<p>barnard vs bryn mawr vs wellesley vs smith vs barnard.
What is the differences among them? What are some pros and cons of each school?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Boston, New York, Philadelphia. Not to be smug, but there is a lot of truth in that.</p>
<p>Wellesley is right outside Boston/Cambridge–a fabulous college town with big city attributes such as major museums and symphonies, etc–and has cross registration with outstanding science/engineering schools (MIT/Olin) and business school (Babson). Wellesley is outstanding when it somes to pre-professionalism and placement in grad school, is ranked about 4th among LACs in general. Unlike many of the other 7 Sisters, Wellesley has ALWAYS had female presidents. That tells you something.</p>
<p>Smith is part of the 5-college exchange, and is locate in the very cool town of Northampton. Bryn Mawr is outside Philadelphia and has a close relationship with Haverford and a less close relationship with Swarthmore. Barnard is in NYC–plusses (huge arts scene) and minuses (expensive and mega urban)–and has the close relationship with Columbia. </p>
<p>They are all great schools.</p>
<p>The only sad thing about Barnard is the inferiority complex that goes on with columbia.</p>
<p>You forgot Mt. Holyoke and Vassar, lol. These are my highly unscientific observations:</p>
<p>Barnard: Urban, close-knit LAC. Big draw: Columbia University resources. Big lose: Condescention from a few snotty Columbia College kids. </p>
<p>Bryn Mawr: Suburban. Tri-College Consortium with Haverford and Swarthmore. High percentage of graduates go on to pursue Ph. D’s. </p>
<p>Wellesley: Hillary Clinton? I haven’t explored it much.</p>
<p>Smith: “Pioneer Valley” Consortium. Sylvia Plath.</p>
<p>Vassar: Rural for my taste, but technically suburban. Co-educational. Fun, quirky student body. Big draw: males! yay!</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke: Also apart of the “Pioneer Valley” Consortium with Smith, Amherst, Hampshire, and UMass Amherst. Emily Dickinson.</p>
<p>Barnard: New York City location. Women looked down upon and taken advantage of by Columbia students. Overrated.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr: Bi-college consortium with Haverford College–tiny, co-ed, top LAC 5 minutes away–academic opportunities at Swarthmore and UPenn, superior Art History and Classics departments, ~20 minutes away from Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Wellesley: Premiere women’s college, prestige, strong alumnae network and heavy on-campus recruiting.</p>
<p>Smith: Five College Consortium with Amherst, Holyoke, Hampshire, and UMass, exceptional engineering programs and grad school placement, located in bourgeois bohemian paradise town Northhampton.</p>
<p>Let’s refrain from re-hashing the same points.</p>
<p>ImmanuelKant ,
Thanks a lot! I was trying to make a decision between mount holyoke and vassar, so I didn’t ask about them, but I still don’t know which one to choose haha.</p>
<p>Thank you guys! I think I’m going to apply wellesley for sure, but I just can’t make a decision among mount holyoke, bryn mawr, smith and barnard. I was leaning on barnard since it’s in new york, but seems like ppl for columbia dis students for barnard? I really like the campus of bryn mawr, but I’m afraid it’s too out of nowhere? Apparently I want choose a LAC that has social life too but not only education. Thank you guys again!</p>
<p>There are several other colleges right near Bryn Mawr, plus the U of Pennsylvania a half hour away. Anybody know how much social interaction there is with these other schools? I think the Bryn Mawr women got a raw deal when Haverford went coed a few decades ago…male:female ratio in those 2 schools combined went from 1:1 to 1:3. Same thing happened for Smith and Mt Holyoke when Amherst went coed.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t let some of the Columbia folks’ attitudes deter you from going to Barnard. If somebody likes you, he/she isn’t going to let your Barnard status get in the way.</p>
<p>From what I can tell, Wellesley and Bryn Mawr seem to be a little more serious academically than the others, with Smith being real liberal and Mt Holyoke being less politically active.</p>
<p>This is my “fun” take on each</p>
<p>Bryn- looks like freaking hogwarts. But, in a yucky part of PA
