2012-13 Edition First Impressions: Bryn Mawr College (PA) Educated Quest.com Background 1 Introduction to Bryn Mawr Founded in 1885 just outside of Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr is one of the original Background “Seven Sisters” women’s colleges, and one of the five that has remained all-female for undergraduate education (men have been graduate students since 1931). While Bryn Mawr was not the first all-female college, it was the first to grant degrees through the Ph.D. But among the Five Sisters women’s colleges (Barnard, Byrn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley) Bryn Mawr, with approximately 1,300 undergraduates, is the smallest. Bryn Mawr students share access to a college consortium, popularly called “Tri-Co,” with Haverford College and Swarthmore College, a co-educational setting for aca- demic courses and social events. They may also take classes and pursue joint de- gree programs at the University of Pennsylvania. Altogether, Bryn Mawr students may choose from over 5,000 courses at all four schools. 90 percent of Bryn Mawr freshmen continue onto their sophomore year; nearly 80 percent finish within four years, though some continue to pursue a Masters degree. While Bryn Mawr is often mentioned in the education press as one of the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S., it offered admission to approximately 40 percent of its appli- cants in 2013. Among the National Liberal Arts Colleges that ranked higher than Bryn Mawr (27th) in the 2015 U.S. News Best Colleges guide, only Smith, another of the Five Sisters, admitted a larger percentage (43 percent) among those who applied. Among women’s colleges ranked in the top 50 National Liberal Arts schools, only Bar- nard (21 percent) and Wellesley (29 percent) accepted a smaller percentage of appli- cants. Approximately 40 percent of the recent freshmen classes were admitted through Early Decision. Bryn Mawr became test optional this year, though high ACT and ACT scores have previously helped students gain admission. For the class that entered in 2014, over a third of the new students scored over 700 (of a possible 800) on the Math and Writ- ing sections of the SAT while 31 percent scored as well on the Critical Reading sec- tion of the exam. Thirty-seven percent scored 30 or higher (out of a possible 36) on the Composite for the ACT. The College’s decision to go test optional is interesting in light of the high school achievements of past freshman classes. It will likely encour- age more applications, and possibly make Bryn Mawr a more selective school. The unanswered question is whether the freshman retention rate will rise to the levels of schools that have received higher rankings. 2 Costs Tuition and Fees Scholarships 2 Debt Bryn Mawr charged approximately $45,500 in tuition and fees for the 2014-15 aca- Costs demic year, an increase of just under four percent from the precious year. Room and board charges were $14,350, on the higher side for most colleges and universities. The College estimated financial aid off a projected Total Cost of Attendance of $62,000, low considering the direct charges assessed for tuition and fees and room and board. Bryn Mawr’s financial aid practices are as fair as one may expect of a school that has not adopted policies to have “no loan” aid packages for the neediest students or to limit student loan debt.. Bryn Mawr is one of the few private colleges in the U.S that will meet a family’s full financial need, though the typical practice is to see if the student will qualify for out- side scholarships from other public or private resources as well as Federal Work Study ($2,500) before the Bryn Mawr Grant is awarded to complete the financial aid package. Bryn Mawr asks prospective first-year students to complete the FAFSA, CSS-Profile as well as their most recent Federal tax return. The financial aid office mentions that three percent of home equity is considered in calculating financial need. Students are also expected to contribute $2,400 through summer earnings. Bryn Mawr’s financial aid office expects students to take out Federal loans, starting with those where the interest is subsidized during college. To the College’s credit, it has helped to limit student loan debt. According to the Project on Student Debt, the average Bryn Mawr graduate in 2013 who took out student loans borrowed approxi- mately $21,200, which is $5,800 less than the maximum she could borrow under the Federal Stafford Student Loan program. The College reported an average indebted- ness of just under $25,000 for students who graduated in 2014. It also reported that 33 percent of the class graduated with no student loan debt at all. Ten percent of Bryn Mawr parents