 | |
| Motto | Veritatem Dilexi (Latin) |
|---|---|
Motto in English | I Delight in the Truth |
| Type | Privatewomen'sliberal arts college |
| Established | 1885; 140 years ago (1885) |
Religious affiliation | None, formerlyQuaker |
Academic affiliations | |
| Endowment | $1.18 billion (2021)[1] |
| President | Wendy Cadge[2] |
| Provost | Tim Harte[3] |
Academic staff | 160 full-time, 41 part-time (2019)[4] |
| Students | 1,677 (fall 2023)[5] |
| Undergraduates | 1,360 (fall 2023)[5] |
| Postgraduates | 317 (fall 2023)[5] |
| Location | ,, United States |
| Campus | Suburban, 135 acres (55 ha) |
| Colors | Lantern’s Glow and White[6] |
Sporting affiliations | NCAADivision III –Centennial Conference |
| Mascot | Owl |
| Website | brynmawr |
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Bryn Mawr College Historic District | |
   | |
| Location | Morris Ave., Yarrow St. and New Gulph Rd.,Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°1′35″N75°18′49″W / 40.02639°N 75.31361°W /40.02639; -75.31361 |
| Area | 49 acres (20 ha) |
| Built | 1885 |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | LateGothic Revival, Gothic, Collegiate Gothic |
| NRHP reference No. | 79002299[7] |
| Added to NRHP | May 4, 1979 |
 | |
Bryn Mawr College (/brɪnˈmɑːr/brinMAR,Welsh:[brɨnˈmaur])[8] is aprivatewomen'sliberal arts college inBryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as aQuaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of theSeven Sister colleges, a group of historically women's colleges in the United States. The college has an enrollment of about 1,350undergraduate students and 450graduate students. It was one of the first women's colleges in the United States to offer graduate education through aPhD.[9]
Bryn Mawr College is a private women's liberal arts college founded in 1885. The name "bryn mawr" translates fromWelsh to large hill.[a] The Graduate School is co-educational. It is named after the town ofBryn Mawr, in which the campus is located, which had been renamed by a representative of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Bryn Mawr was the name of an area estate granted toRowland Ellis byWilliam Penn in the 1680s. Ellis's former home, also called Bryn Mawr, was a house nearDolgellau,Merioneth,Gwynedd,Wales. The college was largely funded through the bequest ofJoseph W. Taylor, and its first president wasJames Rhoads. Bryn Mawr was one of the first institutions of higher education in the United States to offer graduate degrees, includingdoctorates, to women. The first class included 36 undergraduate women and eight graduate students. Bryn Mawr was originally affiliated with theQuakers (Religious Society of Friends), but by 1893 had become non-denominational.
In 1912, Bryn Mawr became the first college in the United States to offer doctorates insocial 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-focused at the undergraduate level.
From 1921 to 1938 the Bryn Mawr campus was home to theBryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, which was founded as part of the labor education movement and the women's labor movement. The school taught political economy, science, and literature.[10]
The college celebrated its 125th anniversary of "bold vision, for women, for the world" during the 2010–2011 academic year.[11] In September 2010, Bryn Mawr hosted an international conference on issues of educational access, equity, and opportunity in secondary schools and universities in the United States and around the world.[12] Other festivities held for the anniversary year included publication of a commemorative book on 125 years of student life,[13] and, in partnership with the PhiladelphiaMural Arts Program, the creation of a mural in West Philadelphia highlighting advances in women's education.[14]
On February 9, 2015, the college's board of trustees announced approval of a working group recommendation to expand the undergraduate applicant pool allowingtransgender women and intersex individuals identifying as women to apply for admission.[15] This decision made Bryn Mawr the fourth women's college in the United States to accept trans women.[16] Bryn Mawr "recognizes that gender is fluid and that traditional notions of gender identity and expression can be limiting", and has the official policy of accepting nonbinary students who were assigned female at birth as well. All current, past, and future students are fully recognized as members of the Bryn Mawr community, regardless of current gender identity.[17]
The campus is in the municipality ofLower Merion Township.[18] Most of the campus is in theBryn Mawrcensus-designated place.[19]
The campus was designed in part by noted landscape designersCalvert Vaux andFrederick Law Olmsted, and has subsequently been designated anarboretum (theBryn Mawr Campus Arboretum).
