Smith vs. Bryn Mawr

[lamentablebaingan]

Hi! I have gotten into both Smith and Bryn Mawr and am having trouble deciding which school to pursue. To give some context, I am from the midwest and attend a relatively small public highschool where I am one of few poc (i’m south asian specifically), so being in a multicultural environment is important to me. I am interested in a math/comp sci double major, with a minor in south asian studies or women’s studies if possible. I have taken multiple higher level math classes at a local college (discrete structures, multivariable calc, etc) and am generally more theory inclined - from what I’ve been exposed to so far, I think I might be interested in things like graph theory and cryptography. I didn’t really like my multivar calc class and I’m not too into my stats class right now, so I feel like I would probably do better with a more pure math curriculum. As for plans after college, I’m not completely sure yet, and I could see myself going into either industry or grad school.

I also am not interested in a very competitive and/or stress-inducing environment. Don’t get me wrong, I want my classes to be challenging and I applied to these institutions because of their academic rigor, but I spent the last five years of my life constantly worrying about my future, my grades, etc., like many of you I’m sure. I feel like a relaxed and supportive academic and cultural environment is important to my success as a student and individual.

Bryn Mawr has been my top school for about two years now, but they’re way too expensive for me. They are giving me a net price of around $70,000, even though my SAI is 0. I talked to someone in financial aid over the phone and also had an in-person appointment but neither of them informed me exactly why the price was so high or offered any resources to lower it. My parents own a business, and that was mentioned as a possibility for the high price, but again, nothing was explained. I also talked to a current Bryn Mawr student and she has the same financial aid rep as me. She had a very similar issue and according to her, our rep’s not any good, so I’m not sure what to do at this point. I will be talking to my admissions counsellor soon though, so hopefully that will do something. If you guys could offer some advice on what to do I would really appreciate it!

Smith, on the other hand, is giving me a net price of around $5,000 - which is absolutely amazing. However, I wasn’t expecting to ever get in and I have had my heart stuck on Bryn Mawr for such a long time that it was hard for me to feel initially hyped about Smith. I’m kind of excited about them now though, especially after my recent visit there. Obviously, if the price for Bryn Mawr doesn’t significantly go down, I’ll be going to Smith. But if it does (which I’m really hoping it will!), I know I’m gonna have some trouble deciding where to go. Any advice that you guys have would be very much appreciated! Oh, and my parents are willing to contribute around $15,000 per year.

I also made a pros and cons list for each school, if that’s at all helpful. I’ve bolded the points most important to me.

Bryn Mawr pros:

• Proximity to Philly: One of the biggest reasons I liked Byrn Mawr was because it was so close to the city. There’s not a lot to do in my state and the town I come from has a population of around 25,000, so it’s a bit boring. I wanted to be near a bigger city so I can experience new things, but didn’t want to actually be in the city because I felt that would be too distracting, so Bryn Mawr was perfect in this regard.
• Amazing food
• Cross registration w/ Haverford, which has a strong math dep.
• Super pretty campus: Okay, this is pretty shallow, but I want to be on a nice campus. Idk why it’s so important to me, but a big part of why I liked Bryn Mawr was also because of how cute everything was.
• Honor code: not telling other people score/grades, scheduled exams, etc.

Bryn Mawr cons:

• Price is too high: Also, even if I resolve this issue now, what if this happens again, when I’m being billed for my upperclassmen years?
• Idk if this is true, but I heard the alumni network isn’t very strong. And a big part of going to college is about preparing to get a job, so I feel like this is important to note.

Smith pros:

• Very strong alumni network
• I really like their housing system
• Open curriculum - so a math/compsci double major would be super manageable
• 5 college consortium: would have access to a lot of other types of schools and their resources, especially those of umass amherst so that’s great. I also really liked mount holyoke’s campus and library - also South Hadley was such a cute town, so I would have access to that even if I went to smith.
• Logic certificate through 5 colleges

Smith cons:

• Ideological environment: Tbh, this is one of my biggest reasons for not wanting to go to Smith. I hear students here are very politically active - and that by itself is fine, but I’m not sure how I feel about it considering other information, like the fact that less than 20% of students receive a Pell grant. I guess I’m just worried about elitism, especially since I’m from the midwest and of a relatively middle-class background, and would probably be surrounded by a bunch of super wealthy people from California and New York and places like that. I am also concerned about performative activism. I have social and cultural issues that I care quite deeply about, most of which would probably align with Smith students, but I am a bit more politically reserved and would probably prefer to volunteer at a local org than very explicitly state my political beliefs to every person I meet. Does that make sense? Idk I just think I would have a hard time in the sort of environment I described, especially since it gives me a sort of savior-y and/or toxic feel.
• The campus is kinda ugly in my opinion (I would have access to moho though)
• I also didn’t really like Northampton. Idk, it just gave me a weird feeling.

