Bryn Mawr College Top Questions

Although the campus is very safe, it is an 'open' campus (meaning the campus is in no way fenced in, gated, or locked). For this reason, all dorms and most academic buildings require special key cards that all students receive. After hours all academic buildings are locked and only people with these cards can enter. Within dorms, the Honor Code requires that people respect other students rooms and stuff. Many people leave belongings in the common rooms or outside their doors. Most people lock their doors when they leave the dorms. There are a tons of school traditions that are very unique to BMC history. Many of which are secret until students experience them. Some of the big ones include Step Sings, Lantern Night, Hell Week, and May Day. Not a big party school. Awake at 2am on a Tuesday? You are probably doing homework or procrastinating/taking a break to talk with friends, watch movies, or go on Facebook. No fraternities (women's college) or sororities. Saturday nights are filled with alternative events. Free film screenings on campus (in warmer weather they show films outside on the lawn), Ethnic club events, Dance parties. You can also go into Philly for the night, catch a show or eat out.

Not much to say here. If you wanna do something fun, go to Philly or Villanova. The honor code is a little unique in that it deals with social conduct as well as academic conduct. First honor code of that type I have seen. Some like it, some don't. Basically, you're not allowed to talk about grades, professors you dislike, or whatever in public places.

Bryn Mawr students are very supportive of LGBT groups, and they are always extremely popular. Because of the size of the campus, I do not feel like much action can be taken to rally around more than one disadvantaged group at a time. So while LGBT organizations prosper, religious and racial ones can be left in the dust. There are, however, about a million organizations that you can join, and if you do not find one you like, you are free to start your own. However, with the large amount of work students ahve on campus, many groups shrink over time. There is a lot to do on campus. I almost want to, say too much to do on campus, especially with the amount of work we have, because some events are dramatically under attended because there is always something else to do. Big parties do not often happen on campus, but there are many small gatherings, some of which involve alcohol on any given weekend night. The Princeton Review has put us on the "Stone Cold Sober" school list; this is not true. Many students choose not to drink, but alcohol is relatively easy to find. At 2am on a Tuesday, I am generally working, and so is nearly everyone else.

Our campus is often considered to be pretty sober, but I would disagree with this. The thing is we have rather non-traditional parties. For example in and around most of our traditions, everything from Parade Night at the beginning of the year to May Day at the end, there's a lot of partying, campus wide partying. more traditional parties such as our infamous Halloween parties occur to, and normally if you want a party you can find it, but if you don't want a party you don't have to be near it. It's all really up to what you want to do. Bryn Mawr has four main traditions, Parade Night, Latern Night, Hell Week, and May Day. we take them very seriously, including the Duck Pond run during Hell Week. Parade night is where the Sophmores throw waterballoons at the Frosh as they run by, and is the night of the first monday of class. Latern Night is where all the Frosh and transfer students recieve their laterns. each class gets a different color latern, Light Blue, Red, Dark Blue, and Green depending on year. Hell Week is when the sophmores 'hell' the frosh, and make them do all kinds of crazy stuff. participation in these activies are all voluntary and you don't have to do anything you don't want to, though I recommend doing everything, espeiclaly Bedtime Stories when the seniors read the Frosh stories the night before the Frosh have to run to the Haverford Duck Pond. if they don't make it to the Duck Pond in time, they get thrown in! May Day is when we dance around may poles, may holes, and spend most of the day drunk on the main green. there all types of fun activities, good food and other traditions. At every one of these traditions, barring hell week, are step sings, where we sing songs, some in Greek, and also pop or traditional songs. each class has it's own song that they sing. it's fun.

Bryn Mawr itself has no parties. If you want to see a play or an a cappella concert or generally not drink, stay on campus. Students go to Haverford, Swarthmore, or UPenn for parties. There are really only parties Friday and Saturday. Otherwise, almost everyone is studying. Radnor is the party dorm, and it's pretty intense, at least compared to everywhere else on campus. This is perfect for me, as I like coming home at the end of a long night. I've made most of my friends through class, and I'm dating a man at Haverford.

We have a lot of unique traditions that make our college feel like one giant sorority. Some girls love it, while others hate it and don't participate, but at least we have the option. The traditions usually bring people together.

