<p>I got into these colleges. I would really appreciate any opinions on where to go! I like them all, although the idea of going to a women's college is particularly appealing. How does Mount Holyoke stack up compared to the others? Is it prestigious enough? Although money is a factor, I'm looking more for opinions based on non-financial impressions of these colleges.</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke College (recipient of the 21st Century Scholarship 25,000 a year plus funding for summer internship/research)
NYU (College of Arts and Science)
Colgate University
Boston College (Honors Program Arts and Science)
Boston University (Kilachand Honors College, which I do really like)
Fordham University (Dean's Scholarship, 10,000 a year)
Bard College
University of Hartford (full scholarship, Honors Program, but I really don't particularly like the place)</p>
<p>Wow, what a varied list! What are you interested in? I see colleges in the middle of nowhere and ones in the middle of NYC.Sizes from tiny to big. LACs to research universities. They’re all pretty well known - I’d say any of them except possibly U of Hartford have a decent amount of prestige. If you like the idea of a woman’s college Mt. Holyoke is the place - and with the consortium you can have the best of both worlds, small LAC with access to other larger co-ed schools.</p>
<p>You are lucky enough to have your first choice school be the one that is throwing money at you. Congratulations! Enjoy Mount Holyoke, a wonderful school with plenty of prestige. You will undoubtedly thrive and excel there.</p>
<p>My neighbor’s D went to NYU for a postgrad degree in the Arts. Took out big loans and couldn’t find a job in her field after grad. The NYU “name” hasn’t helped her. She’s drowning in debt. Can’t afford to live on her own or make a car payment. </p>
<p>Mount Holyoke sounds like an awesome opportunity. Also at MHC, you will have an opportunity to take advantage of the resources available in the Five College Consortium (Amherst, Hampshire, MHC, Smith, and UMass).</p>
<p>Definitely MHC. And echoing @geo1113 regarding the Five Colleges. My son attends Hampshire and has taken advantage of offerings at all the other four. To him, it’s the best of both worlds - the intimacy of attending a small LAC but the benefit of having nearly any type of class available between the five. Plus the Pioneer Valley is a great place to live. Congratulations!</p>
<p>My non-financial impression is that most of those colleges are prestigious and will provide a fine education. Colgate and BC will provide you with plenty of prestige and connections. </p>
<p>I know little about NYU except that it is a “hot” school. If that’s you’re thing, go there, but I think that MHC has a lasting appeal that will serve you well as a student and alumna. </p>
<p>Without knowing what fits YOU best – I would add my vote to the others preferring Holyoke. </p>
<p>BU and NYU are big schools in the big city. I toured both with my son, and he went to BU for a year. I would have preferred an LAC for his first year and I think he would have flourished. After touring NYU he would not even apply. In fact, I have been on <em>all</em> the campuses of the schools you are considering. </p>
<p>With the MHC scholarship, I don’t see how you can lose there.</p>
<p>another vote for MHC. In addition to being apart of the 5 college consortium, you can also take classes through the 12 college exchange:</p>
<p>Amherst College
Bowdoin College
Connecticut College
Dartmouth College
O’Neill National Theatre Institute
Smith College
Trinity College
Vassar College
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Wheaton College
Williams/Mystic Seaport Program in Maritime Studies</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke has a relatively convenient cross registration agreement with four other schools, one of which is a big research university. So you can get a small LAC, but with fewer of the limitations of a small LAC (although there is some commuting to the other schools).</p>
<p>A lesser known benefit of that consortium is the sharing of the UMass career center for recruiting purposes. That means more exposure to recruiters who may visit UMass but may not visit a small college because there are too few candidates to recruit.</p>
<p>I just returned from Accepted Students weekend at Mount Holyoke with my daughter, who will be a mmember of the class of 2018. It’s an amazing school, I think. Certainly a great fit for my daughter. I met a bunch of professors and they’re all so passionate about being there, and very accessible. There is a really wonderful sense of community on campus, which I understands translates later into a strong alumni network.</p>
<p>Also, MHC shares an online resume/job search/recruiting network with Smith and Amherst College. So if an employer is looking at those students, they’re also seeing you in the same list.</p>
<p>Have you visited any of these schools? I personally attended Colgate, and my D was also accepted at Bard College. Both those schools are really isolated. Although the town it’s in is TINY, MHC is only 20-30 minutes or so from a groovy town and the other 4 colleges, so there’s lots to do. I also noticed a sign-up sheet for a college-organized round trip bus to Boston that was only $10, so it seems there are things like that to do as well. The huge difference between MHC and the other schools, though, is the sense of community. Bard and Colgate have nothing like it.</p>
<p>Prestige-wise, I I think MHC grads do quite well with employer recognition and grad schools. FWIW I met several young women this weekend who’d been accepted at “higher-ranked” schools like Wellesley, Wesleyan and Middlebury who had decided, by the end of the weekend, that MHC was the place for them. Really, I think the “fit” is more important than prestige when you’re talking about the list you have above. They’re all good schools…</p>
<p>I hope you’ll be able to visit! Good luck with your decisions :)</p>
<p>D graduated from MHC, and I joke that there are no sororities, because the entire school is one big sorority, in the sense of the sense of community there. I mean, milk and cookies, every night? C’mon! Watching the Laurel parade prior to graduation, watching all the past classes returning for the ceremonies was very moving.</p>
<p>Also relating to the Boston trips staceyneil mentioned, D was able to take a bus trip to NYC every year for very little money as well.</p>
<p>I think there’s a Peter Pan bus that goes from Happy Valley to NYC for a dollar? That’s a deal at twice the price! The transportation between the schools is easy and accessible too.</p>
If money is a factor I have no idea why you’re asking people to ignore that fact in this discussion - it’s silly. That being said, I agree with all the other posters. NYU has made its name on being in the city and having a couple of excellent schools. The expense is not worth it.</p>
<p>Exactly. NYU’s reputation has also been greatly hyped over the last decade and half…especially with folks outside of the NYC area. </p>
<p>While NYU has some excellent gems(STERN, Tisch, and some CAS majors), it’s not worth the full-sticker price or even a greater premium than many fine top 30 LACs like the one I attended or moreso…MHC. </p>
<p>Especially when the undergrad experience is not very different from attending a large university where you’re just a number to the bureaucracy. </p>
<p>The fact even university housing isn’t centralized to the campus, but spread out all over lower and midtown Manhattan* and many students who move off-campus have to commute from far-off neighborhoods in other boroughs to get reasonable rental rates means the NYU undergrad experience can be a pretty atomizing experience. If one wants a traditional college campus experience, I’d look elsewhere. </p>
<p>If you really want to attend NYU, most of their strengths lay in their graduate schools…especially professional ones like medicine, law, and business. </p>
<ul>
<li>Dorms could be as much as a few miles from campus.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>Mount Holyoke for sure!! One of younger d’s best friends from her study abroad attended Mount Holyoke and d went to visit for a weekend when they were back in the states. She really liked the school. I agree with the above poster about NYU as apart from a few prestigious programs, the cost to attend is not worth it. Younger d spent a weekend visiting a friend in a dorm right near Union Square while still in high school and said it was so noisy and so crowded. We have a friend whose d graduated last year, living off-campus in East Harlem and commuting by subway. While the dorms are not that far away, many are not anywhere near campus and academic buildings.</p>
Watching the Laurel parade prior to graduation, watching all the past classes returning for the ceremonies was very moving.</p>