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New York, 10:47 PM
Mon Nov 9
67 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/03/09
09/03/09
09/03/09
I'm still fairly bitter about the entire college application process last year, as are many of my peers. We were the largest graduating class the US has ever had, and many of us applied to an exorbitant amount of schools (14 for me!). As a result, wait lists were huge, and financial aid was spread thin, which the economy didn't help at all.
To be honest, I'd be going to Reed this year if I'd been able to afford it, but they gave me very, VERY little in financial aid- apparently, they've also stopped doing need-blind admission.
In contrast, Mount Holyoke has given me a large scholarship that includes things like honors tutorials and funding for a summer internship.
24% of the students in my class are international; 25% are American minorities. MHC is known for being incredibly diverse, and I look forward to that. Yes, we obviously are majorly lacking in gender diversity, haha, but who really cares? Most of my friends in high school were male, sure, but it was more a result of similar interests and attitudes than my preferring men to women. Even so, most of the people I know- of both genders- were surprised that I was even applying to non-coed schools.
It's unbelievably frustrating, the sorts of attitudes people have towards women's colleges. Aside from the utterly condescending use of the phrase 'girl's school' instead of 'women's college', whether intended to mean that or not, people seem really weirded out by my going to a place where there are No Male Students or whatever. No, I'm not a lesbian. Yes, I'm a feminist, but no, I am not a man-hating, castration-free-for-all-advocating... feminazi, though I obviously, like, totally appreciate the immediate connection people have between those two concepts. For fuck's sake, I support equality, not superiority. People my age can be so infuriatingly idiotic towards feminism, or just having strong opinions on any issue at all. It's not even a case of being labelled, more so being lumped into a specific group. I'm attending a school without men? I'm obviously a lesbian. Or I hate men.
I chose to include women's colleges in my rather large batch of college applications because I'm comfortable with the idea, NOT because I don't want to be around men. I don't care THAT much that there won't be as many guys around, but I know they will be there. Contrary to popular opinion, there are, in fact, humans of the male persuasion within a ten male radius. Shockingly enough, MHC even has male professors. Like, OMG.
In addition, from what I've learned from researching during the college application process, many women's colleges have some sort of connection to coed schools. Mount Holyoke, for example, is part of the Five College Consortium- a significant part of my decision to apply. There will be men in some of my classes at MHC, and I fully intend to take advantage of the Consortium and take classes at other schools.
I'm going to a women's college because I want to feel more comfortable and self-confident in a classroom environment. I want to be surrounded by women who feel the same way. Sure, I like guys. But my going to a school that they cannot attend does not = forsaking the male gender and becoming a nun. I can, and will, have male friends while in college. I can, and will, date men during those four years. Why is that so difficult for people to understand?
I am going to college to decide what I want to do with my life, to explore different fields, and, most importantly, to learn, and that in no way requires the presence of males.
09/03/09
It's just that, since I made my decision to attend MHC, People have just been SO dumb about it.
09/03/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
ETA: Oooooh, you mean marching band! Absolutely right; neither H'ford nor BMC had that. Very, very true.
09/02/09
09/02/09
There are so few places on earth where young women are the primary focus of an institution, the sole purpose for its existence. The experience of women's college was incredibly empowering for me (and I grew up with a feminist mother and already felt pretty damn empowered before attending) and for my fellow students. I wish it weren't such a rare privilege.
09/02/09
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09/02/09
Wellesley here, too! Green class!
09/03/09
09/03/09
09/03/09
I wouldn't trade my women's college experience for anything. It made me a stronger, smarter, more ambitious and less bullshit-tolerating person.
My biggest pet peeve is when people ask me if Wellesley is "still" a women's college, as though it's a dated, fuddy-duddy thing to be a place where women can see themselves as PEOPLE for four years instead of WOMEN. This, to me, was the most valuable thing I got from my Wellesley experience, and it's also the hardest thing to explain to men, who rarely if ever have to experience themselves as a gender first and a person second.
09/03/09
It's stood me in fantastic stead in grad school; I'm the only woman who's willing to talk when I'm not 100% sure that I'm right. It just doesn't occur to me to censor myself for the sake of my image. So my colleagues tell me I'm obnoxious (half-jokingly); at least they know I'm in the damn room. The need for women's colleges is still extraordinarily real. In fact, one older guy actually said to me, 'You don't seem like the kind of woman who would need to go to a women's college to excel.' My response? 'That's because I went to a women's college.'
09/02/09
09/02/09
While mourning this defeat to Newcomb, a very proud tradition in women's education, I have to say that Tulane University still contributes a great deal to the community and places a huge emphasis on service. Could they do more with Newcomb? Probably. But 90% of my volunteer experiences in New Orleans were sponsored by the university as a whole.