pcaz

I was just wondering if there were any other Barnard transfers out there.

My daughter is transferring in the fall from Mount Holyoke College. It will be a huge, but very welcome, change for her.

Anyone else?

TheDad

Wow. Of the major womens colleges...and I've visited all but Bryn Mawr...I can't imagine a wider difference than from Mount Holyoke to Barnard.

pcaz

That's for sure! Since we've lived in both LA and Phoenix, I thought she would enjoy MHC's more rural environment. And she did... for about a week.

She soon discovered that the isolated location was NOT offset by the PVTA as it was purported to be. As someone who likes her freedom to come and go, she found the situation to be stifling, especially since she didn't have a car. However, I'm quite sure that NYC will not pose the same problem.

TheDad

PCaz, as you know, my D is at Smith. MHC was so isolated that I had to cajole her out of the car when we pulled it. I guess my take would be like what I infer your D's to be: nice place for a vacation, wouldn't want to live there. My D is a big-city kid (Santa Monica) and the big question for *her* was whether or not Northampton was big enough...two overnight visits and it passed.

Fwiw, some students seem to think the NYC schools have the opposite problem...the city sucks the students right out of the campus. We just spent four days with D in NYC and enjoyed it very much. I just hope your D's ATM machine keeps stocked.

pcaz

In hindsight, my daugher knows she would have been happier if she had gone to Smith. I encouraged her to apply there as a transfer student, but I think her perspective of the area was too colored by her MHC experience. I'm happy to hear that your daughter has enjoyed her first year there though. It's so great when it all clicks.

While NYC will be expensive, my daughter figures the extra costs will even out since she won't have to pay for a car, auto insurance, gas and maintenance. Just the same, I know we'll still end up pitching in a couple hundred a month.

I'm very familiar with Santa Monica; we lived in Beverly Hills and the Palos Verdes area for a number of years, and moved to Scottsdale just before she started high school. I'm afraid to even look at the real estate prices over there now... choke, choke.