<p>@LuxLake
My daughter liked many of the same things that intparent listed.</p>
<p>She fell totally in love with the campus: she said it looks like Hogwarts. The library reading room is this soaring gothic space with angels holding books carved into the rafters. At the beautiful gothic church building, the main space is completely non-denominational, and there is a side chapel which holds niches for a wide variety of religions and spiritual practices, from various Eastern religions to paganism and earth goddesses. She really liked that inclusiveness.</p>
<p>As intparent mentioned, the general vibe is one of very serious academics, but in a collaborative, supportive environment (rather than competitive or cut-throat as it can sometimes feel at some peer colleges.) The thing my daughter commented on the most was the level of engagement and passion she felt from the students. My daughter is the kind of kid who thrives on intense philosphical or academic conversations with her peers. She wants to be surrounded by people who are really passionate about something and she can learn about it from them, and who will respect her intense passions. At some of the colleges we visited, like Connecticut College, she came away feeling like the student body was just a lot more “meh”. Like many kids were just there because it was expected of them and didn’t really CARE that much about being there. At Mount Holyoke, she said it feels like everyone really wants to be there, and really wants to learn and be involved.</p>
<p>The atmosphere is VERY welcoming and supportive. At Accepted Students weekend, I met many families whose students were doing the rounds comparing MHC with other schools they’d gotten into, like Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Skidmore, Amherst, etc. I just kept hearing again and again from people how the atmosphere at MHC was so wonderful, and how so many of the kids just felt like, “these are my people!” I think it’s something that stands out if you visit during school term and especially if you sit in on a couple of classes and stay overnight.</p>
<p>There is a lot of community/school spirit, but in a very different way than you expect at colleges typically. (My D was kind of anti-school-spirit at her high school, not into the sports scene, and definitely not interested in a college with Greek life… but she is really loving the Mount Holyoke spirit.) For example, each class has a color and mythological creature. Class of 2018 is the Red Pegasus. 2019 will be the Yellow Sphinx. At convocation they all wore their colors in the outdoor amphitheatre. It was beautiful. Other traditions: M&Cs (milk and cookies) every schoolnight there is a study break in the dorms with some snacks beginning with M and C. Mountain Day. On a random day in the fall chosen by the President, the belltower will ring announcing an unexpected break from classes for a day: outdoor activities culminate with being served ice cream at the top of the mountain.</p>
<p>The professors seem really super engaged and excited about teaching. They are very accessible. Here is an anecdote from my daughter’s experience: She had been reading about the professors and was really excited about one particular Bio professor who seemed to have a very similar passion for bio -from a naturalist/evolutionary/field observation viewpoint- as herself. She hoped to one day be able to take a class with him. She was thrilled when she got into his Bio 101 class. Then she found out he was also her freshman academic advisor. The first day of class, they hung out for a while after class discussing the evolution of Trilliums and her passion and theories about specific insects. They have already been talking about internships for the summer in her field. He gave her the keys to the locked biology lab rooms where the upperclassmen do their entomology research. She spends a lot of her free time in there, looking at slides of insects prepared by students in the 1800’s. Looking back on my own college experience, this just seems so wonderful and lucky. She has immediately connected with a professor who shares her passion, is more than willing to spend time with her, and is already helping her pursue her career path. WOW.</p>
<p>The dorms rooms are amazing! See my post on the Mount Holyoke forum :)</p>
<p>I think when intparent mentioned the financial aid issue, she was talking about merit aid, not need-based aid. Mount Holyoke did meet 100% of our need-based aid. The EFC that they calculated using their own institutional formula was in fact very close to the FAFSA EFC. The completely met our “need” with college grants, work study, and the federal subsidized loans. In our case, the Net Price Calculator was extremely close to the actual award, so you can get a good idea by running that.</p>