Just wondering, since I know there are different vibes in every school.
Sweet Briar. Both have excellent facilities for horses too and are great if you are into riding.
I think OP probably means the Seven Sisters, of which Sweet Briar is not a part (it is also much smaller and has a bit more of the southern vibe). From what I remember of my own college search, I would say Bryn Mawr - both more oriented towards academia, with class colors and significant traditions. Wellesley is more pre-professional, and Smith is bigger and a bit more activist-y. Barnard is more urban and very closely associated with Columbia, which gives it a more cosmopolitan feel, and Vassar is the odd one out (since it’s co-ed).
Edit: That being said, the schools all have a lot in common (small liberal arts, all but Vassar involved in consortiums), and their own unique flair.
I would agree with Bryn Mawr as far as visual impact 
Same look, different color of stone. They are both beautiful (not that the other sisters aren’t but…)
@fireflyscout Agree Sweet Briar is not a member of the “Seven Sisters” but that organisation has become something of an anachronism. Radcliffe no longer exists, Vassar is co-ed, and Barnard has more in common with Columbia College than the other women’s colleges. It’s “vibe” is certainly nothing like Smith and MHC, which I thought was what the OP was asking about. Indeed, I was visiting Barnard when that letter to the Trump Administration from the Seven Sisters College Presidents was published. Many of the BC students were joking that they didn’t even know Barnard was still part of it. And of course Radcliffe signed even though it is no longer a college and doesn’t have a President…
Well . . . . although some of the details that @exlibris97 relates are not untrue, the Seven Sisters is alive and well in an important regard. Mainly if you went to any of the schools, you’re part of a network of people who recognize their commonality. The seven sisters share a sisterhood. You feel kinship with a Vassar person even it is co-ed now and you feel a kinship with a Smith person, even if that school is vastly different from BMC. As someone else once said: Today it’s more like “five sisters and two cousins”. That Barnard is one of the 7 sisters helps it hold its own next the behemoth of CU in a not-unsimilar way that Vassar remained independent from Yale. The sisterhood and it’s strong history helps to keep Barnard from being a “second class citizen” because it has its unique traditions and a network of its own. No CU grad will ever be part of the Seven Sisters network.
@Dustyfeathers I never said the Seven Sisters weren’t alive, just that it was a bit of an anachronism. Radcliffe doesn’t exist any longer. Vassar is co-ed. And from speaking to Barnard students, they don’t need the Seven Sisters to “hold their own” against Columbia College. I’d only add that this “second class citizen” reference to Barnard’s status is pure nonsense. It doesn’t reflect reality. But I want belabor the point. I’ll let Barnard students speak for themselves.
@exlibris97 Regardless of current Barnard students’ feelings on the subject, the several alums I’ve met certainly feel kinship to alums and students of other Seven Sisters schools. And that’s the power of the Seven Sisters: it’s an extended network of people who place value on women and women’s education, and who provide opportunities for students and graduates of those institutions. And the Seven Sisters will never be an anachronism until that mission ceases to be a priority for the schools involved.
And this thread is supposed to be on Mt. Holyoke’s relationship to the Seven Sisters, not Barnard.
@FireflyLights I agree it is supposed to be about MoHo, which is why I was baffled by your original response to my post.
Also, in my view, “sisterhood” does not involve implying that Barnard students are, or would be, “second class” citizens at Columbia without an external organization. That’s simply patronising. Enough said.
As the parent of a Barnard alum, I have to agree – there is a overall sense of kinship with graduates of other 7 sisters, at least the ones that are still women’s colleges. There is just a connection – when two alums meet one will say, “I went to Smith” – and then the other will tend to perk up and say, “Really? I’m from Barnard!” (or you could substitute the names of any other 2 colleges.). I don’t think it is so much a matter of history as the shared experience of attending an elite, women’s college – I’d guess that alums of different HBCU’s might have the same sense of kinship.
Obviously my experience is anecdotal…and I have no clue what current Barnard students feel, but perhaps it is something that begins to seem more significant post-graduation.
@calmom Agree 100%. But going back to the original post, I (mistakenly) took that OPs post to mean which “womens colleges” were most like MoHo, not which Seven Sisters college was. As Barnard isn’t really a “stand alone” women’s college but very much part of a very large research university, it has an altogether different “vibe” from its cousins. Not to mention that its location in Manhattan affects its “feel” as well. That’s why I said Sweet Briar was more similar to MoHo (and I was also thinking of the number of women who attend SB who ride: at Barnard the only horses you will see are in Central Park).
