<p>CD, a picky note: wanting to disappear into the crowd and being able to do it does not necessarily equal “right choice” for those who do.</p>
<p>Is it what they want at the time? Yes. Is it the best thing for their development? Mmmm.</p>
<p>FYI–I ran my husband’s “story” by him and he said it was accurate. I believe in “truth in advertising!” :)</p>
<p>Thanks CrewDad. Having gone to Vassar I was about to point out that it went co-ed in 1973, but you beat me to it.</p>
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<p>I’m sure you meant to say 1969. Or possibly you were thinking of the first co-ed class to graduate.
[A</a> History of Coeducation - Vassar College Encyclopedia - Vassar College](<a href=“http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/coeducation/a-history-of-coeducation.html]A”>A History of Coeducation - Vassar Encyclopedia - Vassar College)</p>
<p>Related fun fact of interest.
[The</a> Forgotten Coed Class | Sidebar Long | Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly](<a href=“http://vq.vassar.edu/issue/winter-2011/article/the-forgotten-coed-class]The”>http://vq.vassar.edu/issue/winter-2011/article/the-forgotten-coed-class)</p>
<p>My youngest daughter will matriculate at Vassar this fall. It’s comforting to know I have at least one Vassar alumna as company on a Smith thread. :)</p>
<p>My college roommate transferred and became the first (known) male graduate of Vassar. He’s now a judge in North Carolina. </p>
<p>Back in the Dark Ages, my Harvard friends were jealous of the actual education I got at #1 LAC. (My Smithie d. is doing her Ph.D. at Princeton, and teaches there. I think she’d tell you to go to H.)</p>
<p>Mini, should your #1 LAC switch positions again with Amherst, instead of using silly numbers and having to say you graduated from the #2 LAC, why not just state you’re a Williams alum? Or be consistent, say, “I was educated at the #1 LAC, my daughter is earning her Ph.D at the #2 university.” :)</p>
<p>Yes, my mistake, the first males of the current era entered Vassar in 1969. But there were actually men at Vassar before that. Vassar had men attend post-World War II when many veterans returned and flooded the education system.</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>Du, should have clocked on your link before I posted. Just saw that you knew about the Vassar Vets.</p>
<p>'Mini, should your #1 LAC switch positions again with Amherst, instead of using silly numbers and having to say you graduated from the #2 LAC, why not just state you’re a Williams alum?"</p>
<p>Regardless of whether they switch positions, my alma mater will always beat them in football. Which is great for me - 'cause I’ve pledged never to give them a contribution in years they have a winning football team, and I haven’t given them a dime in more than 20 years.</p>
<p>Mini, you crack me up! What a promising premise!</p>
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<p>Mini, selective scorekeeping? Granted, not a great record, but Amherst defeated Williams in 2000, 2002 and 2004.</p>
<p>rejuvenating this thread…</p>
<p>Should I do Smith in 3 years or MHC in 4? The fin aid I got from Smith will mean that I will have to complete everything in 3 years. Smith in 3 years will save me $18000 as compared to MHC in 4 years. Also, I will leave Smith with a $12650 debt compared to $19000-25000 at Mt Holyoke.</p>
<p>I plan to double major too. I know this is hard but since I should have 32 course credits already covered, I figured it is not impossible. I can skip introductory econs (one of my intended majors is in econs) since I have an A in my GCE A levels econs.</p>
<p>The problem really is that I like Smith too much. I haven’t connected much with Mt Holyoke so IDK. If not for this extreme liking for Smith, I won’t be so confused now.</p>
<p>Be careful how you calculate: Smith gives credits for classes as pre-requisites but not as units counting toward graduation; e.g., none of D’s AP classes counted for credits though she was able to skip forward appropriately in her Math sequence.</p>
<p>And I strongly strongly strongly advise against trying to do Smith in three years. The education process is not one where technicians (professors) are filling your skull with components (classes). </p>
<p>The college educational process is akin to fermentation, requiring a selection of ingredients (classes), a supportive atmosphere, and time. If you try to complete your task in three years, then you are making a different error than your parents but one just as big. </p>
<p>Could you do it? Possibly. Is it the wise thing to do? Almost certainly not.</p>
