Bryn Mawr College
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Psychology
Minor: Neuroscience
Student Self Identifies as: East-Asian/Chinese Female
Summary
I participated in the Student Government Association and the Neuroscience Club.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: East-Asian/Chinese
High School Experience: Private boarding school in Indianapolis, IN with a graduating class of about 200 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: Yes
Major: Psychology
Minor: Neuroscience
Extracurricular Activities: I participated in the Student Government Association and the Neuroscience Club.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
The Student Government Association has because it makes me a leader and I can get to talk to people and hear their perspectives and feedback of what’s going on on-campus.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
That depends a lot on the class. For the earlier classes, there was a lot of writing. As you move to the 200-level classes, we do a lot of hands-on work with SPSS and other data analysis because at Bryn Mawr we focus a lot on the application of psychology. For the majority of my classes, I have final exams and final papers.
Is there anything you feel that your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
I really enjoy the Psychology department at Bryn Mawr. We have our own building. They also do a great job of organizing different psychology-related job events, conferences, and talks for us and they make sure to email us about events happening around Philly. They bring us together too. The senior Psychology majors all know each other pretty well.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I think it’s quite competitive, especially because I think a lot of my peers are very self-drive. A lot of times there is a little bit of peer pressure to work hard. Also, the workload and assignments are pretty hard so you have to spend time working to get good grades. It’s competitive, but it’s not too stressful because the professors are very helpful. Sometimes when I get overwhelmed with the workload, the professors are very easy to talk to and willing to give you one day or two-day extensions. They’re also very helpful if you’re stuck on any assignments.
How accessible are your professors?
Most of them are very accessible. There are like one or two who are not, but that is because they don’t live near campus or they’re from [University of Pennsylvania] or another school and are helping out to teach out a course at Bryn Mawr. For example, I had a professor last semester from Villanova who was not very easy to meet with.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I came in wanting to major in Economics and Art History, which is very different from what I am doing now. We have required courses at Bryn Mawr and in order to fulfill a requirement I took an Intro to Psychology course. I had no idea what psychology does, but took the class with an awesome professor and thought the class was really interesting. The professor recommended gave a recommended list of interesting Psychology classes to take after the intro class. That’s when I thought that psychology is such an interesting topic and I really wanted to learn more about it. After I took about four Psychology classes by my sophomore year, I figured I should continue taking Psychology classes since I really liked the department and the classes offered.
How has the Tri-College Consortium impacted your academic experience?
I think that’s a big plus to being a Bryn Mawr student. I started taking classes at other schools my freshman year, so I took advantage of that benefit. I think it’s great for finding interesting classes. Sometimes a class that I need at Bryn Mawr does not fit my schedule, so I can find classes at other classes at Haverford.
Reasons to Attend
1) If you have a good understanding of whether you want to work or want to pursue [higher education] after graduating college, a liberal arts college is the perfect fit for entering certain areas. It’s great for pursuing higher education because we do a lot of research as undergrads.
2) If you are not sure what major you want to do, Bryn Mawr is a good place because all of the departments are very welcoming and you get a sense of what you want to study. Bryn Mawr also encourages you to try out different areas to study and discover your real interests.
3) If you care a lot about diversity and being in a safe and comfortable environment, Bryn Mawr does a great job of that. All of the professors are aware of the diverse backgrounds of students and we hear a lot of talk about diversity and racial equality.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) In comparison to other universities, we don’t have many resources for finding careers and preparing you for the job market, especially if your goal is to enter the business world.
2) The location is very safe, but you might find that it’s boring because you know what’s around the area and you’ve seen most of the people from Haverford and Bryn Mawr.
3) Things can get repetitive here while studying at a small liberal arts college in a suburban area.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: Quad in Pembroke West. When I got into Bryn Mawr, I had to fill out a survey about how I wanted to live, and I said I wanted roommates of a diverse background, so my roommates were from all over the world. That was really nice.
Sophomore: New Dorm in a single. At Bryn Mawr, we have a lot of singles. Most students live with roommates their first year and then live in a single room their second year. Having a single is kind of a sign that you’re moving to be an upperclassman [laughs].
Junior & Senior: New Dorm in a single room
How was transitioning from your boarding school in Indianapolis to Bryn Mawr, PA in terms of location?
