<p>Greetings:</p>
<p>There is so much more to women’s colleges than the fact that they are single-sex. It is impossible to get a good feel for any college or university if you only focus on an institution’s most marked characteristic. Asking why anyone would want to attend a women’s college is akin to asking why anyone would want to attend a large state school, or a small liberal arts college, or a school in a location where it snows all the time. If that’s all you see, you are missing, well, everything.</p>
<p>I chose to apply to two women’s colleges (and one former women’s college - Sarah Lawrence) because I wanted the opportunity to develop strong friendships with women. In high school, most of my friends were boys, and I felt like I needed to challenge this. Also, I loved that these colleges had gorgeous campuses, attractive housing, lots of tradition and strong national reputations. </p>
<p>My goal was to attend a liberal arts school with as much prestige as possible, even though my strengths are lopsided (great in the humanities, terrible in math and science). I felt that the small co-ed schools on par with the Seven Sisters (Amherst, Williams, etc) were so selective that they would not give me a chance to show them why I would be a good addition to their campus - I knew they had many, many people applying who looked so much better on paper than I did. The small women’s schools to which I applied seemed to value me as a whole person, not just the sum of my great verbal scores and horrific math scores - during the interviews, I felt like they wanted to see all of me and what I could bring to their community.</p>
<p>I was accepted at all three schools (you can tell how long ago this was, because nowadays it seems almost unheard-of to apply to such a small number!), and chose Mount Holyoke. Suddenly I found myself in a community a brilliant, well-read, socially aware women with thoughts and opinions about a wide range of topics. Friendships blossomed easily, and a core group of ten of us have traveled together every two years since graduating 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Given that the college was, obviously, so women-focused, I developed a strong interest in the history of women’s rights and the ever-changing roles of women and society that informs my world-view to this day. I know that many of my classmates at Mount Holyoke felt emotionally safer seeking leadership positions within the college community and studying math and science than they might have at a co-ed school, but this was not my personal experience. I had never experienced some of the overt sexism that some of my classmates (particularly international students) had endured, so the idea of being empowered by the lack of men wasn’t an issue for me. It was, however, very important to others who had not had the same positive and empowered upbringing that I had. This is probably one of the greatest arguments for the value of women’s colleges - the culture and the world do not change and grow at the same rate for everyone. Just because one person doesn’t need the extra boost of confidence that a single-sex environment provides, it doesn’t mean such an environment is archaic and useless. </p>
<p>My college friends and I have turned out to be thoughtful and curious about the world. We are interested in politics and social issues and the environment, and we are also interested in our husbands and boyfriends and children and shoes. We would probably be this way anyway, given the kinds of people we are, but we all cite our four years at Mount Holyoke as a defining period in our lives. We probably would have enjoyed our time at many other colleges, too. In the end, however, the history, tradition, culture, values and environment of Mount Holyoke made it a very special place to live and work and grow up, and none of us would change our decision to attend.</p>
No thanks.</p>