I also got into Mount Holyoke and was waitlisted from Wellesley, so if you guys have any comments on that, it would be great!

Also, one last thing - sorry for such a long post! This is actually one of my first posts on any type of social media or online forum and I’m not too familiar with that etiquette, so sorry if I made any mistakes lol. It’s just that these four years are gonna be really important and you only get the undergrad experience once, so I really wanna make sure I make the right choice!!

[goldbug]

Hey, I just looked up the demographics for Smith and Bryn Mawr and noted that Smith actually has a lot more students from families that are middle and lower-income. Meanwhile their racial/ethnic demographics are virtually identical.

As you noted, both colleges are part of a larger consortium that could give you access to higher-level math courses than you’d get at an independent small college.

Have you asked Bryn Mawr to match the Smith award?
What did Mount Holyoke give you?
What did you think about Mount Holyoke? They seem to be even more diverse, income-wise, than Smith (less ethnically diverse, however).

[NiceUnparticularMan]

Congratulations on some excellent admissions! And that Smith financial offer is great.

If you can’t get Bryn Mawr down to a competitive level, their loss, but I am confident Smith would work well for you. Like, I think you would find it was fine not to be an outspoken activist type yourself. Would you see a lot of that? Sure. Would you need to get involved? No.

That said, I think you could also consder Mount Holyoke if it was more your vibe, and it was affordable (I didn’t see a cost for them). I am not sure why it isn’t listed up with your top two, but it is a great college itself. So if it was affordable and if you thought you would be happier there, that is no small thing. Because happy people tend to do better, and I think how you actually did in college would be much more important than exactly which of these institutions granted your degree.

Then if Bryn Mawr does get competitive on price, I think your assessment of their pros is a good one, and that could just make your decision for you. I note people have different opinions on this, but I personally think there is nothing wrong with valuing a campus you really love! And I personally agree Bryn Mawr has one of the best.

As for the non-price con, I had a different impression of their alums–they seem pretty positive/loyal to Bryn Mawr to me. Frankly, although this is mostly anecdotal, my sense is grads of all these college sort of look out for each other too, not just their own college. So I guess I would not worry about that, and again I would think your pros would otherwise be plenty of reason to just pick Bryn Mawr–if it got competitive on price.

As a final thought, I do think in my mind Mount Holyoke is closer to Bryn Mawr in feel than Smith. I may be unduly influenced by the campuses (Mount Holyoke has another of my personal favorites), but again just anecdotally, I’ve gotten more similar impression from the women I have met over the years when it comes to those colleges than either with Smith. Again, Smith is still great too. But I guess I am just suggesting it would not surprise me if someone who preferred Bryn Mawr to Smith also preferred Mount Holyoke to Smith, and that would be quite reasonable for some people (and of course other people could prefer Smith).

[NiceUnparticularMan]

Oh yeah, I meant to address the diversity issue, and I would second your points about Smith and Bryn Mawr.

I’ll just toss in that Mount Holyoke is interesting to me in that they seem to have a policy of having significantly more International students.

[tsbna44]

Given one is not affordable, you don’t really have a choice here.

While it would seem unrealistic the huge gap in offers, schools use different formulas.

Your parents should take the lead, if possible, in financial aid discussions.

If it were me and I did not get an adequate response from your aid counselor, I would send an email to the Dean Ms Sullivan and copy the Chief Enrollment Officer. I would attach the Smith offer and ask to explain why the BM # is so vastly different, ask to match and offer to accept pending a match.

In the end, one has shown you love. One hasn’t. So there’s really no choice but what you need to do is either confirm there is an error or validate that there is not. It’s very possible one treats your parents business different than the other.

@kelsmom is a former aid officer and may have another perspective.

Good luck. The good news is - you’ve gotten an affordable opportunity to attend college at a wonderful institution. So it’s time for a happy dance !!

