Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College is a private institution that was founded in 1885. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,409 (fall 2022), and the campus size is 135 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Bryn Mawr College's ranking in the 2024 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, #30. Its tuition and fees are $62,560.

Bryn Mawr College is an institution for female students in the suburban outskirts of Philadelphia. Though it is a women’s school, Bryn Mawr students have many options to balance a single-sex education with coed opportunities at neighboring schools. At Haverford College, which is a mile away, Bryn Mawr women can take courses, join organizations and live in residence halls. Bryn Mawr students can also take courses and attend social events at nearby Swarthmore College, and can enroll in classes at the University of Pennsylvania. A shuttle van transports students among Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore; the University of Pennsylvania is a half-hour drive from campus. For students traveling at night, they can be picked up at any campus location or nearby train station by the school’s Lantern Van, which runs until 1 a.m. On campus, there are more than 100 student clubs and organizations, some of which are housed in the renovated Victorian homes on Cambrian Row. All students are expected to live on campus throughout the academic year but can request approval to move off campus. The Bryn Mawr Owls athletic teams are members of the NCAA Division III Centennial Conference. For fun off campus, downtown Philadelphia is 11 miles—or a 20-minute train ride—away. Home to more than 250,000 college students, Philadelphia has something for everyone: history, nightlife, shopping, sports and more.

The small school hosts unique and engaging educational events throughout the year. The Creative Writing Program Reading Series, for example, is an opportunity for students to hear notable authors read excerpts of their famous works. First-year students attend Balch Seminars—intense writing, reading and discussion sessions meant to make Bryn Mawr women more critical thinkers and instill a bond among the freshmen class. Students can put the critical thinking skills they learned in class to work through the school’s Praxis Program, which allows students to earn credit for community-based work and research. Notable alumnae of Bryn Mawr College include actress Katharine Hepburn and geneticist Nettie Stevens, who discovered the meaning of the X and Y chromosome.