The Sisters
The Sister colleges—Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley—are consistently ranked among the top liberal arts schools in the United States. They are renowned for preparing women for careers in the sciences and are among the top producers of science Ph.D.s in the nation.
The Sister colleges are Prestigious institutions of higher education known for academic excellence and selective admissions. Founded between 1837 and 1889, they aimed to offer women the same rigorous educational opportunities being provided to men. Their success in fulfilling that mandate established their reputation as the female equivalent of the once predominantly male Ivy League.
Now, in the twenty-first century, these highly selective institutions keep making history—and headlines—by preparing women for leadership in a globalized world. The women who attend the Sister colleges are ambitious and independent-minded. These accomplished students like to challenge themselves and are driven to succeed. Rather than regarding single-sex institutions as isolating, these risk-takers recognize women’s colleges as vibrant environments that cultivate leadership and offer a tradition of academic excellence. They’re also draw to the diversity of the Sister colleges, where students and faculty come from all over the world, as well as from a range of backgrounds and traditions.
The Sisters are located in the Northeast, home to some of the world’s most prestigious U.S. institutions of higher education. Each school is part of an impressive consortium that provides students with expanded curricular and cocurricular offerings.
Barnard: Columbia University, Bank Street, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary
Bryn Mawr: Haverford, Swarthmore, and UPenn
Mount Holyoke and Smith: Amherst, and Hampshire Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Wellesley: MIT, Babson, and Olin