Honest thoughts on all women’s colleges?

[Anonymous]

This thread just confirmed iykyk. I went to Wellesley in the 2000s and happy with my life - there's nothing I can do about the choice I made when I was 17. As a smart but clueless minority girl, Wellesley helped me gain confidence and that was what I needed at that time. I don't know if I would have received that at a big state school, but maybe it would have been the same at another liberal arts school. Not having men around does make things simpler, less drama, but not everyone wants that. My friends and I had a social life attending parties at nearby schools and made good friends at various campuses around Boston. I met my husband in law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I went to Wellesley and loved it but it was not any cheaper than any other school of its quality!

This.
I went to Bryn Mawr, but it’s nearly $70k in tuition now. I’m not sure how an all-women’s college makes any financial difference.

If single sex is a good fit for your daughter, all the all-women’s colleges I can think of provide an excellent education, however.

Went on a tour at Bryn-Mawr and they now dance around the language. It’s no longer single-sex.
It is open to all students who identify as women.

So essentially it’s now co-ed.
Unless you are male who thinks you are a male/man—then they are pretty clear that it’s not the school for you. It’s less clear whether you can also go there if you are a trans man though.

The people who work there or teach there or send their kid to that school pride themselves on being progressive. So it’s an odd thing to watch them try to hang onto the all-women label while trying hard not to offend biological men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The naïveté here about what all women’s schools were all about — and what initially made them great — is astounding.

This. To spell it out for the ingenues:

1) The Seven Sisters built their reputation in a time when women had few other educational options and women's colleges were the only game in town.
2) With the rise of widespread co-education since the late 1960s, there is little reason for top women students to go to women's colleges any more (also see: HBCUs).
3) Social life at the women's colleges was much more normal and active when the Ivies and top liberal arts colleges were all male- since the Seven Sisters were the main place for Ivy Leaguers to find socially compatible dates (e.g. George H.W. Bush - Yale - and Barbara Bush - Smith).
4) Now that women can directly attend all the top (formerly male) institutions, the women's colleges have slid into irrelevance as a forum for elite social interaction and assortative mating.
5) Virtually all of the great women's colleges have slid into mediocrity and irrelevance since the 1970s. Wellesley is/was the best of them, but even it is struggling with the point of its continued existence.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PPs for sharing all of this information.

For those that did attend all-women’s — which other schools did you apply to? Was the college you attended your top choice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I went to Wellesley and loved it but it was not any cheaper than any other school of its quality!

This.
I went to Bryn Mawr, but it’s nearly $70k in tuition now. I’m not sure how an all-women’s college makes any financial difference.

If single sex is a good fit for your daughter, all the all-women’s colleges I can think of provide an excellent education, however.

Went on a tour at Bryn-Mawr and they now dance around the language. It’s no longer single-sex.
It is open to all students who identify as women.

So essentially it’s now co-ed.
Unless you are male who thinks you are a male/man—then they are pretty clear that it’s not the school for you. It’s less clear whether you can also go there if you are a trans man though.

The people who work there or teach there or send their kid to that school pride themselves on being progressive. So it’s an odd thing to watch them try to hang onto the all-women label while trying hard not to offend biological men.

No one at Bryn Mawr is trying not to offend men, believe me. At Bryn Mawr they matriculate women, and they graduate scholars. If you transition in the meantime, that's fine.

I went from 97-01 and we had a co-ed dorm back then -- students from Haverford were allowed to dorm on campus.

[Anonymous]

So I was really intrigued by the idea of a Women's college for my daughter. It's easy to generalize, but many comments here are accurate. From our visits/observations: The lesbian, non binary and trans populations are substantial at the schools we visited. Lots of social activism. Plus, you also have the girls from religious or conservative backgrounds who I assume have families that don't want coed living. Interesting mix of students that stay in separate silos. My smart, social, and straight daughter didn't see herself as a fit. I think the female empowerment and network messaging sounds good, but not sure it's accurate or helpful in todays world. (We looked at barnard, wellesley and a few other e coast schools.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread just confirmed iykyk. I went to Wellesley in the 2000s and happy with my life - there's nothing I can do about the choice I made when I was 17. As a smart but clueless minority girl, Wellesley helped me gain confidence and that was what I needed at that time. I don't know if I would have received that at a big state school, but maybe it would have been the same at another liberal arts school. Not having men around does make things simpler, less drama, but not everyone wants that. My friends and I had a social life attending parties at nearby schools and made good friends at various campuses around Boston. I met my husband in law school.

