Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899
Telephone: 610-526-5152
Fax: 610-526-7471
E-mail: admission@brynmawr.edu
World Wide Web: http://www.brynmawr.edu/
ENROLLMENT
Full-time:
1,316 women
Part-time:
47
Graduate:
484:
COSTS
Tuition:
$32,900
Room and board:
$10,500
Fees, books, misc.:
$1,500 approx.
FINANCIAL AID
Average:
$22,802
FACULTY
Full-time:
122
Part-time:
NA
Ph.D.:
99%
Student/faculty ratio:
10:1
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
College Description
Bryn Mawr College was founded in 1885 by the Quakers to provide for women the same rigorous and stimulating university-level education as was then available only to men. Bryn Mawr was the first college in the country to grant a Ph.D. to a woman, and it remains today the only predominantly women's institution with an extensive graduate program.
Bryn Mawr's 1,242 undergraduate students currently represent forty-nine states, several American possessions, and more than fifty countries. Twenty-seven percent of the undergraduates are members of minority groups in the United States, and another 11 percent are citizens of other countries. Graduate students and special students bring even greater diversity to the campus. The total enrollment of the College is 1,779.
Nearly all Bryn Mawr undergraduates live on either the Bryn Mawr or nearby Haverford College campus. One of Bryn Mawr's eleven residence halls and all of Haverford's are coeducational through the student-run residence exchange. At Bryn Mawr, members of all four classes live in each of the halls, which accommodate from 60 to 145 students each and range in style from collegiate Gothic to Louis Kahn–designed modern. Other choices of residence on campus include an African-American Cultural Center and language houses, which have Chinese-, French-, German-, Hebrew-, Italian-, Russian-, or Spanish-speaking students.
A wide variety of student-run extracurricular groups, many of them shared with Haverford College, provide opportunities for those interested in musical, political, literary, service-oriented, dramatic, religious, or other activities. The College sponsors various programs to bring leaders from the fields of scholarship, business, politics, the arts, and religion to the campus for public lectures and informal meetings with students.
Academic Life
Bryn Mawr College grants the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree with majors and concentrations in more than forty areas: Africana studies, anthropology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, classical and Near Eastern archaeology, classical languages, classical studies, comparative literature, computer science, East Asian studies, economics, English, feminist and gender studies, fine arts, French and French studies, geology, German and German studies, Greek, growth and structure of cities, Hebrew and Judaic studies, Hispanic and Hispanic American studies, history, history of art, international economic relations, Italian, Latin, mathematics, music, neural and behavioral sciences, peace and conflict studies, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religion, Romance languages, Russian, sociology, and Spanish. Students also develop independent majors.
Through an unusually broad cooperative arrangement with Haverford College, Bryn Mawr students may major in any of Haverford's nineteen coordinate departments or in astronomy, classics, music, or religion while earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bryn Mawr.
Also offered are 3-2 programs in engineering and in city and regional planning in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania.
Bryn Mawr's curriculum is designed to encourage breadth of learning and training in the fundamentals of scholarship in the first two years and mature and sophisticated study in depth in a major program during the last two years. Its main purpose is to prepare the student for the lifelong pleasure of educating herself. A rigorous but flexible framework of divisional requirements and majors encourages each student's academic independence.
To earn the A.B. degree, a student must complete a two-semester interdisciplinary course in critical thinking and writing, the College Seminars. The first College Seminar must be taken in the student's first semester at Bryn Mawr, and the second must be completed within the first two years. A total of 32 units of work are required for graduation that also include one course to meet the quantitative requirement, work to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language, 6 units to meet divisional requirements (two each in the humanities, social sciences, and natural and physical sciences), a major subject sequence, and elective units to complete an undergraduate program.
Major requirements vary among the departmental and interdepartmental programs available at Bryn Mawr and Haverford; each student chooses and plans her major in consultation with her dean and faculty adviser. Honors projects and independent study are options offered to outstanding students. The sequence of courses required by medical schools or those sequences giving good preparation for law school or leading to secondary school teaching certification can be combined with most of the major programs.
Bryn Mawr's academic calendar is coordinated with Haverford's and is divided into two semesters, the first beginning early in September and ending before Christmas and the second running from mid-January to mid-May.
Campus Life
Bryn Mawr's 135-acre suburban campus is 11 miles and 17 minutes by train from the center of Philadelphia, the nation's fifth-largest city, and all its cultural, commercial, historical, entertainment, and transportation facilities. A few of the city's resources are the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, numerous theaters, professional and collegiate athletics, some of the nation's most important historic areas, and many intriguing neighborhoods within the metropolitan area, including a thriving Chinatown and an open-air Italian market.