[Bill_Marsh]

You seem to want to hear things about Smith which might be encouraging so that you could feel better about accepting their fabulous financial offer. Do I have that right?

I can’t make you like the campus or the town. I live in New England and happen to live both. Oh, well. To each, his own. In fact, my wife and I I chose to spend Valentine’s weekend in Northampton 2 months ago because we love the town so much. Spent Saturday afternoon, strolling down Main Street, polling around in various shops and stopped in a coffee shop & pastry. Chatted with a couple of homeless people to get their view on life. Also chatted with a few random Smithies as we walked by the campus. One was from Minnesota, so she thought it was a mild winter compared to home. Another was from South Asia, coincidentally enough, and she is loving her time at Smith. We went out for a dinner which couldn’t be beat and followed that up with a 2-hour concert at the Parlor Room, an intimate venue for 75-100 people and one of half a dozen or more live music venues in Northampton, both bug & small. The next morning we had breakfast by a roaring fire and followed that up with a tour of historic late 19th century homes from Northampton’s building boom years. One of them was home to children’s author & artist Mo Willems. His work was then currently on display at the Eric Carle (another children’s author who lives locally) Museum on Main Street.

While I can’t make you live what I love about the place, I can offer some facts from the Smith College website about their current enrollment:

• 33% are students of color
• 17% are underrepresented minorities
• 17% are first generation college students
• 18% are recipients of Pell Grants
• 14% are international students
• 60% are recipients of financial aid

From College Factual Racial-Ethnic Diversity Report:

• 49% White
• 14% International
• 12% Hispanic
• 10% Asian
• 6% African American
• 5% Multi-Ethnic
• 3% Unknown

Smith has a full time enrollment almost double that of Bryn Mawr

Smith Coll – 2800 (2500 undergrad + 300 graduate)
Bryn Mawr - 1500 (1400 undergrad + 100 graduate)

Just wanted to share some thoughts. Good luck with your decision.

[Muu9]

Bryn Mawr has a PhD in mathematics, so you might be able to take graduate courses there if you need to. But definitely do not attend until you can get the net price to a reasonable amount.

[kelsmom]

I won’t comment on the comparisons between Smith and Bryn Mawr other than to say that I find the impressions about the two schools to be different than my own in terms of diversity. But it’s not me who is thinking of attending those schools.

As far as financial aid goes, you should absolutely pursue the truth about your financial aid offer from Bryn Mawr. Something is definitely off if the aid package is so radically different from the one you received from Smith. It’s just very unusual to have that much difference when the two schools meet full need. Yes, schools do determine need differently, but they typically do not vary that much.

You deserve a real response to your question about why Bryn Mawr’s offer is what it is, compared to Smith’s. Please contact the aid officer’s supervisor, stating that you have questions that your aid officer was unable to answer. Explain that Bryn Mawr is your first choice school, so it’s important to you to make sure that you don’t just give up - you want to make sure that you understand why their aid package is so much lower than the one you received from Smith.

If in the end they don’t budge enough for the school to be affordable, please walk away from Bryn Mawr and don’t look back. It’s not worth it, and you have better options.

[mell99]

You sound a lot like my daughter - she was looking for a supportive environment with great teachers and ideally a beautiful campus and good food. And Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke were both at the top of her list. Mount Holyoke gave her the better offer so that is where she landed - but she was leaning that way anyway. She didn’t really look at Smith, because she heard it was more competitive and had not-great food, but while at MHC she took a few classes at Smith and enjoyed her time there a lot. I don’t think she would have picked it over MHC, but she realized she would have had a great experience there as well.
I think all three schools have a fairly diverse population - my D has friends from all over the country and world after her time at MHC. It’s really wonderful.
Based on what you’ve written I think Bryn Mawr is the best fit and I wish you luck with financial aid. But it is not worth going into debt over with such a great offer from Smith. And you didn’t mention the offer from MHC, but I think those two schools are the closest in terms of feel. And both have a gorgeous campus! But a benefit of Smith is the opportunity to take classes at all 5 colleges in the area. Northampton will probably grow on you (my D loved it), but if not Amherst is not far away and has a very different, albeit smaller, feel.
You have great options and I don’t think you can go wrong (finances aside). Good luck!!

[green92]

Congratulations on getting in to both schools!!