The majority of Bryn Mawr students live on campus in residence halls. Many of the older residence halls were designed byCope & Stewardson (same architects who designed a large part of theUniversity of Pennsylvania,Washington University in St. Louis, andPrinceton University campuses) and are known for theirCollegiate Gothic architecture, modeled afterCambridge University. Each is named after acounty town inWales:Brecon,Denbigh (1891),Merion (1885), andRadnor (1887), andPembroke East and West (1892). Rhoads North and South was named after the college's first president, James E. Rhoads; Rockefeller is named after its donor,John D. Rockefeller. Erdman was opened in 1965, designed by architectLouis Kahn. In addition, students may choose to live in Batten House (an environmentally friendly co-op). Perry House, which was originally established as the Spanish language house in 1962, was redefined as the Black Cultural Center in the 1970s. In 2015, Perry House was relaunched by the college in the former French tower of Haffner, which had undergone renovations and reconstruction the previous year.[20] Along with Perry, now known as theEnid Cook '31 Center, a new residence hall was built where the old Haffner Language and Culture House once stood.
Glenmede (formerly graduate student housing) is an estate located about a half mile from the main campus which at one point was available housing for undergraduate students. In 2007, it was sold to a conservation buyer as the annual costs of upkeep were too great for the college.[21]
In 1908,John C. Olmsted designed a private garden forM. Carey Thomas adjoining theDeanery. The garden was later modified and renamed as the Blanca Noel Taft Memorial Garden. In its current form, the garden is a small enclosure with two wall fountains, one with a small basin and the other with a sunken reflecting pool. The decorative wall tiles above the smaller wall fountain and basin were purchased fromSyria.[22]
In 1960, architectLouis I. Kahn and Bryn Mawr College president,Katharine Elizabeth McBride, came together to create the Erdman Hall dormitory.[23]
The Marjorie Walter Goodhart Theater houses a vaultedauditorium designed byArthur Ingersoll Meigs ofMellor, Meigs & Howe, two smaller spaces that are ideal for intimate performances by visiting artists, practice rooms for student musicians, and the Office for the Arts. The building's towers andgables,friezes, carvings and ornamental ironwork, designed bySamuel Yellin, were done in thegothic revival style.[24][25] In the fall of 2009, the college completed a renovation of Goodhart.[26]
Previously named after Bryn Mawr's first Dean and second president, Old Library was used as the primary campus library until 1970, when Mariam Coffin Canaday Library opened. The Great Hall (formerly the reading room of the library) was designed by Walter Cope (ofCope and Stewardson) in 1901 and built by Stewardson and Jamieson several years later, althoughM. Carey Thomas played a large part in its construction. Today, it is a space for performances, readings, lectures, and public gatherings. Old Library encloses a large open courtyard called "The Cloisters". The cremated remains of M. Carey Thomas andEmmy Noether are located in the Cloisters.Georgiana Goddard King is also buried in the cloister.[27] The building was declared aNational Historic Landmark in 1991.[28][29] The Great Hall was once the home of anAthena Lemnia statue (damaged in 1997) that is now located in a high alcove in the Rhys Carpenter Art and Archaeology Library. A plaster cast of that Athena now stands in her place at the Great Hall.[30] Students often leave offerings to this statue in the hope that she will intervene on their behalf. In 2018, the board of trustees formalized the use of the name "The Old Library".[31]
Old Library was formerly known as "Thomas Hall" after Bryn Mawr's second president, M. Carey Thomas. The building was informally known as "College Hall" for a year before being officially renamed to "Old Library" in 2018. This renaming was in response to student protests, which claimed that many of M. Carey Thomas's views did not represent the values of the college. Student protesters identified that M. Carey Thomas was a virulent eugenicist, antisemite and racist who strongly opposed the admission of students who were not elite white women. Today, the building houses a plaque explaining the controversy of the former name and affirming the college's current dedication to equity and inclusion, which was unveiled during the 2019 Community Day of Learning.[32]
Named for Bryn Mawr's late professor of Classical Archaeology, the Rhys Carpenter Library was designed by Henry Myerberg of New York and opened in 1997. The space is connected to the rear of Old Library. The entrance is a four-story atrium. Names of art and archaeology faculty are displayed on the main wall of the atrium, along with a series of plaster casts of the metopes of theParthenon. The roof comprises a wide grassy area used for outdoor concerts and picnics. The building won a 2001 Award of Excellence for Library Architecture from the Library Administration and Management Association and the American Institute of Architects. Carpenter Library also houses the college's renowned collections in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, History of Art, and Classics.[33]
TheBryn Mawr College Deanery was the campus residence of the first Dean and second President of Bryn Mawr College, M. Carey Thomas, who maintained a home there from 1885 to 1933. Under the direction of Thomas, the Deanery was gradually enlarged and elaborately decorated with the assistance of the American artistLockwood de Forest and furnished with art from Thomas' world travels. From 1933 until 1968, the Deanery served as the Alumnae Center and Inn for the college. The building was demolished in the spring of 1968 to make space for the construction of Canaday Library, which stands on the site today. At the time of its demolition, many of the Deanery's furnishings were re-located to Wyndham, an 18th-century farmhouse (with several modern additions) which became the college's new Alumnae Center.
