Honestly, I’m from Philadelphia and I had not heard of Haverford before my D brought up the consortium after visiting Swarthmore on a summer scholarship trip. That trip had her feeling good about Swat and she went back in the fall to visit a class and see school while in session- and she instantly hated the vibe. Just knew completely after that visit that Swarthmore was all wrong for her personality.
We figured, hey why don’t we check out Haverford and Bryn Mawr since we are here (we are OOS these days). We did a little unofficial tour of each and she absolutely loved Haverford from the minute she set foot on campus. She went back three more times to visit and read everything she could find about the school, her major, some clubs, and the consortium. The honor code did speak to her too. She’s a mature and independent woman and loves that the university places so much trust in the students. She sees it as a sign of respect. She loves that many of the faculty lives on campus and that they’re so accessible- she was even able to converse about the major over email and in person with faculty members before she applied. The fact that school is so small is a plus to her, and the consortium, especially the close relationship with Bryn Mawr, makes her feel more certain that it will feel bigger than the numbers. My D is an athlete, though not a varsity level, and she loves that there are great club sport opportunities. She loves the lack of Greek life and that something like nerd house exists.
My D first ranked Haverford in Questbridge. When that didn’t work out she switched to ED1. Honestly, had that not worked she would’ve applied to Bryn Mawr to get the next best thing (in her opinion). She was so happy to withdraw her apps from more prestigious schools where she had applied because she knew she was going to the right place for her. Since her acceptance I have been surprised at the number of people in a variety of my circles that know of and speak highly about Haverford. If prestige is something that really concerns you, it’s place at number 11 in the rankings for this year seems solidly prestigious to me. If you’re worried about name recognition… well that’s probably something that won’t live up to its level of prestige, but my D is always excited to introduce new people to all the things she loves about the school.
If it makes you feel any better though, my husband was a little bitter to see her pull her apps from Brown and Harvard- he really wanted to know if she could get in. Even if we could know though- and she got in to both, it’s better for him to not know because he’d be even more disappointed when she still picked Haverford. Ha!