<p>If you need to take some comfort, look at any cost differential amortized over the first ten years of your working life. In the scale of your life, it’s trivial…it’s not like footing a $200K bill in its entirety on your own.</p>
<p>If the choice is three at Smith (I don’t think you could do it, but…) or four years at MHC, I think you should do the four years at MHC.</p>
<p>@The Dad </p>
<p>Does this mean that even though I can skip intro econs, I’ll still need 128 credits in 3 years and not 96 credits? If so than it’s starting to sound rather impossible.</p>
<p>I know that the whole point of a liberal arts education is exploration, so its a big trade off. I was initially thinking of doing 3 years no matter which school I go to, just because its so ridiculously expensive even with fin aid.</p>
<p>Affording 4 years of Smith is not entirely impossible, its just that I’ll have to throw in earnings which are not confirmed, i.e. yearly bonuses and I don’t wish to take that risk. I was initially saving that yearly bonus for fluctuations in exchange rate since its a very real problem. Singapore’s currency has been very strong lately but I have doubts about whether it will last for long, esp after US recovers fully from the bad recession. Singapore recovered very fast and posted double digit growth last yr (thats when US1 started to be worth about SGD1.30), so I’m expecting it to go up to about SGD 1.40 in the near future unless the US really gets stuck/Singapore keeps growing at a very fast rate.</p>
<p>So it basically just goes back to the same question of whether Smith is worth my extra $20000. This is confusing esp since MHC and Smith are similar in so many ways, but somehow I just gravitate towards Smith. (does the respective college’s activity on their facebook’s class of 2015 give an indication of the student body? Smith’s is so much livelier compared to MHC’s)</p>
<p>Is it true that the International Relations department at MHC is very strong? If so this may help me like MHC more. But still I’ll regret terribly about Smith’s fantastic housing system and better surrounding town area…</p>
<p>Most top private four-year colleges discourage graduating in three years, and they rarely allow AP/IB/college credits to transfer – unless, of course, you applied as a transfer student. TD and Mini are correct that those credits allow you to take upper level courses sooner, but they don’t allow you to graduate sooner. IIRC, at Smith you can use AP credits to lessen your load for a semester, but not to graduate early. The sophomore-standing-upon-matriculation happens more frequently at public universities.</p>
<p>“So it basically just goes back to the same question of whether Smith is worth my extra $20000.”</p>
<p>I clearly don’t understand your situation. Smith in 4 years is $18k more than MHC, but your debt would be $7k-$12k lower. So is it $18k more? 11k more? or 6k more? </p>
<p>At any rate, MHC has a fine reputation in International Relations. And, yes, I think Smith is much livelier.</p>
<p>Actually TD, Smith does give units of credit for AP or IB courses to those students that want to accelerate or need them to graduate, but only in those instances. So let’s say you have 4 AP credits when you enter as a first year. They won’t impact your Smith transcript at all unless, coming into the last semester of your senior year, you do not have enough accumulated credits from Smith to meet the graduation requirement. </p>
<p>I think logistically it would be nearly impossible to double major and finish Smith in 3 years. It’s almost certain that some of the classes you would need to take would conflict with other classes you need to take in terms of timing. And just from a standpoint of enjoying your college experience, it would be very difficult. </p>
<p>I think based on what you’ve posted other places about your financial aid and your family’s finances, it’s time to seriously consider Mt. Holyoke. It’s a great college, they’ve given you lots of financial aid, and you can still take classes at Smith if you want.</p>
<p>I decided to go to the Smith website for the most up-to-date information:</p>
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<p>“Accelerated course program” could mean a plan to graduate in three years, or it could mean to take upper level courses sooner rather than later, so I dug deeper. Yes, it is possible to get a year ahead.</p>
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<p>Would I recommend it? No. Can you do it? Obviously, yes.</p>
<p>The above seems to indicate that you cannot use your credits to fulfill a major.</p>