| Academic rankings | |
|---|---|
| Liberal arts | |
| U.S. News & World Report[34] | 30 |
| Washington Monthly[35] | 13 |
| National | |
| Forbes[36] | 180 |
| WSJ/College Pulse[37] | 68 |
Bryn Mawr is a small, four year, residential baccalaureate college.[38] Although the college offers several graduate programs, the majority of enrollments are from students enrolled in the undergraduate arts and sciences program.
Students at Bryn Mawr are required to complete divisional requirements in thesocial sciences,natural sciences (including lab skills) andhumanities. In addition, they must complete one year of aforeign language and fulfill a quantitative skills requirement and an Emily Balch Seminar requirement. The Emily Balch Seminars are similar to courses in freshman composition at other institutions, though focus on a specific topic. The seminars stress development of critical thinking skills and are discussion-based, with "intensive reading and writing."[39]
Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:[40]
In 1972, the college founded a year-longpost baccalaureate pre-medical program for career changers. The program remains one of the oldest, most prestigious, and successful in the country — with an over 98% medical school acceptance rate.[41][42]
For the Class of 2023 (enrolling fall 2019), Bryn Mawr received 3,332 applications, admitted 1,102 (30%), and enrolled 374 students.[43] For the freshmen who enrolled, the middle 50% range ofSAT scores was 640–740 for evidence-based reading and writing, and 650–770 for math, while the middle 50%ACT composite score range was 29–33.[43]
Students celebrate four major traditions throughout the year, along with other minor traditions. Parade Night, which happens on the Friday of the first week of classes, is a tradition where the freshman class runs to Taylor Hall, while the upperclassmen throw confetti.[44] Following this, the first of the three "Step Sings" takes place, during which the student body sing various traditional and pop songs.[45] The second is Lantern Night, which takes place in late October or early November, where first year students receive a lantern which symbolizes the passing down of knowledge, during a traditional ceremony with songs in Ancient Greek. Welcome the First Years Week, formerly known as Hell Week, takes place during the early part of the semester between February and March.[46] It is a time when students complete silly tasks and attend special events created for them by an upperclassman (called a rose) who the freshman (called a bud) personally selects.May Day is held on the Sunday after the last day of classes, not on the traditional date of May 1. It includes a breakfast of strawberries and cream, a parade, dancing around the traditionalMaypole, a feminist alternative called the Mayhole,[47] and student performances.[48]Dar Williams's song "As Cool As I Am" has become part of May Day, as the song is played during the Mayhole celebration. The song is even called an "unofficial anthem" for the school.[49]
The traditions are organized and run by two Traditions Mistexes, elected by the student body. In addition to major traditions, there are a number of minor traditions. These include offerings to a statue of Athena for luck or thanks, using a set of stairs leading up to Taylor Hall called the Senior Steps or down Senior Row, a row of trees in the center of campus unless a student is a senior. The Friendship Poles, a set of two vertical poles located under the main arch of the Pembroke Dorms, are not supposed to be split by a group walking through, or else those who "split the poles" will no longer be friends. Additional traditions and superstitions surround the college campus and its facilities and buildings.[50]
Bryn Mawr has signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment, and in doing so, the school agreed to make all new buildings comply with a LEED silver standard or higher; to purchase Energy Star products whenever possible; and to provide and encourage the use of public transportation.[51] The school's dining halls strive to be environmentally sustainable by working to expand their local and organic offerings, recycling in all dining areas, and recycling used fry oil as bio-diesel fuel. The dining halls previously offered biodegradable takeout containers, but reverted to Styrofoam in the 2009/10 academic year. Additionally, all leftover food is donated to a local food bank.[52] On the College Sustainability Report Card 2011, published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, Bryn Mawr received a B+. The school's highest category score was an A in Investment Priorities, since Bryn Mawr invests in renewable energy funds.[53]
Bryn Mawr College teams are nicknamedOwls. They play in theCentennial Conference and field intercollegiate teams in badminton, basketball, cross country, field hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field, and volleyball.[54] The badminton team won national intercollegiate championships in 1996 and 2008.[55][56] The mascot of the college is theowl, the symbol ofAthena,Greek goddess of wisdom.
