What could you tell me about Smith?

[b_r_um]

<p>Sorry to hijack the Smith thread but I would like to set a few things straight about Bryn Mawr:</p>

<p>Bryn Mawr has about 1400 undergraduates and a total student body of about 1800 students. It is true that it is located in the suburbs, but there is a movie theater, several restaurants, banks, churches, grocery stores, one pharmacy etc within walking distance of the campus. The train station is less than a 5 minute walk from the campus and Philly is just a 20 minute train ride away. The closest mall is in Ardmore, maybe 5 to 7 minutes by train, and the college sponsors free bus rides to other malls during the semester.
Bus rides to Haverford and Swarthmore are free (and buses run until 2 AM), and we get reimbursed for train tickets to the University of Pennsylvania when we take classes there. Taking classes at Haverford is really easy and commonly done because it is so close and the time slots for classes are coordinated (e.g. Bryn Mawr classes meet x:00-y:00 and Haverford classes x:30-y:30 MWF, allowing enough time to comfortably get from one campus to the other). Swarthmore and Penn classes are more difficult to squeeze into a busy schedule. Technically we can also take classes at Villanova but nobody does.</p>

<p>What ultimately drew me to Bryn Mawr was its graduate school with the 4 year BA/MA degree options.</p>

<p>To get to the differences between the two campuses: I don’t know how good this list describes Smith ([You</a> know you are a Smithie when…](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/smith-college/216442-you-know-youre-smithie-when.html]You”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/smith-college/216442-you-know-youre-smithie-when.html)), but a few items are not definitely not true for Bryn Mawr:</p>

<p>

2. You can count your heterosexual friends on one hand.
3. You can snuggle up your friends and not be looked at funny (even with you’re straight).
4. You have made out with a girl or thought of making out with a girl.

The vast majority of Bryn Mawr students is straight.</p>

<p>

9.5. Your nalgene is covered with so many stickers that no one can tell what the liquid is inside of the nalgene.
9.75. At least one of those sticks is a rainbow flag, inverted triangle, Venus sign, human rights campaign, and/or ani difranco/alix olson or random band sticker.
13. Half of the first years in your house have shorter hair now then they did when the first arrived, dyed their hair, their noses are pierced, have a tattoo, hooked up w/ one of their friends, and/or ‘finally’ came out of the closet.
77. You have a preferred tattoo parlor.

Bryn Mawr seems to be a lot less hippie than Smith.</p>

<p>

3. You’ve ever had to console a friend for getting a B+ on an essay.

We usually do not talk about grades (and talking about grades in public spaces like classrooms or dining halls is a violation of our honor code). The idea is that you should try to push yourself rather than compete against your classmates. Of course you can complain about a devastating grade to a friend, but only after asking her if she minds talking about grades (Bryn Mawr students are very respectful of each other’s comfort zones).</p>

<p>But I agree with the above posters that you should try to apply to both colleges if you care about both or to neither if you don’t care about either.</p>