<p>I’m a freshman at Scripps College in Claremont, and I definitely had a lot of those same obnoxious, ignorant reactions. One of them being “well, don’t catch lesbianism!” Ridiculous.</p>
<p>In some cases, it seems that the stereotypes people have “seem” to be true. The queer community in Claremont, but especially Scripps is incredibly active, but perhaps that is because being an all-women LAC makes the atmosphere relatively accepting and receptive.
I hear “raging feminists” as a stereotype a lot, but maybe it’s because we’re taught to be aware that social attitudes permeate everything in a society, and we’re not afraid to bring it up in classes outside of women’s studies as just another lens to view something through.
And “ball-busters” just means we’ve got brains and know how to use them ;)</p>
<p>As for cattyness and cliques- perhaps it’s because we’re Womens Colleges, not Girls Schools. I definitely saw those behaviors in middle school, but not anymore.</p>
<p>And being in Claremont gives us the opportunity to be as co-ed as we want to be, socially and academically. In fact, when the Scripps gym and pool instituted “womens-only” hours on Sundays, boys from neighboring campuses got a tad mad. It was a “Yes, Scripps is still a women’s college” moment.</p>
<p>One thing that I loved about Scripps when I visited several years ago was the proximity of all the Claremont colleges. Coming from “Five College Consortium” turf in Western Massachusetts, I’ve always sung the praises of the free bus system that connects the member schools, but the Claremont students don’t need a bus (or, in some cases, not even a bike) to visit neighboring college that really are neighbors in the truest sense. As “Eternal Icicle” pointed out, this set-up allows Scripps women to be as co-ed as they want to be.</p>
<p>My own D is in the final stages of saying YES! to an all-women’s college. She was admitted to all 5 LAC she applied to , so has options. Two of those options include the top LAC’s in Mn. Where does she really want to be? The all-women’s college. She didn’t always feel this way.</p>
<p>All-women’s colleges weren’t even on her radar screen when she first started the college search. Then she attended Girl’s State and realized how empowering it was to be in an atmosphere of bright, motivated young women such as herself.</p>
<p>We visited 10 LAC, 3 of them all-women’s in Massachusetts. The visit process was new to me because when I attended college my family basically could afford to fund part of my tuition at a local state school with me funding the rest. After having been through the search and visit process with my daughter I cannot emphasize enough the importance of visiting a campus. Each campus has its own uniques qualities that attract or repel a given student (my theory is that the atmosphere is permeated by the adherence to the mission of each school -or not- and you can FEEL it). My D outright rejected three of the co-ed campuses we visited, along with one of the women’s colleges- because of the “feel.” One of the all-women’s colleges was “the ONE” for my D. This doesn’t make one school or another better or worse than the others, but simply means that the fit is right- and I am now a true believer in fit! </p>
<p>Women’s colleges are not for every young woman. My younger daughter definitely wants co-ed. But for those young women who know themselves well enough to choose one, I am now convinced that there are superb opportunities awaiting them in an all-women’s environment.</p>
<p>patc,
I also had not considered a Womens college until my participation in Girl’s State. I think the program definitely dispelled my initial ideas of cattyness, and I truly felt liberated in such an environment. It was probably the single motivation behind my research and application to 3 womens colleges.</p>
<p>To Mephisto101 … Over the years, I’ve encouraged a lot of young women in my purview to consider Simmons. You’re right about the location. For a girl who wants an urban environment in the midst of the Boston action and also a “real” campus, Simmons is perfect, and it’s walking distance to many other colleges, too (and also has cross-registration with several neighboring schools).</p>
<p>Typically, the students I’m quick to direct to Simmons are:</p>
<p>a) Those who are interested in the more selective women’s schools (Wellesley, Smith, Barnard et al) but probably won’t get in.</p>
<p>and/or</p>
<p>b) Those who are interested in majors with a definite professional ring to them like nursing, physical therapy, nutrition, special ed, etc. (Simmons offers liberal arts, too, but it does offer a number of majors that the more typical liberal arts schools don’t.) </p>
<p>I have been very impressed by a number of Simmons alums I know … including the Dean of Admission at Wellesley :)</p>
<p>Hi, I was just accepted to Mount Holyoke and definitely plan on going, but I would like some feedback on it. Nobody I know has heard of it so I would like a general opinion about it. It’s just as good as Smith, Wellesley etc…right?</p>
