Ivy Gray-Klein was working on her thesis and venting her stress on her blog when she received a surprise in the mail: a care package of snacks and study-break reading material from a 2001 Bryn Mawr College alumna, a loyal reader she had never met. “We all kind of have each other’s backs,” says Gray-Klein, a Chicago native who graduated in May with a degree in art history.
Surrounded by trees, elegant lawns and castle-like Gothic architecture, some 1,300 women attend the suburban Philadelphia institution, the smallest of the Northeast’s elite women’s colleges once collectively known as the Seven Sisters.
Students credit much of the family atmosphere to the honor code, under which they can safely leave belongings around campus, schedule their own exams — and take them without proctors — and typically avoid discussing grades. They also value the school’s self-governance system, within which students decide policies.
Bryn Mawr enjoys a partnership with neighboring Haverford College. Students at each have access to the other’s facilities, organizations, social activities and classes, and even can complete majors at the other institution. Bryn Mawr offers majors in archaeology and geology, for instance, while Haverford has religion, music and fine arts.
[Get information and advice on applying to college.]
Whatever their intended major, all first-year students must complete the Emily Balch Seminar, an intensive writing course centered on a broad subject like humanity and technology. Popular among older students are 360-degree course clusters, interdisciplinary cohorts of classes that often involve off-campus experiences and are taught by faculty from a range of fields; the eco-literacy cluster, for example, blends economics, education and literature.
Campus dining earns rave reviews — it’s not uncommon to see Haverford students in line — as do the residence halls, where many rooms contain comfy touches like fireplaces and window seats.
Most Mawrters share the view that attending a women’s college is empowering, and praise the school’s diversity; undergraduates hail from 43 states and 62 countries, and more than half are from abroad or students of color.
“There is no one set Bryn Mawr woman,” says senior economics major Mfon-ido Akpan, who is from Nigeria. Classes are typically small, and the student-faculty ratio is just 8-to-1. Professors “care about your well-being,” says Lindsey Crowe, a 2014 grad in English from Los Angeles.
[See the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges in photos.]
On the other hand, students say that the college can feel small. But town is just a short walk away, and downtown Philly is about a 20-minute train ride. There are 100-plus organizations and clubs — Ultimate Frisbee with Haverford is especially popular — and social activities include teas hosted by campus clubs or academic departments, and performances at the cathedral-like Goodhart Hall.
Cherished traditions include Lantern Night, when sophomores present freshmen with lanterns in a gesture of passing on “the light of knowledge,” and leaving food and other tokens at the statue of Athena, the college’s patron goddess, for luck. “It’s not a typical college experience,” says recent math and computer science grad Natalie Kato of Los Angeles. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not wonderful.”
More from the Eastern Pennsylvania College Road Trip:
Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of Best Colleges.
More from U.S. News
Take a College Road Trip to Eastern Pennsylvania
Eastern Pennsylvania College Road Trip: University of Pennsylvania
Eastern Pennsylvania College Road Trip: Haverford College
Eastern Pennsylvania College Road Trip: Bryn Mawr originally appeared on usnews.com
