<p>I really love the atmosphere at Mount Holyoke. The people seem amazing, I've heard incredible things about the professors, and I've been awarded the 21st Century Scholarship ($25,000 a year, plus funding for a summer internship/research. It also includes participation in "select intellectual and cultural events" on and off campus). My only hesitation is the fact that most people have never heard of Mount Holyoke. Many have said that I'm "throwing away my future" by choosing a "complete no-name school" in MA over some of my other options, such as NYU, Boston College, Boston University and Colgate U). People have warned me that Mount Holyoke has severe financial issues (I haven't found any concrete evidence of this, but any comments on this issue would be appreciated) and that Mount Holyoke isn't prestigious enough to help me get into a good graduate school (I'm thinking about law school or education, specifically) or get good job placement. Oh, and I want to major in history, psychology, or gender studies, so I'd love to hear any opinions on these departments!</p>
<p>Any comments would be much appreciated, especially about the influence of prestige, as well as anything pertaining to grad school/job prospects!</p>
<p>OP, I don’t understand why you would trust the judgment of (probably) well-intentioned people who are against all reason discouraging you from accepting a scholarship and internship at a top LAC. You will receive extra attention and mentoring due to your scholarship and the fact that MH is a small, intimate setting which cultivates leadership. I don’t want to judge the people who are influencing you…but their comments sound uninformed and frankly, off base. If you want to major in history or gender or psych, you will benefit from MH and the 5 college system which has everything in terms of classes, resources, inter-college specializations, etc – while at the same time enjoying the experience of a close community.</p>
<p>I am sure you did some research before applying, so rankings and statistics should convince you that you are not throwing away your future. As for names and prestige, I love to tell the story of how one of my friends was criticized in our hometown for taking a full scholarship, passing up the (full-pay) state university for a little school no one in our town had ever heard of…Williams – the #1 liberal arts college in the country!</p>
<p>It’s your life, your future, your next four years. Enjoy them! It will be great.</p>
<p>I remember reading that MHC produced more women that earned PhD’s in the sciences than any other college or university in the country. I should think there is no problem getting into grad school due to going to MHC.</p>
<p>@Morgan4 Congrats on getting into MoHo and your scholarship! I had the same thing said to me from people at my college prep school (about going to a no name school). People that know colleges know MoHo. My mother works for a fortune 500 company and travels all over the world, everyone she works with knows MoHo. Same with my father(everyone he works with knows MoHo). The people that matter, ie grad schools, employers will know MoHo. Like mibsprincess said, people really don’t know top LACs. When I said something about Amherst College at my high school, everyone thought it was UMass-Amherst. A school like MoHo has a very strong alumni network as well. I don’t want to say negative things about other colleges, but my father attended BU and has said the alumni network isn’t that strong (he also attended it for grad school, so it may be different).
Hope this helps!</p>
<p>When the Ivy League was all male, the female equivalent were the Seven Sisters (MHC, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, etc). Don’t get pulled into hype. NYU is an excellent school, but overhyped just because it’s in NYC. BC isn’t even the best Catholic college in its state–its actually Holy Cross, in terms of academics. BU in the 90’s was a powerhouse during the John Silber years, but in the city has been surpassed in some ways by Northeastern. </p>
<p>Mount Holyoke graduates go to the BEST graduate programs in the country. mibsprincess is correct–more MHC graduates go on to scientific graduate programs proportionally than any other school in the country</p>
<p>Hi @morgan4! Congratulations on your admission! I agree with a lot of what was said above – if you love the atmosphere here, I think that’s a huge indication that you should seriously consider Mount Holyoke because you’re sure to thrive in an environment that you feel is the right “fit” for you. </p>
<p>To speak to issues that haven’t already been covered – I am a Psych major and love the department (it is one of the most popular on campus), and have taken both history and gender studies classes that I really enjoyed. Especially within Psychology we have an incredible amount of opportunities to do research – almost all of the professors have labs that students work in throughout the year, and many psychology students will do research internships at MHC or other colleges over the summer (my friend is interning at a Cognitive lab at Harvard starting in June). Check out these profiles to see what sort of research Psychology professors are doing: <a href=“https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/psychology/people”>https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/psychology/people</a> (you can also visit the other department’s pages for information on other professor’s specializations). </p>
<p>Regarding the “severe financial issues” claim, although every college was hit by the financial crisis, as someone very involved in working with administrators through student government, I can assure you that Mount Holyoke is financially healthy and continues to innovate to bring more to students each year. This year Mount Holyoke committed to giving every student $3000 dollars during their sophomore or junior year to fund an internship. That’s big!</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke carries a lot of prestige – MHC’s reputation has been extremely valuable to me from a networking and job-securing standpoint. Employers know Mount Holyoke because we are a college that produces driven and extremely confident and capable female leaders. Above all else, Mount Holyoke alumni really care and want to help each other get ahead. Just this past weekend, over 20 alumni came to campus for a conference presented by the Entrepreneurship Club simply because they wanted to support current students in launching their careers! As an attendee, it was great to connect with these alumni both personally and professionally, and I’ve already planned to meet up with one of them when I’m in Boston over the summer who is in an industry I’m interested in.</p>
<p>If you have other questions, feel free to ask!</p>
Excellent post. Morgan, it would behoove you to heed Momcinco’s poignant comments.</p>
<p>
Nothing could be further from reality. My sister-in-law is an internationally renown researcher and was a tenured professor at Yale. She taught at the med school as well as undergraduate courses. She is very much a proponent of a LAC education in general and has the highest regard for MHC in particular.</p>
<p>Also, Carol Christ, the former president of Smith College, has a daughter who is a MHC alumna. Carol, as well as her husband, were highly regarded college professors, and Carol and was a very respected and admired college president. The fact that their daughter chose to attend MHC is, in my opinion, a very impressive endorsement.
MHC has one of the highest percentages of Pell Grant students (very low income) of any LAC in the country. I.e., MHC is almost fully financing ~23% of the students. Additionally, MHC awarded 82% of first-years institutional grant or scholarship aid totaling $13,880,001
Smith awarded 63% of first-years institutional grant or scholarship aid totaling $13,806,549</p>
<p>When you consider that Smith has an endowment of over twice the value of MHC, I find it astonishing that MHC matched Smith’s grant and scholarship aid for first-year students. It certainly doesn’t appear to me that MHC has any ‘severe financial issues’. :)</p>