Seven Sisters

The **Seven Sisters** are a group of seven liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that are historically women's colleges: Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and Wellesley College are still women's colleges. Vassar College is currently a coeducational college and Radcliffe College was absorbed in 1999 by Harvard College.

These colleges were created to provide women with the educational equivalent to the historically all-male Ivy League colleges, although Cornell has accepted women since its founding.

The name *Seven Sisters* is a reference to the Greek myth of *The Pleiades,* the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione: Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope.

## Barnard College

### Location

Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City

### Inhabitants

388 (Academic Staff)
3,442 (Students)

**Barnard College**, officially titled as **Barnard College, Columbia University**, is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia University's trustees to create an affiliated college named after Columbia's recently deceased 10th president, Frederick A.P. Barnard. The college is one of the original Seven Sisters—seven liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that were historically women's colleges.

Barnard is currently one of four Columbia undergraduate colleges with independent admission, curriculum, and financials. Students share classes, libraries, clubs, Greek life, athletic fields, and dining halls with Columbia, as well as sports teams, through the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium,an agreement that makes Barnard the only women's college to offer its students the ability to compete in NCAA Division I athletics. Students receive their diploma from Columbia University.

Barnard offers Bachelor of Arts degree programs in about 50 areas of study. Students may also pursue elements of their education at Columbia, the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and The Jewish Theological Seminary, which are also based in New York City. Its 4-acre (1.6 ha) campus is located in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights, stretching along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets. It is directly across from Columbia's main campus and near several other academic institutions.

Barnard College alumnae include leaders in science, religion, politics, the Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, theater, and business. Barnard graduates have been recipients of Emmy, Tony, Grammy, Academy, and Peabody Awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, MacArthur Fellowships, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the Pulitzer Prize.

The most popular majors at the college by 2021 graduates, were:

* Econometrics and Quantitative Economics (62)
* Research and Experimental Psychology (56)
* History (43)
* English Language and Literature (39)
* Political Science and Government (36)
* Neuroscience (33)
* Art History, Criticism and Conservation (33)

## Bryn Mawr College

### Inhabitants

201 (Academic Staff)
1,719 (Students)

**Bryn Mawr College** (/ˌbrɪnˈmɑːr/ *brin-MAR*; Welsh: [ˌbɾɨ̞nˈmau̯ɾ]) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of historically women's colleges in the United States. It is one of 15 Quaker colleges in the United States. The college has an enrollment of about 1,350 undergraduate students and 450 graduate students. It was the first women's college to offer graduate education through a PhD.

Bryn Mawr is a small, four year, residential baccalaureate college. Although the college offers several graduate programs, the majority of enrollments are from students enrolled in the undergraduate arts and sciences program.

Students at Bryn Mawr are required to complete divisional requirements in the social sciences, natural sciences (including lab skills) and humanities. In addition, they must complete one year of a foreign language and fulfill a quantitative skills requirement and an Emily Balch Seminar requirement. The Emily Balch Seminars are similar to courses in freshman composition at other institutions, though focus on a specific topic. The seminars stress development of critical thinking skills and are discussion-based, with "intensive reading and writing."

Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:

* English Language and Literature (31)
* Biology/Biological Sciences (27)
* Psychology (24)
* Mathematics (23)
* Computer Science (22)

## Mount Holyoke College

### Inhabitants

247 (Academic Staff)
2,342 (Students)

**Mount Holyoke College** is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of historically female colleges in the Northeastern United States. The college was founded in 1837 as the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary by Mary Lyon, a pioneer in education for women. Mount Holyoke is part of the Five College Consortium in Western Massachusetts.

Undergraduate admissions are restricted to female, transgender, and nonbinary students. In 2014, it became the first member of the Seven Sisters to introduce an admissions policy that was inclusive to transgender students. Graduate programs are open to applicants regardless of gender.

The college's 800-acre (3.2 km2) campus includes the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, the John Payson Williston Observatory, and a botanic garden, and awards the Glascock Prize annually. Alumni, faculty and affiliates include notable authors, feminists, scientists, politicians, and civil rights activists, as well as recipients of the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Rhodes Scholarship, Emmy Award, Golden Globe, and Academy Award.

Mount Holyoke offers 50 departmental and interdepartmental majors, including the option to design a special major. The most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:Experimental Psychology (45)

* Biology/Biological Sciences (44)
* Econometrics & Quantitative Econometrics (34)
* English Language & Literature (33)
* Computer Science (26)
* Neuroscience (21)
* International Relations & Affairs (20)

The primary degree conferred is the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, for which students complete 128-semester credits (one standard course equals 4 credits). At least 68 credits must be earned from coursework outside the major department, across the three curricular divisions: humanities, science and mathematics, and social sciences. Study of a foreign language and completion of a multicultural perspectives course is also required.

