<p>I am wondering if this would be a good place for my son, who is likely to be a business major and wants a school with supportive faculty and friendly students</p>
<p>Well I have no clue about this college, but congratulations on being the first poster on this forum. Is it located in NYC?</p>
<p>It is in Purchase, NY, a suburb of NYC.</p>
<p>And I wondering whether this is a good school for my son, who wants to be a biology major.
Anyone? Beuler? Beuler?</p>
<p>My D was accepted a while ago also. We did not get a chance to visit yet but plan to So I have no insights either. It seems like a beautiful campus. 1/2 hour from NYC with a connection to the United Nations. I’m hoping you get some responses from people who know it too since I don’t have a sense of the School. BTW my daughter is looking for Art, Psychology and International Studies…</p>
<p>Manhattanville is in a nice suburb of NYC, actually it is an extremely wealthy neighborhood. Very safe. The school has been moving up over recent years after having some challenges years ago. Great for education and can provide ample connections for business majors.</p>
<p>Be aware that there is not a ton of social life on campus on weekends but the students take advantage of the surrounding area. The campus is right across the street from an arts-focused State University of NY at Purchase, minutes from White Plains - a decent sized city with plenty of choices for night life and culture - and within 30 minutes of Manhattan.</p>
<p>There are of course many other factors. Visit and decide…</p>
<p>Thank you for your helpful advice. What were the challenges you mention the college facing?</p>
<p>Being close to NYC is nice, but and a very valid consideration you raise, but my main concern is the quality of the education and the environment at the school.</p>
<p>Thanks. My D will be visiting tomorrow and Tuesday. It’s her only northern school. (Must be because we’re from NJ). She is looking at Art Psychology and International Studies. We’ll let you know what we found. She’s a senior and decision time is looming!</p>
<p>D and I toured M’ville a couple of months ago and I posted a review in the “college visit” section. </p>
<p>The campus is rather stark (enter into a huge parking lot, lots of utilitarian bldgs, shares athletic fields w/ neighboring boarding school) except for the attractive castle-like admin building. The weekend we visited, the school was deserted except for non-traditional students enrolled in Saturday classes. </p>
<p>Also, while M’ville is only a short drive from SUNY-Purchase, the schools most certainly are not “across the street” from each other. This is significant because (1) there are no sidewalks, so walking between the schools would not be advisable and (2) despite the fact that the schools are nearby, there is no shuttle service nor is there any other evidence of collaboration between the two. M’ville does, however, offer shuttle service to White Plains and to NYC.</p>
<p>Thanks foolishpleasure. Where did your daughter wind up going and how does she like it?</p>
<p>NYMIZ, what did your daughter think of her visit?</p>
<p>My D was actually pleasantly surprised by her experience at Mville. She did an overnight and took a couple of classes. She found the students open, intelligent and very friendly. The people at the college were very helpful and supportive. It is a small campus - basically a rectangle. She was a little disappointed by the small number of clubs that the school supported, but loved the international element. Despite the fact that it is a small school, it has made a strong push to attract students from other countries. There are a large number of students from the Dominican Republic, but actually there are a number of students there from around the world. Her areas of interest are Art, Psychology and International Studies. All of there programs are strong at the school. The school takes advantage of its proximity to NY with an event in the city just about every weekend. They also take advantage of their connection with the UN with regular visits and guest lecturers all the time.</p>
<p>All in all, it’s a great small school. If my D stays up north, she’ll probably go there. But she has also been accepted to Tulane and Eckerd and I have a feeling she is headed down south.</p>
<p>Thanks. Best of luck to your daughter wherever she ends up.</p>
<p>I get the sense that for kids not strongly attracted by the proximity to NYC, such as those who would prefer a weekend of intramural sports on on campus activities, this might not be a good choice</p>
<p>I figured I’d add to this thread, rather than start a new one, since it has so much helpful info.</p>
<p>D’s best friend just visited and loved the school. The school offered a lot of support (D’s friend is LD) and easy access to NYC. The access to NYC, however, comes at a cost – namely limited on-campus programming - - as other posters have noted.</p>
<p>We’re starting to look at colleges just now (my son is a junior) and it’s amazing me how some of these schools have completely changed since “my day” (1971 graduate, gulp).</p>
<p>Manhattanville was a super-preppy all-girls’ school. (So was Marymount).</p>
<p>I’m wondering, though, about the evaluation of “great” academics at Manhattanville. Really?</p>
<p>My son is dx’d with ADHD and goes to a special private high school. But he does very well there and his SATs, which he just got back, are quite good (Math 660, Reading 690, Writing 720). </p>
<p>We’re going to look at Manhattanville because of the support that’s available, but we also need a school with kids who are really interested in learning, exploring ideas, etc. Other possibilities seem to be Goucher, maybe Brandeis (although that might be too demanding), SUNY Purchase (although that’s probably too big). Maybe Sarah Lawrence, though there might be problems there (of various sorts).</p>
<p>It worries me if a school becomes deserted on the weekends. though. It’s nice to have a campus life.</p>
<p>I hope there will be more posts about Manhattanville.</p>
<p>Dmelanogaster, I was the OP on this thread. I found it hard to learn much about Manhattanville, as the Admissions Office was not responsive (I made 3 requests for a list of intramural sports offered and never received it) and the kids who called our house for the school were foreign kids who could not describe the school well. </p>
<p>As you noted,the reports of everyone heading to NYC on the weekends are encouraging to everyone, so my son did not apply. From your brief description of your son’s interests, the websites of Colleges of Distinction and Colleges That Change Lives will be of interest.</p>
@ #6 - Son of a Manhattanville alumna here. By “challenges” in post #5, worldspirit is alluding to the school’s general downturn circa 1970. Through a combination of factors, Manhattanville suffered a steep decline in prestige from its mid-20th-century heyday. I’d identify these factors as:
- Financial, financial, financial.
