Tell me about Bryn Mawr

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

+1 You have nailed it.

Not even close. See the other post about the consortium with other schools, etc. My DD has been talking to people at the school and getting feedback from some of the students and it is NOTHING like you all are describing. Absolutely nothing.

PP here. It is absolutely nothing like it was in terms of student body makeup and academic power as it used to be. Not saying it's not a great school. We're just comparing to its former days. You may prefer as it is now; but that description is true for women's schools today, regardless of the consortium with other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:D attends and loves it!! Was not planning on looking at any women’s colleges, but decided to visit after suggestion from a teacher. Fell in love with the beautiful campus and close knit environment and applied ED.

If in the DMV very easy to visit and see other colleges nearby.

Things she loves:
Excellent academics in a collaborative environment with small classes
Intelligent passionate engaged students
Traditions
Alums very involved
Easy to connect with professors
Ability to easily take classes at Haverford
Option to take take classes at Swarthmore and UPenn
Septa commuter train takes you into Philly in 20 minutes or so to Amtrak station
Cute towns with restaurants, shopping and coffee shops all in close proximity
Campus leans left similar to most SLACs and many colleges but good fit for her

This is exactly my DD - wasn't planning on women's college initially but visited several, applied to them & several other SLACs, got in, and chose Bryn Mawr for the reasons you list. She'll start in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

It's not vitriol to state facts about a school. Yes, it's a great school. It's just not what it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

+1 This is funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

It's not vitriol to state facts about a school. Yes, it's a great school. It's just not what it was.

You're probably not what you once were either. But it's not nice to keep harping on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

It's not vitriol to state facts about a school. Yes, it's a great school. It's just not what it was.

You're probably not what you once were either. But it's not nice to keep harping on it.

We are discussing institutions of higher learning, not the aging process of humans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

It's not vitriol to state facts about a school. Yes, it's a great school. It's just not what it was.

You're probably not what you once were either. But it's not nice to keep harping on it.

You're not responding to me, but Bryn Mawr established itself as a very brainy place for the smartest women in the middle decades of the 20th century. Those women are gone now that they can attend any school, and now the draw for Bryn Mawr is entirely different. If you feel drawn to the place as parents who know the name because of what it used to be, then you should know that place is gone.

[Anonymous]

Midge Maisel went to Bryn Mawr. No way she’d have gone there today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

It's not vitriol to state facts about a school. Yes, it's a great school. It's just not what it was.

You're probably not what you once were either. But it's not nice to keep harping on it.

You're not responding to me, but Bryn Mawr established itself as a very brainy place for the smartest women in the middle decades of the 20th century. Those women are gone now that they can attend any school, and now the draw for Bryn Mawr is entirely different. If you feel drawn to the place as parents who know the name because of what it used to be, then you should know that place is gone.

You’re right, she should just send her kid to Stamford. Why bother with matches and likelies when she should just go to Stamford?

[Anonymous]

It does not seem very appealing to me. Everyone keeps talking up the consortium as that is the main selling point. Why not just go to a bigger school where you don’t have to rely on a consortium to fulfill your intellectual curiosity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

It's not vitriol to state facts about a school. Yes, it's a great school. It's just not what it was.

You're probably not what you once were either. But it's not nice to keep harping on it.

You're not responding to me, but Bryn Mawr established itself as a very brainy place for the smartest women in the middle decades of the 20th century. Those women are gone now that they can attend any school, and now the draw for Bryn Mawr is entirely different. If you feel drawn to the place as parents who know the name because of what it used to be, then you should know that place is gone.

+1 The two brainiest senior females in my class went to Bryn Mawr and Smith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

All-women’s colleges aren’t mainstream anymore, or attractive to a critical massive of apolitical heterosexual girls, as they were pre-1970s. No debutantes, no weekend trips to meet Yale boys.

Except for maybe Wellesley, they attract and/or target a niche market. And that niche is a combination of upper middle class white lesbian (or lesbian-adjacent) girls; minorities seeking substantial financial aid, and international students.

Not every American girl wants a “Bama Rush” type of college experience, but they don’t want to join the “Social Justice Movie Club,” either.

The Result, achieved by slow drip over the last several decades: a complete replacement of one type of student body by another; relatively fewer applicants (vs mainstream colleges like NESCACs), higher admission rates, lower status and rankings, etc etc.

Farewell Nancy Davis Reagan. Au revoir, Barbara Pierce Bush.

BM is a women's only college in name only. THere is a consortium with other nearby schools (Swat, Haverford, Penn) where they can attend classes, and there are men on campus and in classes, and vice versa. I think there are some restrictions on hour and where and what have you. But it's not "women only" in the way it was in the 1950s.

Ok, i give you that it’s not 1950, but i am the person who walks around campus and it sure looks like a women’s college to me. I have really only seen female students. I know men can take classes, but it is definitely a women’s college. The vitriol here is crazy—it’s a great school.

It's not vitriol to state facts about a school. Yes, it's a great school. It's just not what it was.

You're probably not what you once were either. But it's not nice to keep harping on it.

You're not responding to me, but Bryn Mawr established itself as a very brainy place for the smartest women in the middle decades of the 20th century. Those women are gone now that they can attend any school, and now the draw for Bryn Mawr is entirely different. If you feel drawn to the place as parents who know the name because of what it used to be, then you should know that place is gone.

You’re right, she should just send her kid to Stamford. Why bother with matches and likelies when she should just go to Stamford?

Stanford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Bryn Mawr isn't ranked that high? When I applied to colleges in the 1990s, it was ranked the #5 liberal arts school. I see it is now #31.

Just curious what happened.

Because all-women’s colleges aren’t popular anymore.

Wellesley and Barnard do fine

Bryn mawr never attracted either the polish or the latter or the hyper elite of the former hence it’s issue

I don't think that's true. When women's options were limited, Bryn Mawr was a famously intellectual place. It's just that women's colleges lost their original mandate, and their new one fixated on transgressive gender and sexuality is not equally good.

then why do Wellesley and Barnard manage the “opening up of women’s options” much better than bm?

It’s literally because of what I said:

Wellesley is so elite it doesn’t matter if women can go to hypsm now, they will always have a market

And Barnard has always taken prettier/more socially polished girls than bM because there’s always a market for going to a top school in the city

[Anonymous]

Sounds like somebody is still mad because she didn't get into Bryn Mawr back in 1962. Doesn't mean other people shouldn't go there.