Bryn Mawr College
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Bryn Mawr College |
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| Motto | Veritatem Dilexi (I Have Chosen the Truth) |
| Established | 1885 |
| Type | Private |
| Endowment | US $600+ million |
| President | Nancy J. Vickers |
| Faculty | 144 |
| Undergraduates | 1,378 |
| Postgraduates | 421 |
| Location | Bryn Mawr, PA, USA |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Colors | Yellow and White |
| Mascot | Owl |
| Website | www.brynmawr.edu |
Bryn Mawr College (pronounced [bɾɪn ma:ɾ]) is a women's liberal-arts college located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, ten miles northwest of Philadelphia. The College is known for its academic excellence, exceptionally close relationship between students and faculty, and sense of community and shared values. Bryn Mawr College is one of the nation's premier liberal arts colleges. In terms of academics, percent doctorates earned by graduates, placement among select professional schools, student satisfaction/quality of life, and social impact on America according to US News, Princeton Review, NSF data, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Monthly, Bryn Mawr has consistently ranked in the top 20 of liberal arts colleges in America, and sometimes, among undergraduate institutions (including universities) as well. In fact, The Washington Monthly ranked Bryn Mawr College as #1 college in America based on social mobility, fostering scientific and humanistic research, and how well it promotes an ethic of service to country.
Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sisters and is part of the Tri-College Consortium along with two other colleges founded by Quakers — Swarthmore College and Haverford College. The school has an enrollment of about 1300 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students.
The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh (not "high hill," Bryn Uchel, as is often mistakenly given as the translation).
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[edit] History
Bryn Mawr College was founded in 1885. It was the first higher education institution to offer graduate degrees, including doctorates, to women. The first class included 36 undergraduate women and eight graduate students. Bryn Mawr was originally affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), but by 1893 had become non-denominational.
In 1912, Bryn Mawr became the first college in the United States to offer doctorates in social work, through the Department of Social Economy and Social Research. This department became the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research in 1970. In 1931, Bryn Mawr began accepting men as graduate students, while remaining women-only at the undergraduate level.
[edit] Organization
Bryn Mawr undergraduates largely govern themselves in academic and social matters. Their Self-Government Association, formed in 1892, is the oldest such organization in the United States. A significant aspect of self-government is the Academic Honor System (honor code).
Along with Haverford College, Bryn Mawr forms the Bi-College Community. Students in the "Bi-Co" enjoy unlimited cross-registration privileges and may choose to major at the other institution. The two institutions join with Swarthmore College to form the Tri-College Consortium, opening the Swarthmore course catalog to interested Bryn Mawr students as well. Free shuttles are provided between the three campuses, known as the Blue Bus.
In addition, the group is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania through a special association known as the Quaker Consortium, allowing Bryn Mawr students to take classes there. Additionally, Bryn Mawr students in the Growth and Structure of Cities department may earn a Bachelor of Arts at Bryn Mawr and a master's degree in city planning at Penn through the 3-2 Program in City and Regional Planning.
[edit] Facilities
Bryn Mawr's library holdings are housed in the Mariam Coffin Canaday Library (opened 1970), the Rhys Carpenter Library (opened 1997), and the Lois and Reginald Collier Science Library (opened 1993). TRIPOD, the online library catalog, automatically accesses holdings at Haverford and Swarthmore.
The majority of Bryn Mawr students live on campus in residence halls. Many of the older residence halls are known for their Gothic revival architecture, modeled after Oxford University. Each is named after a county town in Wales: Brecon, Denbigh (1891), Merion (1885), and Radnor (1887). The exceptions are Pembroke East and West (1892), named for the House of Pembroke and its importance to William Shakespeare, (although Pembrokeshire is also a county in Wales). Rhoads North and South was named after the college's first president, James E. Rhoads; Rockefeller is named after its donor, John D. Rockefeller. The newest residence halls are Erdman (opened 1965, designed by architect Louis Kahn) and the Haffner Language and Culture House (opened 1971). In addition, students may choose to live in Glenmede (formerly graduate student housing), Perry House (the Black Cultural Center) or Batten House (an environmentally-friendly co-op).
