Bryn Mawr College
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Math – I used to double major in Math and Physics but since I’m doing the 3+2 program, I can’t finish two majors in three years.
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: East-Asian/Chinese Female
Summary
I participated in a lot of different dancing clubs on campus. I’m a volunteer for Education Without Barriers, which creates and delivers free online courses to underprivileged children all over the world.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: East-Asian/Chinese
High School Experience: Private high school in a major city in central China. There were only 10 people graduating in my class and people went to college in Canada and the United States.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Math – I used to double major in Math and Physics but since I’m doing the 3+2 program, I can’t finish two majors in three years.
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I participated in a lot of different dancing clubs on campus. I’m a volunteer for Education Without Barriers, which creates and delivers free online courses to underprivileged children all over the world. I’m also a part-time researcher for a financial corporation. I did not find that job through Bryn Mawr, I discovered it on my own. I also did undergraduate research during my freshman year with a Physics professor.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
The research I did with the Physics professor did because I got a lot of experience with data analysis and data collection. Because of that, I was able to go to a conference and present our research results and we’re going to publish an article in a physics journal. That had a huge impact on my interest in data analysis and data science.
What was the process of getting involved in your undergraduate research?
You talk to the professor who is conducting the research you’re interested in and then apply for it. For the one I applied to, I think there were ten students applying and three got in. Although that may seem competitive, it’s one of those things where if you don’t get in this year you’ll probably get in next year.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
I have a lot of problem sets for my Math and science classes. Since I’m taking five courses each semester, I have a lot of exams and problem sets but I don’t have that many papers to write. Generally, most of my courses have weekly problem sets.
Is there anything you feel that your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
I think every professor is very approachable. When you can’t make their office hours, you can always set up an appointment with them. You can talk about them about anything, like your impression of the lecture material, a question on the problem set, and also help with professional stuff. But, with the Bi-Co partnership with Haverford, I feel like the Math department at Haverford is more challenging and interesting.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
The community is definitely very supportive. At Bryn Mawr, it’s not that competitive. I don’t feel that much peer pressure from other students because the Honor Code says we’re not supposed to talk about our grades in public.
How has being part of the Tri-College Consortium impacted your academic experience?
It has been great because liberal arts colleges are normally pretty small and the courses are very limited. Having this partnership with Haverford, Swarthmore, and the University of Pennsylvania, we have more options with choosing what courses to take because the courses at Bryn Mawr are more limited.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I had an interest in solving problems in high school, especially Physics and Math problems using numbers and models. I didn’t do that much exploration in my first year, I went straight into the Math department after entering college because of my interest from high school.
How was transitioning from your high school in China to Bryn Mawr academically? Were there any resources available that helped you adapt?
The school I came from was an international school, so it was pretty similar to what it’s like here in the United States, so the transition was not that hard. Especially for the courses, as long as you understand the language, it won’t be a problem. The biggest challenges were adjusting to the language and some cultural things. There is an Asian Student Association on campus that will help you transition from your home country to the new country. That helped a lot.
How has going to a historically women’s college impacted your academic experience?
I don’t feel like it has had that much of an effect on my academics. In general, Bryn Mawr is a really supportive community and that is the only thing.
Reasons to Attend
1) If you want to pursue a liberal arts education where you can have a close connection with my professors and classmates. It’s a small and tight community.
2) I really appreciate feeling very supported in my academic life and my daily life and social life.
3) The partnership with Haverford, Swarthmore, and the University of Pennsylvania. I’m taking a statistics course at the University of Pennsylvania right now and that’s cool because you can have experiences in different locations with students at different colleges.
4) We have a lot of awesome 3+2 and 4+1 programs with places like CalTech, Columbia, and Penn.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) If you prefer a more competitive environment, Bryn Mawr might be too supportive.
2) Bryn Mawr is small, so we don’t have many alumni to reach out to.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: Quad in Pembroke West. It’s really close to every building and the dining hall, which was nice. We had a huge common room with two bedrooms and two students in each bedroom. We’d invite people over all the time because our common room was so big.