The most prominent organizations on campus are the SGA, religious groups, cultural groups, LGBT groups, political/activist groups, and the rugby team. There are many smaller clubs as well in a wide variety of areas, and most people are involved in some extracurriculars. My most rewarding activity this year is mentoring at an inner-city elementary school in Philadelphia. I go once a week (transportation provided, the majority of students do not have cars) and just spend a few hours with a second-grader talking, playing, and doing homework. In addition to the positive influence it is intended to have on her, it has opened my eyes to some of the ugly realities of the city poor, as well as reminding me of some of the miracles that come with being 8 years old. Athletics are commonly participated in but not commonly watched. Performances and speakers are more popular, and there have been a number of very prominent speakers. Recently, in the lead-up to the presidential primaries in Pennsylvania, Madeline Albright spoke and Barack Obama's policy director Karen Kornbluh (a Bryn Mawr alum) spoke on campus. There are no fraternities or sororities on campus, and the party scene is fairly quiet. People tend to get together in small groups, with a few annual exceptions, or go to neighboring colleges. However, partying virtually never happens outside of the weekend. That's not to say that people are boring or that this is a dry campus. Academics are simply sufficiently serious to keep people busy during the week--on 2am on a Tuesday I would be writing a paper or reading for a class, more than likely. But casual drinking is very common and popular, and Public Safety has very tolerant de facto policies regarding alcohol, which makes for a much safer atmosphere. At the same time, no one will ever feel pressure towards drinking or partying. As with everything else, Mawrtyrs tend to let people do as they like, and there are people who head to Haverford or Swarthmore every weekend, as well as people, like me, who spend most Saturday nights watching a movie or going to an on-campus event, or just hanging out with friends.

We have A LOT of clubs. there are clubs for pretty much anything. You want to ice skate? you can. rugby? yep. stained glass? uh huh. We are a 20 minute train ride from Philly. We are on the main line, a line of towns outside of philly that boast a lot of restaurants, a lot of cafes, shops, boutiques and other such things. If you want to stay on campus you can, there's always stuff to do, but you can also get off campus and do whatever you would like. If you're awake at 2am on tuesday, you are doing homework. and probably will be doing homework for at least another hour. I met my closest friends through the very first class I had at bryn mawr. it was a german class that met 7 days a week for an entire year. Even though we rarely have class with each other anymore, we are great friends, make sure to eat with each other as often as possible and are all living together next year. If you want to party, you can. it just tends to be on other campuses. If you want to stay in, watch a movie with your friends and share a bowl of popcorn or a bottle of wine, that's cool too, and tends to be what most students do.

Bryn Mawr has a very close relationship with Haverford college, we share departments and club sports, so most of the parties take place there. I'm a member of the Ultimate Frisbee team, which practices 5 days a week and has tournaments every weekend during season (we also throw the best parties on campus!). There are plenty of a cappella groups, comedy groups, theater performances, sport teams and clubs that host events, and all are very well attended. The party scene is basically up to each student, you can party here as much or as little as you want. And in most of the dorms you won't be bothered by loud parties going on.

Athletics are not big here. However, we do have a very good rugby team. There are many different clubs on campus. I'm involved in the pre-health club, the Christian Fellowship Club, and the BMC Greens (environmental club). Many of the students in dorms leave their doors open so that people can pop in and chat. There's usually at least 2 guest speakers on campus each week, and we have 2 or 3 theater groups. Bryn Mawr's an all-women's college. Thus, if you like women, this is a dating paradise. If you like men, you're going to have to go to one of the many co-ed school's around Bryn Mawr (Haverford, Villanova, Harcum, Rosemont, Swarthmore, etc) to date. I really don't know what the dating scene is like, however, because I've been dating a guy from high school, who goes to Penn State, for the past 3 years. If I'm awake at 2 AM on a Tuesday, I'm writing a paper and venting to my hall mates. There are 4 main Traditions every year: Parade Night, Lantern Night, Hell Week, and May Day. There are also 2 main parties: Halloween and St. Patrick's Day. Then there are various smaller parties throughout the year. There are no sororities at Bryn Mawr (and obviously no fraternities). On a Saturday night without drinking you can watch a movie, go to a presentation or a concert, have a dance party in your friend's room, go to Philly, etc.