Top Women's Colleges in America?

PEALS-05
Mon, 25 Apr 2005 15:10:11 +0000

They cannot be too great just because you haven’t heard of them? It’s really relative, isn’t it? I didn’t know what Duke was until my friend applied and got in. I’m going to USC this fall and half of my friend and teachers believe it is some public school in California (not with a 45k tuition it ain’t). It depends on the people you are around and what you hear and how/what you choose to research that determines what you know. And having “heard” of a college is not always exactly an indicator that it is exceptional in some way.

Have you ever heard of Cooper Union? Or Olin? Or especially Deep Springs? Look them up and you’ll be surprised how great they are, while relatively few people have even heard of them.

Mount Holyoke is NOT lukewarm. It’s ranked above Barnard, which you mentioned. Scripps, a women’s collge in Claremont, CA is ALSO ranked above Barnard. That said, Barnard is still a great school. But not exactly better than Mt. Holyoke, or even Scripps. And Barnard has ties with Columbia, for goodness sakes.

Based on the US News and World Report rankings, the top five are Wellesley, Smith, Byrn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke and Scripps. Next are Barnard, Agnes Scott, Spelman, Sweet Briar and Mills. How many of those have you heard of? And they’re considered very good liberal arts colleges, too.