Barnard-right in the big apple, most competitve…hate the name(yes…it matters)
Wellesley-probably the toughest…seems the most “old school”
Mount Holyoke-the softest of the seven sisters…a little less angry than the rest
Vassar-might as well still be single sex(jk)
Smith-my favorite. Very tough, but amazing house system
Radcliffe-now called harvard</p>
<p>
Main Line Philadelphia is a yucky part of PA???</p>
<p>I’m a Pittsburgh girl
“Filth” adelphia is not a good option
it IS yucky there</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr is 20 minutes by commuter rail from the city. It’s in a very beautiful, leafy suburb. And while Philadelphia has both lovely and not-so-lovely neighborhoods, the same can be said of Pittsburgh…or any major city, for that matter. I think you’re just a western PA chauvinist. ;)</p>
<p>
LOL!!! What in the world…?</p>
<p>I am what you say i am Booklady
but all eastern PA people are the same way about pittsburgh</p>
<p>Not at all! We visited Pittsburgh for the first time this past spring and thought it was a terrific city, as do many of our friends. Lots of kids from here (we live near Bryn Mawr) go to UPitt and love it. It’s one of the schools high on S’s list, in fact.</p>
<p>This will add a piece to the puzzle. The percentage of majors in math, computer science, bio science, physical science, or engineering at top colleges and universities. Bryn Mawr is the only women’s college with very strong student interest in math and science. Smith is next. Wellesley has very few math and science majors. I didn’t include Barnard, but I’ll take a wild stab and guess that it’s in Wellesley territory. Combined with Haverford, that is also very “sciency”, Bryn Mawr is going to “feel” much different than the other womens colleges in terms of the visibility of science majors, students, and professors.</p>
<p>35% – Stanford University
33% – Rice University
31% – Duke University
31% – University of California-Berkeley
30% – Princeton University
30% – Carleton College
29% – Swarthmore College
27% – Columbia University in the City of New York
26% – Grinnell College
26% – University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
26% – Haverford College
26% – Vanderbilt University
25% – University of Chicago
24% – Williams College
23% – Harvard University
23% – Bryn Mawr College
21% – Dartmouth College
20% – University of Virginia-Main Campus
19% – Brown University
18% – Pomona College
17% – Yale University
17% – Davidson College
17% – Bowdoin College
16% – Smith College
16% – Washington and Lee University
15% – College of William and Mary
15% – University of Pennsylvania
15% – Amherst College
14% – Oberlin College
13% – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
12% – Wesleyan University
12% – Claremont McKenna College
12% – Wellesley College
11% – Emory University
11% – Middlebury College
11% – Vassar College</p>
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<p>I would not say that at all about Bryn Mawr. First of all, the town of Bryn Mawr is stunning. There are multi-million dollar estates surrounding the college. The town of Bryn Mawr has its own Ferrari dealer if that gives you any idea.</p>
<p>But, of more interest are two things. Bryn Mawr and Haveford are really two campuses of the same school (in some ways). They share many departments (Haveford has this dept; Bryn Mawr has that one). So students from both schools take a lot of courses at the other. They have a combined student newspaper, combined social scene, etc. </p>
<p>Second. Bryn Mawr has a train station. 20 minutes to downtown. Philly has great restaurants (Iron Chef Morimotos is the most enjoyable restaurant meal I’ve ever had), good museums, good symphony, thriving theater scene, major league sports, and 20 minutes later you are back in your lovely campus. Two hours to NYC on the train or the $10 Bolt bus – in some ways NYC is more fun for a weekend visit than to live there. Three hours to DC. Incredibly easy and affordale air travel. Philly has Southwest, Airtran, and USAIR shuttle. Very cheap fares.</p>
<p>You coulg read this thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/478332-seven-now-five-sisters-question.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/478332-seven-now-five-sisters-question.html</a>
or google Lisa Simpson and “I’m Spelling as Fast as I Can” :)</p>