<p>Short answer: YES! Longer answer…Mt Holyoke is in a somewhat more bucolic location than center-of-town Smith or suburban Wellesley. But as noted in one of the earlier posts, Mt Holyoke is part of the 5-College consortium that includes UMass/Amherst (25K students!), Smith, Amherst, and Hampshire. There is cross-registration, which lots of students take advantage of, and a FREE 5-College bus system. So if a student wants to remain on Mt Holyoke’s uber-lovely campus, they can; but if they want to venture further afield, that is easy to do as well. To say that the area is resource rich for college students is a vast understatement.</p>
<p>May I suggest that you look at the Mount Holyoke college site here? There are a couple of posters who currently attend MHC and would be more than willing to answer your questions; I have PM’d them and received more detailed information. </p>
<p>Also, out of curiosity, can I ask what it is that draws you to MHC?</p>
<p>In the 70s there was a famous study of done in which it was demonstrated that women who attended the Seven Sisters colleges NOT affiliated with a male school (Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, et al) had out-achieved the graduates of the women’s colleges that were affiliated with male schools (Radcliffe, Barnard, Pembroke, et al) in the post-college world of work. I remember Mattina Horner, then the president of Radcliffe, citing it in some public forum.</p>
<p>It never ceases to amaze me that people will deride women who are willing to be independent of men. The idea that Wellesley, for example, is cozy and “nurturing” and that it produces shrinking violets who are afraid to compete with men is indeed worthy of a big snort of laughter.</p>
<p>Somewhere on this board recently a girl posted that she thought she was admitted to MIT merely because she was a girl. If you look at her stats (2400/4.0) she was clearly qualified. Why do girls put themselves down like that? How much better than perfect do women have to be?</p>
<p>I hope a women’s college will discourage this kind of behavior.</p>
<p>^^It’s just like all of that garbage about how supposedly women are “catty” and there will be a lot of “emo” in the dorms. </p>
<p>At Wellesley, girls learn that women are powerful and so is sisterhood. Apparently the catty Mean Girls all go to schools where they can indulge in their favorite activity: fighting over boys.</p>
<p>“The idea that Wellesley, for example, is cozy and “nurturing””"</p>
<p>I didn’t go to Wellesley, but I found one of its sisters to be extremely cozy and nurturing. That wasn’t the right atmosphere for me, but it’s nothing to snort at; a lot of my classmates took pride in it.</p>
<p>My Daughter was accepted to Smith ED - our path as similar to earlier post - looked about 10 LAC and she kept coming back to Smith as the one that felt right despite the all girl aspect. To top it off we literally had people coming up to us in the street at home if we were talking about SMith to tell us that they had gone there and how great it was and all the girls from her high school who have gone there have all come back very happy. It feels very right for her in that it has a very strong sense of academic rigor but wasn’t competitive admissions wise to the point of screening out everyone but the top 5% in their classes and coming from a very selective high school she thought that was a plus. We’ll see how it goes but it seems like a really good fit especially since she is interested in the sciences.</p>
<p>My D is graduating from Barnard in May. She had an awesome experience there, and Hillary is her commencement speaker, which thrills her.</p>
<p>She is recommended for graduation at Barnard on a Monday and then actually gets her diploma at the general Columbia University graduation on a Wednesday.</p>
<p>Barnard was always her number one choice, and it worked out just the way she thought it would.</p>
<p>overwhelmedma: I was accepted to Smith ED too! Maybe I’ll be in the same science class as your daugher (planning on double majoring in Bio and Music).</p>
<p>I chose a woman’s college because: of the atmosphere (everyone is friendly), the oppurtunities are numerous, a lot of my classmates so far seem to be very driven already, and Smith seems to look beyond the numbers (plus Smith offers an open-curriculum which is fabulous for my choices of majors where at other schools I was going to have to spend about 6 yrs as opposed to 4yrs). Smith was my first choice and I cannot wait to attend there this fall to begin my college years.</p>
<p>congrats composer! She also found the open-curriculum very appealing since she has several interests and thought people were pretty self motivated! Good luck in the fall.</p>
<p>Hi patc, what drew me towards MHC first was when I attended one of their information sessions in LA. It was great. Obviously, their great academics was a factor, and knowing if I was admitted I would meet smart and ambitious girls and form strong friendships with them. It would be an experience unlike one in California, I could imagine myself raving about MHC in 50 years and donating back.</p>
<p>I didn’t intend to imply that there is anything WRONG with being cozy and nurturing. I’m just saying that Wellesley is not particularly so. The idea that women’s colleges are all cozy little nests is a stereotype that deserves puncturing.</p>