Nobody’s buying this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The naïveté here about what all women’s schools were all about — and what initially made them great — is astounding.

This. To spell it out for the ingenues:

1) The Seven Sisters built their reputation in a time when women had few other educational options and women's colleges were the only game in town.
2) With the rise of widespread co-education since the late 1960s, there is little reason for top women students to go to women's colleges any more (also see: HBCUs).
3) Social life at the women's colleges was much more normal and active when the Ivies and top liberal arts colleges were all male- since the Seven Sisters were the main place for Ivy Leaguers to find socially compatible dates (e.g. George H.W. Bush - Yale - and Barbara Bush - Smith).
4) Now that women can directly attend all the top (formerly male) institutions, the women's colleges have slid into irrelevance as a forum for elite social interaction and assortative mating.
5) Virtually all of the great women's colleges have slid into mediocrity and irrelevance since the 1970s. Wellesley is/was the best of them, but even it is struggling with the point of its continued existence.

This is a really good summation.

The thing that wasn't stated is the minefield that is lgbtq today. No one is going to Bryn Mawr today hoping to meet a husband at Yale. It's not the 1950s anymore. And that has affected the student populations at the traditional seven sisters. It's a different population in 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wellesley the only one I would consider (considering my grandmother and spouse are both alums), historically the most elite.

However, these institutions have changed quite a bit in recent years and are now increasingly dominated by foreign students, FGLI cases, and crazed liberal LGBTQ+ or race grievance types. They simply don't draw from the same social strata they used to.

The traditional rule for Harvard men was "Lesley to bed, Wellesley to wed, and Radcliffe to talk to." Wellesley and the other 7 sisters used to educate the most intelligent, accomplished and desirable women in America. After many decades of the ravages of co-education and liberalism, that is no longer the case.

Probably best to pass them up and look into SEC schools with a strong sorority scene.

Elite troll job. No notes.

[Anonymous]

Here results from a student survey at Wellesley. Folks can debate on its accuracy and implications, but it's data.

https://thewellesleynews.com/21330/news-investigation/a-closer-look-at-the-class-of-2025/

[Anonymous]

Project 2025 amazing parenting to send your DD to a all girls school.

No.

[Anonymous]

Many women's colleges give more merit money than comparably selective coed ones. That's certainly been a big factor with families I know whose kids have chosen one.

[Anonymous]

I wish people would give up the tired cliche that women in single sex environments don't interact with men and therefore lack some kind of social skill. Even if you managed to make it to college without interacting with men (never happened) you have male professors, you encounter men while going about your life, and many of these schools invite men on campus. It's silly to imagine them as cloistered environments.

The difference isn't that there are no men, it's that it isn't specifically for men.

[Anonymous]

A lot of folks are posting here with no experience with women's colleges, just assumptions, stereotypes, and vibes. So OP you should take a lot posted here with a grain of salt.

I attended Bryn Mawr in the late 90s. I chose it for the major, not because it was a women's college. I believe Bryn Mawr typically has one of the highest percentage of students who go on to pursue PhDs. As PP said, it's a self-selecting group that applies to women's colleges, so the selectivity cant be compared to other SLACs. Bryn Mawrters are very studious, serious, nose to the grindstone types. But we also had lots of traditions and other fun. It's a small community.

It depends what your daughter is looking for, and I say this as a professor at a large university. Different universities and colleges offer different environments. SLACs are better for kids who need an extra level of support, who might otherwise get lost in the large and more anonymous environment of a university. It's much easier to get to know fellow students and professors at a SLAC than at a university, so the community is usually much tighter knit.

While I didn't choose a women's college for the all women aspect, I definitely came to appreciate it. It made me a lot more confident and you learn to see behind the veil of male dominance in professions, and yes how to communicate better with colleagues to advance in one's career. So I definitely don't buy this idea that being at a women's college makes it harder to work with male colleagues later in life, quite the opposite.

Bryn Mawr has long had men on campus, it's next door to Haverford and many students at both colleges take classes at the other. Bryn Mawr also has a number of master's and doctoral programs, which enroll men. So it's not like students there are cloistered away from men! They were in our classes, and I had a bunch of friends at Haverford (male and female). We also went to Swat and Penn a lot.

All that being said, I'm not sure I would send my daughter there because of the campus climate the past few years for Jewish students, but they just brought on a new President so hope springs eternal that things will turn around for the college.

[Anonymous]

I have not read all of the posts in this thread.

If on is either gay/lesbian or questioning, then all women's schools offer a safe environment.