Is Haverford Quirky?

ctParent2006
Sat, 28 Apr 2007 09:21:29 +0000

Congratulations on show great choices. I have not visted Pomon and was only at Hopkins many years ago but have visited Swarthmore, Weslyean, Haverford, and Vassar as my daughter applied to all this year. She was rejected at Swarthmore (the clear favorite of these for both of us due to its intellectual intensity and campus), waitlisted at Wes and Haverford and accepted at Vassar. She and I both, we really didn’t agree on all her choices<g>, rated Vassar very slightly above Haverford and Wesleyan though the choice was very close for me and it is naturally not clear what would have happend if she was accepted and participated in the various accepted student days. Some quick comments:</g>

I agree that Hopkins does not have a very quirky reputation but cannot really comment as my experience with their students was 30 years ago.

I have never thought Haverford was very jocky, quite the opposite actually, but have seen other comments along those lines recently. Still don’t believe it though. A very nice campus with interesting/quirky, well as a parent on the tour at least, students. It is very small (1100 or so) and while adding Bryn Mawr to the mix does increase the overall size of the community the resulting male/female balance is not as favorable to a straight female as it would be for a straight male. A very safe neighborhood with easy access to Philadelphia As an aside, being able to walk to the local Ferrari dealer is a plus but, only being to look myself, that would not seem to be a relevant factor.

Wesleyan is a slightly larger school 2700(?) or so we a correspondingly larger set of course offerings but is still not huge at all. Middletown has never turned me on at all, visited 6-7 times over two kids, though it does have a fair number of stores and places to eat. All evidence suggests that it is reasonablely safe (I am parent after all so researched crim statistics) area now, it did not used to be, and there are all the usual shopping one could want accessible by car (little public transportation but I have always found that students can usually find someone to drive them where they need/want to go). The campus is not as pretty as the others by a long shot, in my subjective view. The new student center does look great. Awesome for film studies. Students are traditionally politically active.

Vassar (along with Haverford and Swarthmore) is one of the prettiest campuses you will find anywhere (Ok, I admit we do have different seaons here in the NorthEast so let us not compare it to Stanford). The campus is very safe but the surrounding city offers very little and may be a bit dodgy in places. Once again it somewhat larger at 2400 or so with a slightly more female balance, I think, than Wesleyan. It is especially good a theater but has very strong programs in all areas.

In terms of the students I think that Wesleyan and Vassar are both known to be full of quirky, arty, and interesting people. I thought the same of Haverford but perhaps you have better information on that. It may be that Vassar students are very slightly more arty and Wesleyan students very slightly more political but I think that is splitting hairs. None of these schools are considered “party” schools though I am very confident they students at all these places know how to have fun and do the same sort of things their parents did…uh deny happened…when we were students.

There seems to be some consensus on this Board that Wesleyan and Haverford may be slightly stronger in sciences than Vassar but all three are such great schools I doubt that an undergraduate would not find all the resources they might want.

At Vassar you can take a train to New York City but that ride is considerably longer than from Haverford to Philly. Wesleyan is not particularly close to either Boston or New York, New Haven has some attractions but Hartford has little, but both are within reach.

I would go with your instincts as to what sort of location you want to be in, how close they are to your home (if only for logistical purposes but please remember we parents still do like to see our kids every so often and hope the reverse is also true), the size of the environment, how you felt about the people you met (remembering that was a small sample of the students), and if there is any particular program one may have that the other may not.

Good luck these are all awesome colleges and I am sure you will enjoy whichever you pick.