- The moves both to coeducation and to secularization. While I don't think either is inherently good or bad, in Manhattanville's case I think they served to erode the college's unique identity as the crown jewel of Catholic women's education in America. In its day, Manhattanville rightly was known as “the Catholic Vassar.”
- The move to coeducation by traditionally all-male schools such as Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. This siphoned many talented young women away from traditionally elite women's colleges. Amongst elite women’s colleges, I’d argue that only Wellesley and Smith retain the same or nearly the same cachet that they had in, say, 1965. I don’t mean that as a dig at any of those schools as they exist today; I just mean to emphasize how highly people regarded them in the several decades prior to 1970.
- The move of the campus from Manhattan to Purchase. This was a sound move in the short term, as the school avoided NYC's "Warriors"/"Escape from New York" phase, but it was a bad move in the long term. Manhattan is much cleaner and safer than in was in the '70s and '80s. Were it still there, Manhattanville would be reaping the benefits of its location (just as Columbia once again is).
To give you an idea of Manhattanville’s former prestige (warning: humble-brag forthcoming), my mother was a high school valedictorian and chose Manhattanville over Radcliffe (Harvard College being all-male in those days). My 2¢: Manhattanville at its peak was on par with the top half of the Seven Sisters and was the most prestigious Catholic school in the country, more prestigious than Georgetown and significantly more prestigious than Notre Dame (which still was in the process of ascending under the leadership of Fr. Hesburgh and Edmund Stephan). The comparison to Georgetown and ND isn’t entirely apt, since Manhattanville is a college whereas Georgetown and ND are kind of “tweener” schools, retaining some aspects of a liberal arts college but skewing heavily toward the research university end of the spectrum. But you get my meaning. Amongst educated people aged 70 and over, a Manhattanville degree carries a lot of weight.
I don’t intend any of this as a knock on the Manhattanville of today. It’s an improving school and is better than it was 20 or 30 years ago. I’m just trying to provide my take on some of its institutional history.
Manhattanville College is a wonderful school. I am currently an undergraduate studying here and I am a senior. The campus is gorgeous, especially when the seasons are changing. Fall is definitely my favorite time to be on campus. We have a castle that overlooks the entire campus and is lit up at night for a beautiful view. Everyone on this campus is very friendly and nice to be around. Although we are a small school I still see a new face everyday. Academics at Manhattanville are very important. All of our professors are very approachable and easily reached. They have posted office hours but they are available to meet at other times as well. Some professors give us their cell phone numbers as a better way of contacting them and they trust us enough that we are not going to harass them at all hours of the night because we have their number. Class sizes are small giving us a student to teacher ratio of 14 students to 1 professor. This allows for that one on one time with the professor so you do not feel like a number in the crowd. Professors take the time to learn your names and some even take attendance every class. Campus life at Manhattanville is amazing. There are at least two events going on every weekend and usually one going on every day throughout the week so there is always something to do. Residence Halls on campus are some of the nicest living areas I saw when I was looking for schools myself. They are spacious and comfortable to live in and there is plenty of storage space. Overall, Manhattanville College has exceeded all of my expectations. I could not be happier with choosing this school. I am looking forward to graduating and moving on with my career and seeing the different opportunities that will arise from connections I am making. Although I am excited to graduate I am sad about leaving such a warm and welcoming environment.
Hello,
Thank you for your information about Manhattanville. My son has applied to the Musical Theater department and has been accepted academically, we are waiting on how his audition goes for the rest. He has been very happy with the communications he has received and what we abe to see for a tour online, but we would love to hear more information about the school if possible. Due to COVID we are not able to tour the school.