Mount Holyoke's membership in the Five College Consortium allows students to enroll in courses at nearby Amherst College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They may also complete one of 12 Five College Certificates—among them African studies, Buddhist studies, coastal and marine sciences, cognitive neuroscience, international relations, and Middle Eastern studies—in lieu of a minor.

## Smith College

### Inhabitants

285 (Academic Staff)
2,873 (Students)

**Smith College** is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. Smith is also a member of the Five College Consortium, along with four other nearby institutions in the Pioneer Valley: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst; students of each college are allowed to attend classes at any other member institution. On campus are Smith's Museum of Art and Botanic Garden, the latter designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
Smith has 41 academic departments and programs and is structured around an open curriculum, lacking course requirements and scheduled final exams. Undergraduate admissions is exclusively restricted to women, although Smith announced a trans-inclusive admissions policy in 2015. Smith offers several graduate degrees, all of which accept applicants regardless of gender, and co-administers programs alongside other Five College Consortium members. The college was the first historically women's college to offer an undergraduate engineering degree. Admissions is considered selective. It was the first women's college to join the NCAA, and its sports teams are known as the Pioneers.

Smith alumnae include notable authors, journalists, activists, feminists, politicians, philanthropists, actresses, filmmakers, academics, businesswomen, CEOs, two First Ladies of the United States, and recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, Rhodes Scholarship, Academy Award, Emmy Award, MacArthur Grant, Peabody Award, and Tony Award.

Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:

* Research & Experimental Psychology (49)
* Biology/Biological Sciences (48)
* Political Science & Government (45)
* Engineering Science (36)
* History (30)
* English Language & Literature (25)
* Mathematics (23)
* Economics (23)
* Computer Science (22)

## Wellesley College

### Inhabitants

346 (Academic Staff)
2,280 (Students)

**Wellesley College** is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial grouping of current and former women's colleges in the northeastern United States.

Wellesley contains 56 departmental and interdepartmental majors spanning the liberal arts, as well as over 150 student clubs and organizations. Wellesley athletes compete in the NCAA Division III New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Its 500-acre (200 ha) campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and houses the Davis Museum and a Botanic Garden. Wellesley's endowment of $3.226 billion is the largest out of all women's colleges and the 49th largest among all colleges and universities in the United States in 2019.

Notable alumnae and affiliates include two U.S. secretaries of state; the first female nominee for President of the United States from a major party; noted academics, journalists, writers, politicians, diplomats, activists, businesspeople, filmmakers, and entertainers; and recipients of Emmy, Tony, Academy, and Peabody Awards, the Nobel Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Its most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:

* Econometrics and Quantitative Economics (80)
* Computer and Information Sciences (42)
* Research and Experimental Psychology (39)
* Biology/Biological Sciences (36)
* Neuroscience (34)
* Political Science and Government (31)

## Vassar College

### Inhabitants

355 (Academic Staff)
2,441 (Students)

**Vassar College** (/ˈvæsər/ *VASS-ər*) is a coeducational private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1969.

The college offers BA degrees in more than fifty majors. Student groups at the college include theater and comedy organizations, a cappella groups, club sports teams, volunteer and service groups, and a circus troupe. Vassar College's varsity sports teams, known as the Brewers, play in the NCAA's Division III as members of the Liberty League. Currently, there are close to 2,500 students.

The college is one of the historic Seven Sisters, the first women's colleges in the U.S. The Vassar campus comprises over 1,000 acres (400 ha) and more than 100 buildings, including two National Historic Landmarks and an additional National Historic Place. A designated arboretum, the campus features more than 200 species of trees, a native plant preserve, and a 530-acre (210 ha) ecological preserve.
The most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:

* Biology/Biological Sciences (40)
* Economics (37)
* Political Science and Government (36)
* English Language and Literature (33)
* Biochemistry (25)
* Neuroscience (25)
* Computer and Information Sciences (23)

## Radcliffe College

### Location

Cambridge, Massachusetts

**Radcliffe College** was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and held the popular reputation of having an intellectual, literary, and independent-minded female student body.

Radcliffe conferred Radcliffe College diplomas on undergraduates and graduate students for approximately the first 70 years of its history. Beginning in 1963, it awarded joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas to undergraduates. In 1977 Radcliffe signed a formal "non-merger merger" agreement with Harvard and completed full integration with Harvard in 1999.

Within Harvard University, Radcliffe's former administrative campus, Radcliffe Yard, is home to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Former Radcliffe housing at the Radcliffe Quadrangle, which includes Pforzheimer House, Cabot House, and Currier House, has been incorporated into the Harvard College house system. Under the terms of the 1999 consolidation, the Radcliffe Yard and the Radcliffe Quadrangle retain the "Radcliffe" designation in perpetuity.