Great advice here! We probably will cross some of these off our list, and your input helps with that. Barnard isn’t on the list because my daughter said a definite no to NYC. She’s a small town girl. Simmons might also be out for that same reason, but she’s never been to Boston, so is keeping an open mind. I did run some net price calculators this afternoon. Whew, it’s pricey! I suppose it will come down to whether or not we’re willing to take out student loans. We were hoping to avoid that, but if she ends up with a phenomenal opportunity, it’s hard to say no.
Unless she’s firm on a women’s college, I’d trade Bay Path for Amherst or a Boston school. It would give her a nice comparison. Or add more schools near Philly. I know NE looks like a tiny little area and that it doesn’t take much time to get from Amherst to Phila., but it really does. I wouldn’t go all that way without looking at a few more schools in Phila.
Honestly, Simmons is the kind of school to look at if you want to major in early childhood education. For things like that, it is great. Math and physics? I strongly doubt it. I wouldn’t bother to look at Simmons either.
I don’t want to discourage you from women’s colleges–I’m a Wellesley alum myself–but you need to look at the right schools. If your daughter is interested in exploring LACs in general, in addition to women’s colleges, while she is in the north east, I would suggest that you consider visiting one or two of the elite coed LACs such as Amherst / Williams / Swarthmore / Haverford in addition to Wellesley / Smith / MHC / Bryn Mawr. The only problem is that they are reachy. Her scores are fine, but her GPA is iffy. On the other hand, she is a girl in STEM. On the other hand, she is a girl, and LACs tend to favor male applicants.
Have you considered the west coast and south? Scripps and Agnes Scott?
@SAY, acceptance rate is not a particularly accurate sensor of educational value and selectivity at schools where the population is very much self selecting, as at top women’s colleges.
Agree that you may want to add a coed LAC or two to your trip. Kids change a lot, even from the beginning of Senior year until April. She may find a coed school that she is really interested in.
Smith alum here. Smith would love to have your smart DD! But if it isn’t a fit, would she consider a coed school like Fairfield University in CT? Reason I mention it is they offered my DD (with similar stats) a LOT of merit aid – $26k. Check it out.
If she’s open to co-ed, you might want to add in a couple of slightly less competitive LACs where her test scores would put her in contention for merit aid consideration. If you’re visiting Bryn Mawr, for example, Muhlenberg or Dickinson might be worth a look. Both good schools, somewhat lower ranked, and in the safer zone for admission.
I agree with the posters above–drop Bay
Path. Also, rent a car in Boston to go out to Smith and Mt Holyoke. You can use Uber to get to Simmons and Wellesley from your hotel in Boston. Boston traffic is crazy and if you can avoid it, do so. (I have lived in the greater Boston area for 37 years and I hate it too.) The drive from the Pioneer Valley (where Smith and Moho are located) to Philadelphia is at least 5 hours.
You might want to look at Wheaton College in Norton, MA (used to be all-women back in the day). It is a good LAC where your D would stand out; the college has several large merit scholarships ($25K). A good friend’s D got one. This same student also participated in a college exchange program at Brown (20 mi away) where she took courses that Wheaton didn’t offer, in her case, upper-level Arabic.
What about Vassar?
If Bryn Mawr isn’t a must, I would consider keeping this trip just New England, and just Massachusetts would suffice. Not to dis Bryn Mawr, but three reasons:
- It pretty far making your fun trip into an busy trip.
- Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr are very similar.
- Bryn Mawr does not consider if you visit in their admission decision if I remember correct. ( you can later visit if she is admitted )
Visiting Simmons doesn’t change the plans much. I would suggest flying into Boston and renting a car. Visit Simmons and take a trolly tour of Boston. You can swing by Northeastern and Boston University among others in minuets, and I think you may actually drive by Northeastern just driving from the airport.
Go out to visit Wellesley, which even at 30% is very difficult to get into, and you can swing by Babson and Olin to check them out as they are about 3,5 miles away from Wellesley and your daughter might add Olin as a reach. I would second Bromfield 2 that Wheaton (MA) could be added at this time, my daughter got a very generous merit award with stats similar to your daughters. Fairfield might be to far for this trip but fill a similar slot as Wheaton (MA)
Skip Bay Path, but you could add WPI as an option at this time, Woman with math skills can get pretty good aid here. It is in Worcester and you will almost drive thought going from Wellesley to Smith.
When you are visiting Smith and Mount Holyoke, you most likely will be driving by Hampshire college, and while at Smith you are close enough to Amherst that walking the campus will not add much time. You can then drive by U-Mass because you will be 1.5 miles away.
We have been to all these schools, most twice, except Bryrn Mawr, and I am not suggesting not to consider it, just visiting on this trip makes it pretty challenging. Skipping Bryn Mawr will allow you to visit Wheaton, WPI, Olin and others in less time than including this one school. Obviously your own research will determine which ones to drive by, walk and or tour. If you have extra time on the way back to Boston go to Harvard Square and walk through Harvard Yard.
Hi, this is the daughter in question. Thank you all so much for your input! I have crossed Bay Path off of my list. I am certainly still considering coed schools, Though from what I’ve learned, I believe a women’s college would be a great fit! I am not, as my mom said, a small town girl, but rather a sucker for medium sized/small cities. Here’s a question; What are the towns of the aforementioned colleges like? political leaning, population density, etc. Thanks again for all of your great input.
