<p>^ danas,</p>
<p>I beg to differ. I’d classify both Haverford and Bryn Mawr as hidden gems—bastions of academic excellence that float mostly below the radar screen of our increasingly shallow, US News-driven national sense if what counts as excellence in higher education. That said, both schools hold up extremely well in the US News rankings, and for good reason. They’re just outstanding schools that consistently attract outstanding faculty and outstanding students. The statistical differences between Scripps and Bryn Mawr students are pretty trivial, especially when weighed against the strengths of Bryn Mawr’s faculty.</p>
<p>True, Scripps has the advantage of sunshine and warmer weather. On the other hand, it’s located in a far distant suburb of LA, a good 40 minutes or more from the center of a city that has no real center. Without a car, your access to LA is close to worthless. Of course, you could have a car, as many Scripps students do (and for the record, the parking garage was a highlight of our Scripps tour guides’ overview of the campus). But for those of us more accustomed to more compact Eastern cities with good public transport and lower carbon footprints, that’s not exactly a big attraction.</p>
<p>Look, I don’t want to knock Scripps. It’s a very good school, and the top Claremonts, especially Pomona and Harvey Mudd, are outstanding. But in head-to-head competition on the academic merits, I think any honest comparison would put Bryn Mawr squarely ahead of Scripps, by a not insignificant margin. If, on the other hand, you want to let homophobia taint the contest, you might elect to avoid Bryn Mawr. But that’s a larger discussion. My sense is it’s an issue of shrinking relevance to today’s youth, who seem to be pretty comfortable with a live-and-let-live view of the world. And young women, in particular, seem far less concerned about the budding physicists and (male) intellectuals they might meet, than about their own academic and professional careers. The assumption is that appropriate relationships will follow, and I see no reason to dispute that.</p>