Bryn Mawr College | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Annalee

Class: Freshman
Major: Classical Studies
Gender: F

High School: Neuqua Valley High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

This even sounds corny in my head, but the best thing about Bryn Mawr is that this is just a fantastic place to be. The Student Government Association is extremely strong, so campus life and administration are largely in student hands. It is not very often that students want to take up issues with administration, which is exceptional, because administration is largely students. The Honor Code, which prohibits cheating and stealing, is strong, so professors trust us to take self-scheduled, unproctored exams during finals period, and students never feel worried about leaving their dirty shoes in hallways and clothes on the drying rack in a laundry room. This may not seem like a big deal, but it feels great trusting your fellow students and having a college that trusts you; I have more than one friend who is at a college that treats students like the enemy.

Academic Life

Academically, Bryn Mawr is intense. In freshman year students do have a fair amount of free time, if they want it, but even then there will be weeks in which students do not sleep or relax. Upperclassmen have a worse time of it. It is not uncommon for them to have six or seven hours of homework each night. That being said, students usually do manage to carve out a social life for themselves, but this is not the school to come to if you want to spend four years going to bars and goofing off with friends. It will not happen here. Bryn Mawr is also not the place to go if you want a highly tailored course program aimed specifically at getting a certain career. Bryn Mawr is a liberal arts school, so business courses or majors do not exists. This is a great school for those interested in graduate study. Many, but not all, of the students hear are deeply intellectual, but in different, often quirky, ways. You will find talk of philosophy and history over coffee, but you will also find entire parties planned around renting Disney's extremely inaccurate version of Hercules and showing it to Classical Studies majors. Most students are not competitive, and because of the Honor Code, do not discuss grades or GPAs to people not interested in hearing about them. Some students do find the school to be competitive; I just find it stressful. The professors here and at Haverford and Swarthmore expect a lot out of their students, but will not hesitate to bend over backwards for even the least talented among them. Any student at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, or Swarthmore can take a course or major in a department at any of the three schools, which supplements our own course catalogue nicely.

Student Body

Students here are very diverse in ethnicity, region, and socio-economic class. However, they are mostly liberals. There are some extreme liberals. There are many different student types on campus, though I see a few more upper-class, North Eastern prep/boarding/day school students than I would like to. Some wealthier students do not seem to comprehend that many of their peers lacked the opportunities they had as children, nor do they understand that many students had to fight a lot harder to get accepted and remain here. But there is little intentional class snobbery here, and many of the most disadvantaged students are the among hardest workers and the most involved community members here.