I have an incoming Smithie who was accepted ED. We never looked at Bryn Mawr, but did look at Mt Holyoke. To us, Northampton was a huge plus for Smith. Tons of fun coffee shops, restaurants, cool shops, music etc. all within a 5 min walk. A lot more going on than South Hadley near Mo Ho.

We love the Smith campus. Gorgeous, New England style college with some unique buildings and houses to make it interesting. Views of the pond and fields were so pretty and the Botanical Garden area is really lovely. The library is a very traditional old brick building with modern updates inside that seemed like the place to go to study alone of with friends. Loved it!

Both Smith and Mo Ho are very queer friendly with large LGBTQ+ population on campus. We didn’t see any activism on campus while visiting and students were all very friendly and accepting. We liked that Smith was slightly larger than Mo Ho with perhaps more going on. Mo Ho was maybe a little too quiet.

Good luck on your decision!

[lamentablebaingan]

I spoke to a financial aid rep and mentioned the Smith award and she told me that Bryn Mawr doesn’t compete with other colleges when it comes to financial aid. Mount Holyoke gave me a pretty great award as well, around $10,000. To be honest, I like the feeling of the moho campus and culture a bit more than Smith, but since Smith gave me a better financial aid offer, seems to have a stronger alumni network, and also has the housing system which I really like, I felt like Smith might be edging out over moho. Also, I would still be able to take a bunch of classes there, I could study at their library, etc., so it didn’t really feel like that much of a loss to me if I went to Smith. Thanks for posting those screenshots by the way!

[lamentablebaingan]

Thank you for the advice! I will definitely make sure to email the dean and mention my Smith offer. And you’re right, I need to appreciate the love Smith has given me. Doing a happy dance right now!!

[lamentablebaingan]

I visited Northampton on a particularly dreary day and I was also quite tired after the Smith tour so maybe my judgement was a bit clouded (pun unintended). I know Smith also has some sort of affinity group for south asian students, so that’s a pro as well. Thanks for the reply!

[lamentablebaingan]

Thanks for the advice! Also, given your experience as an aid officer, do you know if there is a possibility of something like this happening again in the future. For example, if I go to smith, when I am billed for my tuition for my sophomore year, is it possible to get an a really bad financial aid award since my parents own a business? Or if the issue is resolved at Bryn Mawr, is there a possibility of this same situation arising again?

[lamentablebaingan]

Thank you for the message! It’s reassuring to hear that your daughter enjoyed her time at Smith even though she was looking for a more relaxed environment. I’m now a little bit less scared by the idea of committing to smith

[kelsmom]

That is an excellent question. I think that it would be wise to talk to a financial aid officer at Smith to discuss your family’s situation. It’s in your best interest to know beforehand what could happen in the future, and it’s absolutely okay to ask about it.

[Metawampe]

I don’t understand the perception that the students at Smith students are more activist than those at Bryn Mawr. Both communities have a strong leftward bent and saw protest activity related to Gaza. Both schools have well-organized and highly-visible LGBTQ+ activism.

[NE710]

Congratulations on your wonderful acceptances! I’ve lived very close to Smith and Mount Holyoke for the past 2 decades and know both campuses / student populations very well. Feel free to DM me if helpful. They are different campuses! Visiting Northampton on a gray day is not recommended. Hahaha. It has way, way more going on that South Hadley, MA. I promise you that. The food at Smith is comparable to MHC. A big thing going for Northampton is proximity to the bus and train stations. You can walk to both (train is a bit of a slog depending on where you are on campus, but you can also take the local bus there) and get to Boston or NYC relatively easy. The same is not true of South Hadley. Northampton has way more shops, restaurants, and clubs. Smith’s campus is different from MHC for sure, but there are many charming buildings. My daughter had a dorm room during an exchange program there that was Harry Potter perfection! Loved it. Anyway, I wish you well with your decision. If there’s any question I can answer about this area, please don’t hesitate to ask.

[lamentablebaingan]

Yes, I agree with you in that both campus’s have students participating in activism and such. This is actually something I would like in the college I attend, and a big part of why I applied to mostly small lacs. However, it seems to me that the political environment at Smith is a bit more hostile and/or performative, and that is quite off-putting to me. However, this is just my perception from things I have heard

[tsbna44]

Have you spoken to students ? I’m sure you can set up a meeting with a student ambassador. Ask all your questions.

But open your mind !! They showed the love !!!