The campus was designed in part by noted landscape designers Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, and has subsequently been designated an arboretum (the Bryn Mawr Campus Arboretum).
[edit] Traditions
The four major traditions are Parade Night, which takes place on the first night of the academic year; Lantern Night, which takes place in late October or early November; Hell Week, which takes place in mid-February; and May Day, which takes place on the Sunday after classes end in the spring semester. Step sings, when students bring their class lanterns and congregate at Taylor Hall, singing songs such as "Bread and Roses", occur around these events as well.
The two traditions mistresses of the College, elected by the student body, are in charge of organizing and running traditions.
In addition to events, Bryn Mawr's traditions extend to superstitions around the campus, some of which date back to the opening of the college in 1885.[1]
[edit] Notable alumnae and faculty
A number of Bryn Mawr alumnae have gone on to become notable in their respective fields such as Drew Gilpin Faust , the first woman president of Harvard University, modernist poets H.D. and Marianne Moore, and the actress Katharine Hepburn. Notable faculty include Woodrow Wilson and Richmond Lattimore.
[edit] College presidents
- 1885-1894 James E. Rhoads
- 1894-1922 M. Carey Thomas
- 1922-1942 Marion Edwards Park
- 1942-1970 Katharine Elizabeth McBride
- 1970-1978 Harris L. Wofford
- 1978-1997 Mary Patterson McPherson
- 1997-2008 Nancy J. Vickers
Vickers has announced that she will retire at the end of the 2007–2008 school year.[1] A committee has been assembled to select a new president.
[edit] Academics
Students at Bryn Mawr are required to complete divisional requirements in the social sciences, natural sciences (including lab skills) and humanities. In addition, they must fulfill a two-year foreign language requirement, a quantitative skills requirement and a College Seminar requirement.
Majors offered include:
- Anthropology
- Arts Program: Creative Writing, Dance, Theatre
- Astronomy (Haverford College)
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology
- Comparative Literature
- Computer Science - see http://cs.brynmawr.edu/
- East Asian Studies
- Economics
- English
- Fine Arts (Haverford College)
- French and French Studies
- Geology
- German
- Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies
- Growth and Structure of Cities
- History
- History of Art
- Italian
- Latin
- Linguistics (Swarthmore College)
- Mathematics
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Religion (Haverford College)
- Romance Languages
- Russian
- Sociology
- Spanish
Minors include:
- Africana Studies
- Computational Methods
- Creative Writing
- Dance
- Education
- Film Studies
- Gender and Sexuality
- International Studies
- Theater Studies
Concentrations include:
- Cognitive Science
- Creative Writing
- Environmental Studies
- Gender and Sexuality
- Geoarchaeology
- Hispanic and Hispanic-American Studies
- Neural and Behavioral Sciences
- Peace and Conflict Studies
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. The Power and Passion of M. Carey Thomas. New York: Knopf, 1994.
- ---. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (2nd edition).
[edit] External links
- Bryn Mawr College
- Bryn Mawr School
- Bi-College News, Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges' Student Newspaper
- the college news, Bryn Mawr Feminist Newsjournal
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- Satellite image from WikiMapia, Google Maps or Windows Live Local
- Street map from MapQuest or Google Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image from TerraServer-USA
| Seven Sisters Colleges |
|---|
| Barnard College • Bryn Mawr College • Mount Holyoke College • Radcliffe College • Smith College • Vassar College • Wellesley College |
| Centennial Conference |
|---|
| Bryn Mawr • Dickinson • Franklin & Marshall • Gettysburg • Haverford • Johns Hopkins • McDaniel • Muhlenberg • Swarthmore • Ursinus • Washington Col. |
