<p>Bryn Mawr certainly has a silk stocking, Philadelphia mainline reputation from back in the day and has a gorgeous campus. But I would hesitate to advocate for the school with my own daughters for the following mostly politically incorrect and sometimes superficial reasons.
First, as Hanna brings up, for a daughter who thinks she may be heterosexual, the situation is not good. Haverford itself has a feminine majority and the males remind me of Vassar males. Maybe closer to their mothers than to their fathers growing up.
Second is the local pecking order. Haverford today has students with much stronger academic profiles than Bryn Mawr students. And this is a school where students get the response, when telling others where they go to school, hear “uh… Harvard?”. Penn and Swarthmore have much stronger students than either BM or Haverford, and the students there know it.
Third is a somewhat morose sense I have of Bryn Mawr. The “Mawrter” thing.
I get the impression that Scripps students are bathed in sunshine, and while stronger students than those at Bryn Mawr, enjoy the sun as well as the company of brilliant budding physicists, gender bending hippies, politicos to be, and intellectuals at Pomona every bit the match of those at Swarthmore.
If you want to study Hindi or Portuguese, I would advocate spending time in countries where the tongues are spoke rather than make US college plans around it.
If the test of a safety is that it is a place you would WANT to go to school, the answer to me is Scripps. The more so if the opportunity to experience a different part of the country is a plus.</p>