A large number of Bryn Mawr alumnae and former attendees are notable in their respective fields. The list includesDrew Gilpin Faust (class of 1968), the first woman president ofHarvard University;Hanna Holborn Gray (1950), the first woman president of a major research university (University of Chicago);modernist poetsHilda "H.D." Doolittle (attended), andMarianne Moore (1909); classics scholarEdith Hamilton (M.A. 1894); archaeologistDoreen Canaday Spitzer (1936); author, social activist and feministGrace Lee Boggs (Ph.D. 1940); Nobel Peace Prize winnerEmily Greene Balch (1889); geneticistNettie Stevens (Ph.D. 1903); physicistElizabeth Laird (Ph.D. 1901); physicist and astronomerFrances Lowater (Ph.D. 1904); mathematicianAda Isabel Maddison (Ph.D. 1896); PhysicianMartha Tracy (1898) a pioneer in medical education[57] and in public health;[58][59] 1891 Fellow in MathematicsRuth Gentry; artistAnne Truitt (1943); authorEllen Kushner (attended); economist and founding Director of the Congressional Budget OfficeAlice Rivlin (1952); four-time Academy Award-winning actressKatharine Hepburn (1928); poetJane Hess Flanders (1962);Carol Alonso, nuclear physicist;Mary Elizabeth Taylor, former aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Forbes 30 under 30;Carolyn Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas from 2011–;Betsy Hodges, mayor of Minneapolis from 2013 to 2017;Renata Adler, novelist and journalist; DameA.S. Byatt, novelist and Booker Prize winner;Joan Slonczewski, biologist and science fiction novelist;Caroline Stevermer, fantasy novelist;Rachel Simon, author and memoirist;Maggie Siff, actor (1996).[60]NeuroscientistCandace Pert (1970) helped discoveropioid receptors.Ana Botín is chair of theSantander Group, one of the world's largest banking groups.[61][62] Indie musicianMichelle Zauner (who performs asJapanese Breakfast) attended Bryn Mawr as well.[63] The social reformer,Alice P. Gannett (1898), for whom theGoodrich-Gannett Neighborhood Center is named, attended Bryn Mawr,[64] as didMaya Ajmera, CEO ofSociety for Science & the Public.Jeannette Piccard, American balloonist, scientist, teacher and priest.[65]
Notable faculty includeWoodrow Wilson, chemistsArthur C. Cope andLouis Fieser,Arthur Lindo Patterson of thePatterson function,Edmund Beecher Wilson,Geraldine Richmond, philologistsCatherine Conybeare,Grace Frank andLouise Holland, archaeologistsBrunilde Sismondo Ridgway,Leicester Bodine Holland,Thomas Hunt Morgan, historianCaroline Robbins, mathematicianEmmy Noether, neurobiologistPaul Grobstein, andLillian Rosanoff Lieber,Richmond Lattimore,Tenney Frank,Mabel Louise Lang, andLily Ross Taylor, the Spanish philosopherJosé Ferrater Mora, Germanic philologistAgathe Lasch, Classical philologistWilmer Cave Wright, Hispanist and medievalistGeorgiana Goddard King, poetKarl Kirchwey,[66][67] decorated French Resistance officerMarcelle Pardé (French literature 1919 to 1929), and historian and authorAmy Kelly.
Bryn Mawr Colg
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