Mount Holyoke College
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Template:Infobox University Mount Holyoke College, (founded as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1837), is the oldest liberal arts women's college in the United States. The college is a member of the Seven Sisters, Pioneer Valley's Five Colleges consortium, and Oberlin Group. It is sometimes referred to as "MHC" or "MoHo."
Mount Holyoke is named after an 878 feet (268 m) mountain with the same name.
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General Overview
Mount Holyoke enrolls approximately 2,100 undergraduates. Approximately eighteen percent are African American, Latina, Asian American, or Native American. Fifteen percent are international students, one of the highest percentages of international student bodies of any college or university in the nation.
Mount Holyoke has persisted in its legacy of educating "uncommon" women. It is a leader in producing Fulbright scholars [1]. It also counts among its alumnae recipients of the Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Gates/Cambridge, Udall, Beineke, and Datatel Scholarships. In addition, Mount Holyoke has produced a number of important women writers including poet Emily Dickinson and the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Wendy Wasserstein and Suzan-Lori Parks.
The graduate schools most attended by MHC alumnae are: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Georgetown, and Tufts [2]. The firms that most frequently hire Mount Holyoke graduates are: Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments, AmeriCorps, National Economic Research Associates, Brigham and Women's Hospital, New York City Department of Education, Boston University, Credit Suisse First Boston, and The Dana Farber Center Institute [3].
The SAT has been under review by the college since 2000 and submission of test scores by applicants to Mount Holyoke also became optional at that time [4].
History
- See main article: History of Mount Holyoke College
Academics
Each year, Mount Holyoke hosts the oldest collegiate poetry contest in the country, the Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Competition, which has helped to launch the career of many important poets of the 20th century including Sylvia Plath and James Merrill.
Mount Holyoke is traditionally strongest in the sciences, with state of the art facilities and an unusually high percentage of science-related majors. It also has a long - standing commitment to encouraging women in computing [5] (alumnae include Jean E. Sammet a computer scientist who developed the FORMAC programming language). Finally, the college is also a member of SIAM, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
Mount Holyoke offers a dual-degree program in engineering in conjunction with either the California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, or the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as a dual-degree program with the School of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In recent years, Mount Holyoke's international relations major has become particularly popular. Mount Holyoke's extensive and rigorous language programs have also attained much notoriety.
In addition to classes at the college, Mount Holyoke students may also enroll in courses at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Smith College, and University of Massachusetts Amherst through the Five Colleges Consortium.
Mount Holyoke offers a variety of programs for international students. It also offers undergraduate opportunities for non-traditional students through the Frances Perkins Program. Finally, there are a number opportunities for high school students during the academic year as well as summer.
Sister colleges
- Women's Christian College or "WCC" in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, since 1920
Sports and Dance
Mount Holyoke offers a number of college athletics programs and dance programs. It is also a member of NERC (the New England Rowing Conference) and of NEWMAC (the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference).
Mount Holyoke is also home to a professional golf course, The Orchards, which served as host to the U.S. Women's Open Championship in 2004 [6]. Golf Digest has ranked The Orchards as the second-best college course in the country [7].
Campus
The 800 acre (3.2 km²) campus regularly places on The Princeton Review's list of the "Ten Most Beautiful College Campuses in America," capturing first place in 1997 [8]. The campus was designed and landscaped between 1896 and 1922 by the landscape architecture firm of Olmstead and Sons.
In addition to the Mount Holyoke College Botanic Garden, the grounds feature two lakes, a waterfall, tennis courts, stables and woodland riding trails, all surrounding the green (the grassy lawn in the center of campus). The green is framed by traditional ivy-covered, red brick dormitories, Skinner Hall, and the social hub, Blanchard Student Center.
Places of interest (on and off campus) include the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, The Holyoke Mall and The Odyssey Bookshop.
Student newspaper
- See main article: Mount Holyoke News
Traditions
Some Mount Holyoke traditions include:
- Disorientation: Affectionately known as "Dis-O," this tradition is the most closely guarded secret at Mount Holyoke. Generally, first-years are kept in the dark about it until it actually takes place (which is why it's not being summarized here!).
- Elfing: Sophomores secretly leave gifts for their chosen Firsties (Freshmen), usually during October.
- Faculty Show: Happens once every four years, around April 1st. Faculty members put up a show with spoofs of themselves.
- Founder's Day: Spending the very early morning (7 am) eating ice cream at Mary Lyon's grave.
- Junior Show (also known as J - Show): Juniors (and a few professors) put the MHC experience into sketch and song, good-naturedly poking fun at the MHC experience. A common feature is a sketch mocking the president and dean of the college, along with well-known professors.
- Laurel Parade: During commencement week, graduating seniors wearing white and carrying laurel garlands parade around the campus. White is a tribute to those who fought for women's suffrage [9].
- M&C's (or Milk and Cookies): Each weeknight at 9:30 pm dormitory dining halls open to serve an evening snack.
- Mountain Day: At the sound of ringing bells from Abbey Chapel on a random Autumn morning, all classes are cancelled for that day and many students hike to the summit of nearby Mount Holyoke [10].
Notable alumnae, fictional alumnae, and faculty
- See main article: List of Mount Holyoke College people
References
- Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (2nd edition).
External links
- Mount Holyoke College Official Website
- History of Mount Holyoke Seminary During Its First Half Century 1837-1887, by Sarah D. Stowe
- A Postcard Collection of Mount Holyoke College
- Mary Lyon on the Web: The Founding of Mount Holyoke
- Mount Holyoke College Tour