I found it really easy because Indianapolis and Philly have very similar weather. I also lived in a dorm at my boarding school and I live in a dorm here. At my boarding school, we focused a lot on women’s leadership which is very similar to Bryn Mawr because it is a girl’s college, so we also focus a lot on female power and female leaders. It was a smooth transition for me.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
Personally, I feel very safe on campus. I have never been harassed on campus verbally or physically. I feel like students at Bryn Mawr are very careful with what they say because we know people come from diverse backgrounds have different experiences. We are very careful with the words that we say, especially people’s pronouns. A tradition at Bryn Mawr is if we have a conversation with someone we don’t know, we ask for their pronouns, which I thought was interesting coming in. I feel very safe walking around campus by myself. It’s such a safe environment.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
For weekend activities, it depends on the weather. Sometimes we have movies that play outside and other campus organized events. We also have parties on Fridays. There’s a lot of stuff happening on campus and it’s not the same thing every weekend. The college hosts two parties a year. Halloween and Penn West versus Penn East, and we invite students from Haverford, Swarthmore, and the other schools to come to those. In general, there are a few dorms that are party dorms and they usually host parties every Friday and Saturday.
What have been some of your favorite times at Bryn Mawr?
At Bryn Mawr, we have a lot of traditions. One of my favorite traditions is called May Day. On that day we get to celebrate our whole [college] family. At Bryn Mawr, we have families and we invite first-years to join our families. If they are in our family, we help them with anything from their academics to work to adjusting to their lives at Bryn Mawr. At Bryn Mawr, we call each other sisters, daughters, and moms, so on May Day we celebrate this family tradition. We celebrate being a family and all the new members who joined our family that year. That’s something I really enjoy and look forward to every year.
How happy are you with the weekend activities or nightlife at your school? Is there anything you would change if you could?
As a freshman, I didn’t have many complaints. But starting sophomore year, I felt things got really repetitive because there aren’t a lot of options on campus. You get tired of seeing the same people at the same party every Friday. At that time, I hoped for more event collaboration with the other universities near campus so we’re not seeing the same people all the time.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
I met most of them because of the dorm situation during my first-year. Bryn Mawr organizes a lot of events for freshmen, so we attended a lot of events together and that’s when I got to know them. Some of my other friends I got to know through clubs.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Bryn Mawr?
I think people are more active during their freshman year. During freshman year, people attend all the events to get to know people and make friends. Personally, I was really active as a freshman and I felt like Bryn Mawr offered a lot of opportunities for freshmen to meet each other and get to know upperclassmen. But I felt like as you start as a sophomore, junior, and senior, your social life quiets down. As people get older, they start to get lazy in regard to social life.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
At Bryn Mawr, I think that might be one issue. We are all very friendly with one another, so there is no problem with that. I do see that Asian students associate with Asian students more and the friend groups are heavily based on race. To be fair, I don’t think that’s just for Asians, it’s for other races too. For me, the majority of my friends are also Asian. I have friends from class and clubs who are not Asian, but those are not as deep relationships. That’s an issue that we discussed during Diversity Day.
How would you describe the Asian community on campus? How strong is it?
We are very, very strong. We have a lot of clubs, like culture clubs and dance clubs. We also collaborate with Haverford and have a close relationship with Haverford. We have a Bi-Co Asian Club and we do events every other week and we know each other pretty well.
How do you like the size of Bryn Mawr? How has that impacted your experience? [Bryn Mawr has about 1,300 undergraduates.]
Again, I think my opinion of it changed over the four years. As a freshman and sophomore, I really liked the small size of it because it was perfect for making close friends and was a great opportunity to build a really close relationship with professors. Sometimes we have 15 or 10 students per class, so that makes all the seminar and some 200-level lecture classes very easy to participate in. I have a great relationship with all of the professors and I think the reason for that is Bryn Mawr is such a small community. While I started looking for jobs during my junior and senior year, I started to wish that Bryn Mawr was a little bigger because then the alumni network would be stronger. I do feel like because Bryn Mawr is a small community, our alumni network is not as strong. [About 72% of classes at Bryn Mawr have 19 students or less.]
How has the Tri-College Consortium impacted your social experience?
In terms of making friends and your social life, I think it’s a benefit because we host a lot of events together. For example, if Swarthmore has a invited a musician to campus, then we all get emails about it and we can all attend. It just adds more fun events and opportunities.
Do you think people are generally happy with their choice of Bryn Mawr by senior year? Do you think people leave loving Bryn Mawr?
I would say, roughly speaking, 60-80% are happy and maybe 20-40% are not happy. Senior year you are very stressed looking for a job and sometimes you blame Bryn Mawr for being a small school for not having a strong enough alumni network or enough connections. After they graduate, I think most people really miss Bryn Mawr.
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
They haven’t helped me find internships or jobs, but they have opened up a lot of opportunities for me. At Bryn Mawr we have alumni lunch every Friday and we get to speak with an alum from Bryn Mawr, Haverford, or Swarthmore. Through that, I was able to meet a lot of alumni who introduced me to different industries and opportunities.
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
I usually go to the career center for help with editing my resume and cover letter. I think they are not as helpful for finding a job, but they are really helpful with editing your resume and cover letter.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
I’ve learned SPSS, Python, Excel, and R. I learned them all through the Psychology department.