FuturDoc12

Wellesley College
Barnard College
Vassar College

My top liberal arts colleges
I want to pursue a double major of biology and theatre
Grad: Medical School

What are your opinions of these colleges?
Which would you prefer?

Differences? Similarities? You get the picture

mythmom

I think any of these three schools with get you where you want to go. Barnard used to turn out 50% of the women doctors in the US, but of course, that is no longer true. The theater department at Barnard has turned out highly successful actresses such as Cynthia Nixon and Lauren Graham. In fact, Cynthia Nixon was in two Broadway plays while at Barnard.

However, Vassar turned out Meryl Streep. Need we say more? And Lisa Kudrow and Anne Hathaway as well as Hope Davis.

I don't know about theater or premed at Wellesley, but it is an excellent school with strong academics.

I don't see how you could go wrong with any of these schools.

I just reread your post:

Differences: Setting -- big, big city, small city, suburbs.
Men -- across the street, in your dorm, a bus ride away.
Resources of university -- across the street, not at all, a bus ride away.

Barnard is integrated into Columbia University. Butler Library (Columbia's library) is your library even though Barnard has its own smaller library. The labs are your labs at Columbia. Wellesley has cross registration with MIT (and Harvard? not sure), but is not part of these schools. Vassar stands on its own legs.

Strongest Departments: Barnard: Theater, English (writing), Chemistry among others. They're all strong. Vassar: Theater and Biology among others, they're all strong. Wellesley is known for its economics department, but I'm sure all the departments are strong there too.

I truly believe it's just a matter of preference.

Are you asking about ED? If so, than I think a visit should decide which you prefer. If not, why not wait until you see where you're accepted? I have known women rejected at Barnard and accepted at Wellesley and Vassar and the opposite.

In the interests of full disclosure, my D just graduated from Barnard and never regretted her decision for a day. However, she is a very urban person and is now heading off to London for a Masters.

Your preferences may be totally different.

She also applied to Vassar as well as Smith and Mt. Holyoke (where she was accepted.) She did not apply to Wellesley.

welles10

Wellesley has cross-registration with MIT, not Harvard.