did take on Parent PLUS loans in 2011, according to the Chroni- cle of Higher Education’s Parents PLUS loan database. These averaged approxi- mately $20,200. The College reported that 76 percent of all students received need-based or merit- based scholarships. However, only 32 incoming freshman, less than 10 percent of the entering class in 2014 received merit-based awards, averaging $10,750, accord- ing to the College’s 2014-15 Common Data Set. By comparison, 176 freshmen, nearly half of the entering class, received need-based grants averaging just over $36,500, approximately 80 percent of their tuition and fees. 4 Comforts On-Campus Housing 3 Local Housing Market Nearly all (97 percent) of Bryn Mawr’s undergraduate population lives on campus in Comforts one of the College’s 13 residence halls. While the College does not offer on-campus apartments, it does offer opportunities to live in a cooperative house (Batten, for upper-class students), a Black cultural house (Perry). Bryn Mawr mixes first-year stu- dents and upper-class students in the halls. Upper-class students have several op- portunities to live in single rooms. The variety of floor plans and architectural styles within the residence halls is impressive for a small school. Students may also apply to live in the residence halls at Haverford or Swarthmore (called the “Tri-Co Ex- change”) if more of their academic coursework is on those campuses. Since Bryn Mawr offers only residence hall living (aside from Batten and Perry House), and single rooms are in popular demand for continuing students, the College uses a Room Draw process to assign housing for the following year. This process also offers options that allow students to choose to live in a room, or several rooms on a floor, together. Since virtually everyone lives in residence halls, Bryn Mawr has Dorm Leadership teams that include paid Hall Advisors (juniors or seniors), volunteer Customs Per- sons (usually sophomores), a Community Diversity Assistant and Peer Mentors. Hall Advisors organize programming on their floors with the student-elected Dorm Presi- dents. Working in pairs Customs Persons mentor first-year students to help them get settled. There are 54 Customs Persons living in the 11 halls where freshmen reside. This is one of the better support structures among small schools. Bryn Mawr has two dining halls located in Erdman and Haffner as well as two cam- pus cafe’s, Common Grounds and The Lusty Cup. Every resident student must carry a 20-meal plan. The plan also allows students to eat in the dining halls at Haverford and Swarthmore when they are attending classes, events or programs on those cam- puses. The College’s Dining Services have continually received awards for the qual- ity of the food served. Thomas Great Hall, the major gathering space on campus, oc- casionally serves as a dining hall. Decorated with flags hanging from the walls and furnished with long tables, the Great Hall resembles the dining hall at Hogwarts, the wizard academy in the Harry Potter movies. The College allows all but first-year students to have cars, though they are to be parked on a lot shared with neighboring Villanova University. 6 Community Campus Environs 4 School Spirit With a mix of architectural styles spread across three centuries, Bryn Mawr’s 135- Community acre campus is a smaller version of the setting at schools such as Duke or Princeton, and there is no need to cross any streets to get around. The College also uses archi- tecture, art and design to reinforce campus traditions, whether it be to “dress” its sym- bolic Athena statue, post quotes from Katharine Hepburn in the student center or use Thomas Cloister to host Lantern Night, among other activities. Bryn Mawr also has a relatively safe campus, according to the College’s most recent Clery Report. Incident of alcohol or drug-related crimes, the most commonly reported incidents on most campuses, have been few. There was only one drug-related arrest at Bryn Mawr and only 14 alcohol-related arrests total from 2011 through 2013 How- ever, there were also 11 reported incidents of Forcible Sex during this period. But the most reported crimes have been thefts, with a high of 23 in 2012. Bryn Mawr competes in the Centennial Conference in 11 varsity sports and is a non- conference competitor in Badminton. The Owls were National Champions in Badmin- ton in 1996 and 2008. Bryn Mawr has a unique form of student government. Called the Self-Government Association, it places students not only in the position of proposing and recommend- ing changes to campus life policies; it also enables them to vote and help enforce them. The campus is a non-smoking environment, as one example, through the ac- tions of the Association.