<p>Excused, mythmom. :)</p>
<p>The Simpsons is the longest-running, primetime animated series in television history — it cleverly tells the wacky stories of a never-aging, dysfunctional family living in generic Springfield, USA. Lisa Simpson, the family’s brainiac daughter, mentions wanting to attend Vassar in several episodes. In one of these, "Lisa Gets an ‘A’," Lisa is upset after her entire school finds out that she cheated on an exam. Her rarely tactful father, Homer, responds with, "Aw, don’t worry about the test... Maybe Vassar will still take you." Although The Simpsons is primarily written in a collaborative manner, with each writer adding to the script, the principal writer of "Lisa Gets an ‘A’" was Ian Maxtone-Graham, the son of Vassar alumna Katrina Kanzler Maxtone-Graham ’56. Most of the Vassar references on The Simpsons are positive; however in an episode called "The PTA Disbands," Lisa is upset that her school is on strike. She says she won’t be able to get into an Ivy League school, and adds, "At this rate, I probably won’t even get into Vassar." But Homer, a true fan of the Brewers, responds, "I’ve had just about enough of your Vassar-bashing, young lady."</p>
<p>Vassar</a>, The Alumnae/i Quarterly: articles : Popular Culture: Vassar Steals the Spotlight</p>
<p>I live in MA and I've had a chance to hear Jay Severin. He's absolutely disgusting; I say this not because I disagree with his politics (which I do), but because his comments are often quite crude and boorish. The day after Spitzer resigned Severin started his show by saying that high achieving males probably all "rent" love and later admitted to using high-priced call girls as well. What??? He's not my idea of an accomplished Vassar alum that I'd want my kid to see as a role model.</p>
<p>Not my idea of a role model either, but every college that has been around long enough will have a nasty alum or two. I would not dismiss a school that has great programs in my kids' favorite major just because some jerk have graduated from it in the past (and I would not pick a school just because it produced a couple of very famous people either). D pointed to me that she already got into Monica Lewinsky's alma mater and is now waiting on HRC's one. :D</p>
<p>Lisa Simpson actually reminds me of one of Ds friends who skipped high school after attending Lakeside ( a private prep day school in Seattle) for a year & went straight to the UW in their early entrance program.</p>
<p>Add Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard's first female president, for Bryn Mawr!</p>
<p>Sadly, as we know from other crass, boorish radio talk show hosts, that's what sells airtime. I certainly do not agree with Severins political leanings, and have only vague memories of what he was like in school (it's so hard not to put that "o" back on the end of his last name!) but, for good or for bad, he has become accomplished in his field.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Most of the Vassar references on The Simpsons are positive;<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>I recall one episode in which all of the Seven Sisters are represented - they each appear to Lisa embodied as one student in what I think was a dream sequence and brag about the students at their school: "Barnard girls are __<strong><em>" "Mt. Holyoke girls get to _</em></strong>", etc. </p>
<p>I don't remember what each of the stereotypes were, but I recall that it was very funny. BTW, many of the writers for The Simpsons over the years have been Harvard grads. They have a pipeline from the Harvard Lampoon.</p>
<p>PS: There is a brilliant, perfectionist, socially and environmentally virtuous woman I know at work whom I jokingly refer to as a grown up version of Lisa Simpson. But she does not understand the allusion herself because she never watches The Simpsons.</p>
<p>It went something like:</p>
<p>"Go to Radcliffe and meet Harvard men!
Come to Wellesley and marry them!
Come to Barnard and (I forget...)
Come to Smith and play lacrosse!
Come to Bryn Mawr and explore (kisses Smith girl)
Come and party with meeeee! (Mt. Holyoke)</p>
<p>I don't remember Vassar, but she had really hairy armpits.</p>
<p>after a little googling I got this:</p>
<p>Barnard - Columbia's girl next door
Radcliffe - She can meet Harvard men
Wellesley - She can marry said Harvard men
Mt. Holyoke - She can party like a lush
Vassar - She can grow her armpit hair out
Smith - She can play lacrosse
Bryn Mawr - She can "explore." HOT.</p>
<p>I also did some digging. "I'm spelling as fast as I can" is the episode, and it aired in 2003. I'm going to rent the DVD if D gets in one of those schools!</p>
<p>D has had a superlative experience at Barnard. Just logging in for those women considering a woman's college.</p>
<p>She does did her final housing selection today.</p>
<p>one of Ds high school friends attended Barnard but graduated from UW- I think she got overwhelmed with NYC.</p>
<p>Okay, scurrilous and out-of-date, but there used to be a saying "Barnard to bed, Wellesley to wed, and Radcliffe girls you take to the library".
I've more recently heard this applied to Pitzer, Scripps and Pomona.</p>
<p>Well, if that's true, I think Barnard women got the best of the bargain, but i know not everyone else would agree with me. My D is perfectly able to go to the library herself. Columbia's Butler Library is quite magnificent.</p>
<p>well only scripps is a womens college but those rhymes imply that is the male that is the "decider"
I haven't found that to be true.
;)</p>
<p>Outside the northeast they're not really well known (certainly relative to most other schools in the Northeast), but that's not to say they're not still excellent schools.</p>
<p>The womens colleges?</p>
<p>I didn't know that Cornell and Brown were " * Ivy league schools* " and so wasn't appropriately impressed with either apparently, judging by my neighbors reactions,
but because of some of alumni of of the women's colleges:
like Virginia Apgar, Emily Dickenson(Mt Holyoke),
Margaret Mead and Jeane Kirkpatrick ( Barnard).
Helen Keller and Gertrude Stein ( Radcliffe),
Katherine Hepburn and Edith Hamilton ( Bryn Mawr),
Edna St. Vincent Millay and Meryl Streep ( Vassar),
Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Madeleine Albright, ( Wellesley)
and Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem ( Smith)
- this women and many others have brought great attention to the schools well outside of the region.</p>
<p>as a girl who’s first choice is smith…this is a great thread…seriously…
i love to hear more about seven sisters</p>
<p>My D had a spectacular experience at Barnard. She ended up with a different major and a much more intellectual approach than she went into school.</p>
<p>She is confident and very interesting.</p>
<p>I am convinced that being at a Women’s College helped her become the woman she has always wanted to be.</p>
<p>And she enjoyed herself immensely. And is moving in with her BF the summer of college graduation, taking a gap year and going to law school.</p>
<p>PM if any young women have questions.</p>
<p>She has found that Barnard garners a lot of respect and recognition.</p>