Sophomore: For the first semester I lived in Erdman Hall in a single. Erdman was nice because there was a dining hall just upstairs. I moved to an off-campus apartment for the second semester because I wanted to cook for myself. I prefer Chinese food to the food on campus. The food at Bryn Mawr is actually good and we have the international bar, but I prefer food from my hometown.
Junior: Off-campus apartment.
How was transitioning from your hometown in China to Bryn Mawr, PA in terms of location?
The one huge difference is the location of Bryn Mawr is a suburb. You have to take trains to go to downtown and it can take like 40-minutes. It’s quite a distance from Bryn Mawr to Philadelphia, so I think it’s kind of isolated but it’s good for academics because you can concentrate on your academic work. It’s also nice that you can take a break and go into the city during the weekends or on a weekday after classes to have a nice dinner and then come back at night.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
It’s really, really great. I live off-campus about a 15-minute walk from campus and I tend to study late at night and call the [Lantern Shuttle] to pick me up from and give me a ride. If that’s not available, campus safety will always give you a ride. I feel really safe since I never have to walk by myself at night.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
Normally I will go out with my friends to Chinatown and grab some food. Sometimes we have club trips, like ski trips. You can always sign up for trips for the day. I also will do dance practice with my friends because we’re performing in a student showcase that happens every semester. But for me, because I’m taking five courses, I usually spend a lot of time in the library.
How happy are you with the weekend activities or nightlife at your school? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I wish I had more time to explore the city of Philadelphia. I feel like there are so many places to go and hang out, but since the transportation takes so long to get there, I don’t want to spend that time when I’m this busy with my courses. If the location were closer to Philadelphia, I would take the time to explore certain places in Philadelphia more.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
It was pretty easy because Bryn Mawr is very small so I met them eating in the dining hall or studying together.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Bryn Mawr?
Bryn Mawr is really tiny so everybody gets to know each other. Even if you’re in different departments, everyone on campus has seen each other before. I feel like everybody has a close group of friends that they only hang out with. I normally interact with my really close friends and sometimes I get to do things with other groups. People tend to spend time with their really close friends, at least that’s the case for me.
How has going to a historically women’s college impacted your social experience?
I feel like I have a clearer understanding and appreciation of different [sexual orientations]. We have people on campus who are different sexual orientations and I get to understand how they think and respect their decisions since that is something that is not as common in China.
As an international student, were there parts of Bryn Mawr or American college overall that surprised you?
There are a lot of things. Bryn Mawr tries very hard to make people feel at home at Bryn Mawr. We have a lot of traditions that help our halls become small families. It gets upperclassmen to [be more involved with the freshmen]. We have a special week for this [called Customs Week]. We also get lanterns with our own class color. I think these traditions surprised me as an international student because I do feel at home even though I traveled so far to a strange country.
To what extent do international students and domestic students mix socially?
I interact with them a lot. For my freshman year, I lived in a quad where two of us were Chinese and two were American and we’re now best friends and go out and do a lot of activities together. I spend about 60% of my time with my Chinese friends and 40% of my time with domestic students or other international students. But, I don’t think that Chinese students and students from the United States mix that much generally.
How do you like the size of Bryn Mawr? How has that impacted your experience? [Bryn Mawr has about 1,300 undergraduates.]
On one hand, I feel like Bryn Mawr being small is very good because we get to know each other. But, on the other hand, I think if we were a bigger school we would have more diverse classes and activities, and more courses that we could take overall.
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
It has helped me a lot. The career center will invite someone to come back to campus and give us a talk about their career experience. They also have recruiting events. That has helped me a lot to explore the careers that I’m interested in because I get a chance to talk to alumni and reach out to them in the future.
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
The career center will help you look at your resume and cover letter and also do a mock interview with you or help you search for a job. Now that I’m a junior and I’m hunting for a job, I go to the career center about three times a week because I think preparing for an interview is really hard and I need to practice as much as I can. I think most people in the career office are really helpful.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
I’ve taken Python and Java at Bryn Mawr. I took Python in a half-semester course where we learned quantitative methods. I learned Java in Intro to Java and Data Structures at Bryn Mawr. You can always take those courses at Haverford or Swarthmore if you’re interested in some other languages.