Mount Holyoke or Bryn Mawr?

FireflyLights
Fri, 02 Dec 2016 02:46:33 +0000

I’m a current student at MHC and loving it, so I pretend no objectivity - but here are some thoughts:

MHC is larger (2100); BMC is smaller (1600). BMC is in a suburb-ish town very close to Haverford; MHC is in quite a small town within a short bus ride (~20 min) of a fairly large town with a massive university (UMass). Whether or not you think MHC is “rural” depends on your definition of rural; rural on the east coast is in no way the same as rural in, say, Montana. It’s more like a perpetual low density suburb than rural in the sense of “no people”. South Hadley itself is small town - but it is close to Amherst, and everything on the east coast is quite close together. If you have a friend with a car, which you probably will by your sophomore year, you will be able to spend weekends in Boston if you want to and have the time. The Art History department also runs day shuttles to NYC (the Met, mainly) a few times a semester. They leave early and get back late, and you have to pay something if you aren’t in an Art History class, but they are available. Just to be pedantic, there are, contrary to what is stated above, three available coffee shops - Thirsty Mind in the Village Commons, Rao’s in the library atrium, and Uncommon Grounds (the college coffee shop), in Blanchard Campus Center. I get the point that services are somewhat limited, though - this is true.

I felt the same way about activism on campus - it was a slight negative of MHC to me, but it’s not nearly as pervasive in the school culture as it is at Smith. It’s perfectly possible to not participate if it’s not something you want to be a part of as long as you accept that it’s going to be happening around you.

What’s your baseline for horrible weather? I think the weather in the northeast is pretty awful but I’m coming from lots of sun. It rains regularly but not constantly (for a few days every couple of weeks). If you’re OK with slate grey skies in the winter, you’ll be fine. I doubt the weather will be very different in PA - less snow, comparable rain, somewhat warmer and a bit less dark in the winter - but I’ve never lived there and so I don’t know for sure. Fall is the best season up here - there are some truly gorgeous weeks in the fall which you pay for in January and February when it’s grey and cold.

The premed people at MHC are awesome. They are super helpful, and also lovely. They’re very well informed about your options and what’s needed. When it became apparent that I would need to take a class over the summer due to some issues with scheduling, my premed advisor gave me a list of online possibilities and walked me through the procedure for getting a non-MHC class approved for credit. She’s helped me to work out a plan going forward which will allow me to complete my MCAT in an ideal timeframe. I get at least three emails a week (usually more like 5-7) about new opportunities for research or internships that have come to their attention which we should check out. The whole office is great.

The bio department at MHC is also one of the strongest on campus. If you want to email about the major, the person to look for is Craig Woodard, who’s the current department head. I had him for a class last year and he is brilliant and very helpful. You can also look at the department website (https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/biologicalsciences/people) for a look at the bio professors and their research.

I don’t know a ton about BMC because I decided I wanted a >2000 student body pretty early in the process. It seems like a great school - quite similar in a lot of ways, but with key distinctions. I do think a lot of people would thrive at both schools.