<p>This is a bit premature as my dd just finished a very successful freshman year at a competitive high school here in Connecticut.</p>
<p>I won't bore you will her stats; rather I am wondering if you can give her the plusses (and minuses) of attending Wellesley or one of the other top women's colleges?</p>
<p>My gut tells me she would be a good candidate. We have discussed this a bit in the early stages but she is unsure if she would want to do it. She's not ruling it out but she isn't ruling it in either.</p>
<p>She is very bright, talented in the theatre which she would like to study, politically aware if not active, personable, open to new experiences. I think she would thrive in this kind of environment; she's from a smaller school and that aspect is very appealing.</p>
<p>While I like the idea, I will support her in any direction she takes. She definitely wants smaller school, New England or New York, theatre/performing arts major, strong academics.</p>
<p>Any input would be appreciated.</p>
<p>At Wellesley, theater has a pretty visible impression on campus. If your daughter has bemoaned the fact that few high school guys do theater, but most of the characters in a show are male, then she's in luck. In many of the productions, women play male roles. Women also do all the heavy lifting and set building. My first year, I played male characters in a 203 production (the class at Wellesley where groups of five students direct, cast and produce an hour-long show compiled of real plays with an overarching theme- ours was mothers), as well as served in the "fly crew" of a production. Fly crew bring sets from the ceiling up and down during the production. I'm too light to donate blood, and I was pretty bad at it, but it was one of those cool things that would have never been done by women had there been men.
The all-women makeup of the shows has changed slightly since I've become a student. Male Olin students will come and try out for some of the parts (and now that Olin does plays, Wellesley women perform in them as well).
Wellesley is also home to the Shakespeare society, which puts on a Shakespeare play a semester, as well as a house tour compilation of scenes on Family and Friends weekend and April 1st.</p>
<p>I'm a prospective student for the Class of 2013 at Wellesley, and I've been to many of the top Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic women's colleges, barring Barnard. I think the main plus of going to a women's college is the sense of empowerment that the students seem to feel--if something is going to be done on campus, it's pretty likely that a woman will do it. I heard a statistic at Smith to this effect: while 62% of college students are women, only 10% of student body presidents are women, a number that looks (to me, anyway) disturbingly low. It sounds to me like the women's colleges engender this empowerment to take things on and be bold, which in turn stimulates the rest of their lives. I mean, check out the lists of famous women's college graduates: Katharine Hepburn, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Meryl Streep, Anne Dillard, Drew Gilpin Faust (first female president of Harvard), Madeline Albright, Hilary Clinton... </p>
<p>I'm not trying to be alarmist about the empowerment thing...There've been a fair number of times in high school that I've bumped up against misogynistic
jokes in class, and it definitely affects me, even if I know that they're "just kidding." </p>
<p>If you're worried about social life and not having guys around, another thing I've noticed is that women's colleges tend to be near other groupings of colleges, not isolated from any other schools--e.g. Wellesley is near all the Boston schools/Olin/Brandeis/Babson, Bryn Mawr is near Haverford and Swarthmore, Smith and MHC are in the 5-college consortium. </p>
<p>Any actual women's college students want to back me up? I feel a little presumptuous answering this question without having been a student at a women's college, just a wannabe. :-)</p>
<p>Thanks for both responses...I don't think the empowerment thing is big in her situation but other parts of your answers are helpful. She has run into the issue of not enough guys to play parts but I don't know how she'd react to women playing men's roles, although I know the opposite was true in Shakespeare's time I believe.</p>
<p>Speaking of which she loves WS's plays, a definite plus in Wellesley's favor.</p>
<p>I do like the idea of being near coed colleges. She is not one who is "boy crazy" but I know she likes the idea of having them within reasonable distance. :D</p>
<p>BTW I am not familiar with Olin...please advise. Thanks ladies!</p>
<p>Olin is a small engineering college located on the campus of Babson. It's actually quite prestigious and Wellesley students can cross-register there. They also throw some pretty decent parties. Wait, you didn't hear that...</p>
<p>LaMariposaAzul has the right idea. I always hated having immature guys in my classes who would make me feel like I should just sit there and be pretty. That said, I have plenty of friends who didn't feel that way at all and were rather surprised to find themselves looking at women's colleges. The only real way to know is to visit. If it's not too difficult, you might as well stop by on a New England college tour. I knew the moment I stepped on campus that Wellesley was right for me. I think that kind of passion is part of what makes women's colleges so unique. There are very few students there who don't want to be there.</p>
<p>In plays where women are cast as men, you indicate on your sheet whether you are a. willing to be cast in a male role, and b. whether you are willing to kiss a female in a play.</p>
<p>I always checked off yes in hopes I would be considered for more parts, but I never made the cut for any upstage shows.</p>
<p>I never considered a women's college, but here I am, going to one!</p>
<p>These are what I consider pluses of a women's college:</p>
<p>1) Clean dorms: no smelly drunken bodies on the floor when you come home!
2) A community filled with talented, intelligent, and strong women: I figure that all the girls who really care about boys will go to Arizona State and the ones who choose a women's college mean business.
3) Statistically, it can be seen that women who come from women's colleges are more likely to be successful and capable than those who attended a co-ed school: a magazine found that numerous women CEOs were from women's colleges, and many of them from Wellesley. I do not have the specific article or data, but I'm sure you can look it up.
4) Events at women's colleges are organized, interesting, and full of delicious desserts. My experience has been based on Scripps College and Wellesley College receptions/events in comparison to about 6 other co-ed schools.
5) A chance to separate academics and romance: in high school it was always confusing to have a boyfriend and attempt to focus on school work. Having a place for work and play seems like a great idea to me.
6) More opportunities on campus. Half the competition (aka men) are gone. ;)
7) Women's colleges tend to have strong alumni networks. The Wellesley alum network continues to astound me. My father called it the "women's mafia".</p>
<p>Oops, I forgot the minuses!</p>
<p>1) No boys (that's an obvious one).</p>
<p>To be honest I really can't think of any. Maybe it's because I'm not trying to, I'm really just trying to look forward to going to college as much as I can. But the positives and negatives are really how you look at them. Having boys/not having boys can be a plus or minus depeding on how you look at it. Most of the negatives deal with how you look at it. You can go into it looking at it as a campus full of swarms of potential cat fights and hysterical giggling, or as what I have highlighted above.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, being in a women's college often dispels personal stereotypes about women. The students at a women's college are leaders, followers, and everything in between. They are articulate or afraid of public speaking, they're organized or perpetually running 10 minutes late, and they burst every preconceived notion you might have about the "typical" woman. No matter what your daughter's temperament or aspirations are, she will find role models, mentors, and friends in the college community.</p>
<p>Also, a women's college guarantees that (for four years, at least) a woman's achievements, failures, and rewards have nothing to do with her gender. Barring other single-sex environments, your daughter will probably not experience that sense of freedom any other time in her life. It's an incredible opportunity to explore one's actual interests, talents, and abilities without second-guessing each outcome.</p>