Mount Holyoke or Georgetown University??

dc20016
Fri, 10 Apr 2015 20:15:38 +0000

I am a Mount Holyoke alumna who was a political science major and who has lived in Washington, DC since 1973. If I had the same choice today as you do (Georgetown only admitted women to the nursing school back in my day), I would choose Mount Holyoke. The international relations program at Mount Holyoke is exceptional (look up Prof. Vinnie Ferraro’s home page and Prof. Eva Paus in the Economics Department, for example), the politics department covers many diverse topics, and the economics department sends lots of graduates to Goldman Sachs (if that is something that interests you). The campus at Mount Holyoke is stunning (two lakes, 3 waterfalls, 600 acres) whereas Georgetown looks like it is jammed in the middle of an urban environment which it is. Now there is lots to be said for being within walking distance of historic Georgetown but Mount Holyoke’s campus was designed in part by Frederick Law Olmstead who designed Central Park in NYC. The quality of teaching is first rate – Mount Holyoke had the highest number of faculty members named in best college faculty survey published a few years ago (with five in the Biology Department alone). Mount Holyoke has committed to a paid internship for each student through its Lynk program. If you absolutely must be in Washington DC, you can get a terrific summer internship at Mount Holyoke and do it in DC (I worked for a US Senator when I was a sophomore at Mount Holyoke). So, I think Mount Holyoke is the better choice. Georgetown is highly thought of but it features a lot of adjunct faculty and it is a religious school which presents some issues for those who are not Catholic. In the end, you will get a fine education at either school, I suspect, but I wouldn’t give up my four years at Mount Holyoke for anything.