In addition to offering the extensive cooperative arrangements with Haverford College that enable students at both colleges to major in any department on either campus, Bryn Mawr gives students the opportunity to take courses for credit and without additional fees at Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania. Exchange programs with other U.S. institutions include a semester or year exchange with Spelman College in Atlanta.
Students may take the junior year abroad in Paris, Geneva, Munich, Florence, Rome, London, or any of many other cities through one of the plans of study in which Bryn Mawr participates. The College's own international ventures include three summer language-study centers—the Institut d'Études Françedil;aises d'Avignon, the Bryn Mawr College/University of Pennsylvania Italian Studies Summer Institute in Florence, and a program at the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language in Moscow. Students may attend the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, of which Bryn Mawr is a sponsoring member; the American School of Classical Studies in Athens; or the American Academy at Rome. Anthropology students may apply to study in Kenya under the auspices of research programs directed by Dr. Richard Leakey. Other countries in which Bryn Mawr students have recently worked and studied include Canada, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Scotland, and Zimbabwe. Academic credit for all work done abroad is arranged within the student's department.
The members of Bryn Mawr's faculty of 58 men and 59 women teach all the College's students, from freshmen through Ph.D. candidates, and find teaching and research complementary and equally rewarding. Classes are small, and individual conferences and informal meetings are frequent. The student-faculty ratio is about 10:1, but the numerical figure is not as important as the common ideal of scholarship that brings the two groups together.
Facilities and Resources
More than 1 million volumes in a network of open-stack libraries at Bryn Mawr and an additional 400,000 volumes at Haverford are available through cross-listed catalogs. Other facilities include a language laboratory, computer facilities, and the Science Center, which has a new $22-million science library and chemistry wing. An art and archaeology addition to Thomas Library opened in 1997 and houses seminar rooms, research facilities, and a state-of-the-art Visual Resources Center. Special departmental research collections include American and European anthropological and archaeological artifacts; recordings of the music of native peoples from all parts of the world; an extensive and important geologic collection of minerals and maps; a study collection of Greek and Roman minor arts, especially vases and coins; Medieval manuscripts and late Medieval printed books (the third-largest collection of incunabula in the nation); and distinguished library holdings of American, Asian, and African books.
Diversity
Diversity is evident in every classroom and residence hall on campus. Living and growing in a community made up of women from different cultures, races and ideological viewpoints is a central aspect of a Bryn Mawr education.
In many places, a cohesive community comes at the expense of individuality. Relationships at Bryn Mawr are based on something entirely different: a tremendous respect for individual differences. This is a community that resounds with an energy, healthy friction and a range of perspectives that can come only from true cultural and ideological diversity.
Bryn Mawr students come from 49 states and nearly as many foreign countries. One in four is a student of color.
International Students
Many students at BMC come from overseas. Currently, Bryn Mawr enrolls students coming from over 40 different countries and comprising almost 10 percent of the total student body. This includes students who are nationals of countries other than the United States, hold dual citizenship, or are U.S. citizens living abroad. The Office of International Programs is responsible for the general welfare of international students and assists with questions regarding government regulations, social and academic adjustment
Financial Aid
More than 52 percent of Bryn Mawr's undergraduates are receiving grant assistance, usually in combination with loans and campus employment. All aid is awarded on the basis of demonstrated need. The College meets 100 percent of institutional eligibility and continues to do so throughout a student's four years if the student continues to qualify. The average financial aid award is $28,800, and more than $10 million was distributed in grant support. Students must submit the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and the Financial Aid PROFILE from the College Scholarship Service, both available in high school guidance offices. In addition, the College requires a copy of the family's most recent tax return and W-2 forms. Applicants who are not citizens of the U.S. must instead file the Foreign Student Financial Aid Application. Prospective freshmen are notified of the admission and financial aid decisions at the same time.
Admission Requirements
Bryn Mawr's freshman class of about 350 is selected from applicants from all parts of the United States and many countries; no geographical, economic, ethnic, or other discriminatory guidelines are used. The Admissions Committee looks for an excellent school and test record and asks the applicant's counselor and teachers for an estimate of her character and readiness for college. Such qualities as integrity, vitality, a sense of humor, independence, and sensitivity to others are important, as are any special talents or interests. Early decision, early admission, deferred entrance, and advanced placement options are available to qualified students.
Basic high school academic requirements include 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, at least 1 year each of a laboratory science and history, and a solid foundation in at least one foreign language. The SAT I and SAT II Subject Tests in Writing and two other areas must be taken by November of the senior year for early decision applicants and January for regular decision applicants. The ACT may be substituted. An interview, either at the College or with a local alumnae representative, is strongly recommended. Application forms should be submitted by November 15 for fall early decision applicants, by January 1 for winter early decision applicants, and by January 15 for regular decision applicants.
Transfer students must complete a minimum of two years' work at Bryn Mawr to qualify for the A.B. degree.