Boston is actually a small city as far as cities go, but with a lot around it. It’s Urban and very walkable. Wellesley is suburban but close enough to the city to make all the city things easily available - theater, sports, airports, restaurants. The rest are small towns. Amherst has a lot of people because UMass has a lot of students, but no one is going to mistake it for Chicago or NYC. Northampton is small. In the area, there are the typical big box stores like BB&B, Barnes and Noble, Home Depot, grocery store chains. The little towns have more Mom and Pop stores, diners, bookstores, cafes, Starbucks, Friendly’s. They are all politically liberal as are most college towns or at least the college campuses in the towns.
We looked at Wellesley, Smith and Mount Holyoke in one trip last year. I’d pay extra and just get a car at the airport. Yes, Boston roads and traffic can be intimidating, but it’s not impossible.
There are distinct differences in the locations and feel of the three campuses that can only be experienced first hand and I’m glad you are visiting. I’d make sure you can do official school tours when there.
In the end, my D was choosing between Smith and Wellesley, although all three are excellent schools. It came down to the vibe she felt and money (NPC was much different between the schools as they use different metrics).
She chose Smith and will start in the fall.
Sorry…but I think Boston is a large metro area.
When I think of smaller metro areas, I think of places like Pittsburgh.
The financial strength of any prospective college is an important factor to look at. Do a financial-strength search for all colleges you consider, particularly for the lesser-know women’s colleges.
You mention Cedar Crest College in Penn., which Forbes rates as a ‘C’ in financial health (see: https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2015/07/29/private-college-financial-health-grades-2015-is-your-alma-mater-at-risk/#1569dda3392c ), while it rated Mills College a ‘B’ and yet Mills declared a Financial Emergency just two days ago, with a $9.2 million anticipated deficit this next year and layoffs of faculty/staff.
Standard & Poor’s gives Cedar Crest a 2014 bond rating of BB+, which is in junk-bond status. See: https://www.spratings.com/documents/20184/908554/US_PF_Event_Webcast_HEJuly2015_Article2.pdf/0be5c6b3-0656-45c6-89df-68cdb99623f2
Boston is a large metro area, but a small walkable city.
To suggest Boston is small city and Northampton is small town is a matter of perspective. Having been to Colorado, I would describe Boston as a pretty big city. Worcester is a smaller city. I would describe Northampton as a very big town. Wellesley a decent sized town, South Hadley (Where Mount Holyoke is, a small, small town). Boston is liberal, Northampton is very liberal.
Wellesley is a very nice town, it is an affluent suburb of Boston. The college kids blend in nice with the town as they are pretty serious and well behaved kids. They have many shops and restaurants if you can afford them. CVS and a grocery store are within walking distance. The town itself would not be considered liberal, I work in Wellesley one day week, it is one of the nicest town in Massachusetts.
Northampton is a great college town, as is Amherst. I don’t see it a a box store town as described earlier, in between Northampton and Amherst are all the box stores. They have many local businesses, and more affordable than the shops in Wellesley.
Mount Holyoke is not in Holyoke, but South Hadley, MA. You will pass farms on your way depending on the route you take. It is more quiet, but they have a small shopping area that is very nice and adds just enough, small movie theater and a bookstore, to be able to do something off (on the edge of) campus.
My daughter preferred Mount Holyoke as she is more inclined to enjoy nature and can go to Northampton and Amherst once a month to do other things.
All three have good endowments and would be worth leaving Colorado to to go to college to. I would recommend interviewing at all three. My daughter preferred Mount Holyoke so didn’t care when she was wait listed at Smith. Your parents should be comfortable dropping you off at any of the three, and they are safe areas to go to school at.
Wellesley has cross registration with Olin and Babson, and a shuttle between the three. I think it more common for the students at Wellesley to go into Boston on the weekends and they have connections with MIT and Harvard.
I went to U-Mass, which has cross registration with Amherst, Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke. There is a bus (PVTA) that connects all five colleges. In my day we went to the other schools more for socializing than to take classes. At U-Mass I had many Smith Woman in my classes as the location made the commute easy. I think it was more common for the Woman to go off campus for a change of pace. My roommate took a class at Smith. The connection for the five schools makes it for a Woman at Smith or Mount Holyoke to be able to not feel like they are stuck somewhere.
I would absolutely skip Bryn Mawr if you aren’t looking at other Philly-area schools. It’s a hike and a half from Boston if you have limited time. As someone above suggested, apply and visit if accepted. It’s how we’re approaching Wesleyan.
Agree completely. Northampton is very hip, no chain store is in town at all that I’ve seen, lots of cool little shops and restaurants, a funky little mall built into an old mill building.
Amherst is also cool and has SO MANY students because of UMass. Not a chain town either.
South Hadley is tiny but that little complex with the movie theater, bookstore, restaurant is cute. And all of these towns are connected by bus service that is free for students.
I said there were the box chain stores on the highway between Northampton and Amherst so they are accessible if you have a desire to go to Barnes and Noble or Marshall’s. I found Northampton to be very yuppie and boring (and I lived in Boulder for years, so I know my yuppie when I see it). I loved Amherst as it just felt more ‘real people’ to me.
Sorry if I misunderstood the Box store comment. How much time have you spent in Northampton? I’ve never heard of it being called yuppie. And if Northampton is boring what is South Hadley? I went to U-mass and never thought of the populations of those towns being any different, maybe something has changed? Does anybody else think Northampton is boring?