I agree that Sweet Briar would be most similar – but if we limit it to 7 sisters, and interpret at a “fit” question (where else might someone who likes MHO want to apply) – I’d probably suggest Bryn Mawr.
Also agree that Barnard is not like the others, and I’d probably put it on the opposite end of the spectrum from MHO— maybe with a little list that looks something like this:
MHO – Bryn Mawr - Smith - Wellesley - Barnard
But I really think that each college has a very distinct character – so not really too useful to try to match them.
Just as an anecdote – my daughter was horrified by the catalog from MHO – all that lovely green space was anathema to her. She actually told me she had dropped one college from her list because it had “too many trees”. At one point she explained to me that when she looked at east coast campuses she just thought about what it would be like to walk around the campus at night or in the snow during winter. Hence her fondness for well-lit, well-paved urban campuses.
@exlibris97 I think you are mixing me up with Dustyfeathers. I never said anything about second class citizens, and indeed don’t know enough about the relationship to make any kind of judgement. I was taking issue with your characterization of the Seven Sisters as an anachronism. I agree that Barnard is very different due to its location and close relationship with Columbia.
Edit: I disagree that Sweet Briar is similar. It is much smaller and much more conservative, and is significantly less focused on academia than MHC.
@calmom The reaction of your daughter to green open spaces resonated. My D. and N. very much preferred urban campuses. In the case of my D. I was the one pushing Smith and MHC but what turned her really off were posts about horses. Just shows that each person is different.
Just a comment about the “second class citizen” remark, it is not my opinion that Barnard is a SCC, but that is something that others have called it, in front of me, those who look at the CU / Barnard relationship from the CU perspective rather than standing on the other side of the street, and viewing it from the Barnard perspective.
I personally have stood up for Barnard, in those convos, as having its own feel and its own mission, history, etc., but there are those who see it in the shadow of CU, fair or not, and have described it to me as a “second class citizen.” These are people intimately familiar with the institution, besides.
My statement that the Seven Sisters helps give Barnard weight to counter the hugeness that is CU, I think, stands.
Women in academia have historically been considered and treated as “second class citizens” – and that is what gave rise to the Seven Sisters in the first place. Women could not apply to or enroll at Harvard or Princeton or Yale – but they could attend Radcliffe or Smith or Vassar. That history is an integral part of the Barnard/Columbia relationship as well. From the outset, Barnard women received Columbia degrees, and at the beginning the Barnard admission requirements and curriculum were identical as well – but the women were educated in separate classrooms. Columbia was also an umbrella institution for Bard – so at one time, Bard students also received Columbia degrees – but when Bard opened its doors to women in the 1940’s, Columbia severed the relationship.
One of the reasons that women’s colleges have survived and thrived is because discrimination against women persists, and the women’s colleges provide their students with an education geared to recognizing and withstanding that discrimination.
The phrase “second class citizen” is in itself a label that evokes a sense of gender-based bias. The undergrads at Columbia who truly get the short end of the stick are those who are enrolled in the School of General Studies, which has close to the same number of enrolled students as Barnard - but there doesn’t seem to be the continual obsession with the relationship between the schools.
Well I agree with 99% of what you said, but there are several threads on this forum about the obsession with GS as a second class institution, despite the fact that the students at that school tend to have higher GPAs.
It’s all in-group, out-group bellyaching – about Barnard and GS both – and really doesn’t mean anything, except that it’s worth noting that some people do have X impression. The 7-Sister affiliation does help give Barnard heft and GS has to swing on its own without that sort of affiliation. It does a fine job, mind you, but still.
OP, I visited MHC, Smith, Wellesley and Barnard. To me, MHC seemed similar to Wellesley - quieter, self-contained campus, greener/more rural feel. Smith and Barnard sermed to offer other features - more access to consortium colleges/Columbia, an urban vibe, perhaps politically more left, more SJWs. Barnard seemed the least “sisterly” to me, mostly because students talked a lot about the classes and clubs they were in at Columbia. I had a hard time figuring out what exactly the Barnard experience was like outside of the big Columbia/NYC experience.
Maybe someone in the know could talk about Scripps College? I have heard Scripps called both the “west coast Smith” and the “west coast MHC”
Comparing MHC to SBC based on horses? Comes across as generally dismissive, to me. I think many women’s college graduates would find it so.
The bond, I think, is not simply that each college is part of the Seven Sisters, but for the sort of women a strong women’s college can grow. That similarity.