, and all sorts of abroad experiences (sophmore year abroad - junior year abroad - summer abroad - semester abroad) - we really liked that Haverford did not do any of this on our tour and info session. We really enjoyed the simplicity & peacefulness that we found at Haverford. </p>
<p>We really, really, really like Haverford. Son is a HS senior & Haverford is a top choice! Fingers crossed that it all works out! Haverford is a special place!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, you can’t really judge a school’s dining by its secondary pay-by-cash food options. Maybe Haverford’s food has since improved, but when I was there for a week last year at the beginning of the fall semester, the food was definitely the worst of the Tri-Co.</p>
<p>And hey, that might not matter! But it is true.</p>
<p>Yup, the food is probably still the worst in the Tri-co. I was at HC 3 years ago and hung out with a college friend/visiting professor at the time and we chuckled about the food. The food is <strong>definitely</strong> better than when we were there (the chicken kiev that bled grease when you cut it in half and the strange stewed pork/peaches entr</p>
<p>I’m a pretty low-key, nerdy, midwestern girl too, attending Haverford and loving it! I also prefer a fun activity to drinking/partying, and Haverford really makes it easy to find these alternative activities. You may want to check out this website: [GO</a> HAVERFORD! - brought to you by FIG](<a href=“http://go.haverford.edu/]GO”>http://go.haverford.edu/) Of course, there are some students who choose to drink, as with any college, but in my experience nobody pressures anyone to do things they don’t care to. Also, there’s more recreational drinking here than I found in high school (i.e. just having a wine or beer as opposed to a bottle of vodka). As for atmosphere, I could not have asked for a more friendly, down-to-earth group! People here take their academics and passions very seriously, but not themselves. If you have any other questions, feel free to message me!</p>