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Seven Sisters Colleges: What You Need to Know
What’s Covered:
- A Brief History of the Seven Sisters
- The Seven Sisters: The Colleges
- Why Should I Attend a Seven Sisters College?
- 3 Tips for Getting Into Seven Sisters Colleges
- For More Information
What are the Seven Sisters? These colleges have a long and illustrious history—and could be the perfect fit for you. Learn all about this group of prestigious, liberal arts colleges.
A Brief History of the Seven Sisters
“Seven Sisters” is a name given to a group of seven historically all-women’s colleges, including:
- Barnard College
- Bryn Mawr College
- Mount Holyoke College
- Radcliffe College
- Smith College
- Vassar College
- Wellesley College
These colleges were all founded in the 19th century to offer women educational opportunities equal to those provided to men at the time. They also offered women broader employment opportunities in heavily male-dominated academia.
Today, five of the seven colleges remain women’s colleges. Vassar became coeducational in 1969, and Radcliffe merged with Harvard College of Harvard University beginning in 1977, and the merge was completed in 1999.
The Seven Sisters designation was established in 1926 based on the colleges’ affiliations with their Ivy League male-college counterparts.
The Seven Sisters: The Colleges
Barnard College
Founded: 1889
Location: New York, NY
Admissions Rate: 9%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,230
Notable Alumnae: Martha Stewart, Zora Neale Hurston, Lauren Graham
Located in New York’s Morningside Heights, Barnard was originally founded as a response to Columbia University’s refusal to admit women. Nowadays, Barnard maintains a close partnership with Columbia. The schools are just across the street from each other, and Barnard students can take classes and participate in student groups at Columbia while still enjoying the benefits of a close-knit, liberal arts college.
Unique to Barnard is the Foundations curriculum that prides itself on its rigor as well as flexibility. Women at Barnard forge their own futures, and can be confident in receiving an education that encourages different modes of thinking and global awareness.
Learn more about Barnard College and what it takes to get accepted.
Bryn Mawr College
Founded: 1885
Location: Bryn Mawr, PA
Admissions Rate: 29%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,370
Notable alumnae: Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy Goodman, Margaret Ayer Barnes
Known for distinctive traditions such as Lantern Night and May Day, Bryn Mawr is located right outside of Philadelphia. As a member of the Tri-College Consortium, which includes Swarthmore College and Haverford College, Bryn Mawr offers its students the benefits of cross-registration and convenient transportation between the other two colleges. The college was also the first to offer PhDs to women.
Learn more about Bryn Mawr College and what it takes to get accepted.
Mount Holyoke College
Founded: 1837
Location: South Hadley, MA
Admissions Rate: 36%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,180
Notable alumnae: Emily Dickinson, Frances Perkins, Virginia Apgar
The oldest member of the Seven Sisters, Mount Holyoke is also part of the Five College Consortium in western Massachusetts with Amherst College, Hampshire College, Smith College, and UMass Amherst. The group shares resources and transportation services, and students may take classes at other colleges within the Consortium.
At Mount Holyoke College, students are encouraged to be open-minded thinkers—a value reflected in the academic curriculum. Mount Holyoke does not have a core, but has distribution and subject requirements. The requirements in foreign language, multicultural perspectives, and physical education prepare students to be fearless, global individuals.
Learn more about Mount Holyoke College and what it takes to get accepted.
Smith College
Founded: 1871
Location: Northampton, MA
Admissions Rate: 22%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,500
Notable alumnae: Julia Child, Sylvia Plath, Gloria Steinem
Comprising 41 “self-governing” houses and complexes, Smith is one of the largest women’s colleges in the United States. As members of the Five College Consortium, Smith students can take advantage of the opportunities offered at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and UMass Amherst, ranging from classes to career fairs to parties. Smith College is also home to the first all-women ABET-accredited engineering program.
Learn more about Smith College and what it takes to get accepted.
Vassar College
Founded: 1861
Location: Poughkeepsie, NY
Admissions Rate: 18%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,460
Notable alumnae: Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Bishop, Katharine Graham
Vassar is home to a sprawling 1,000-acre campus that is also a designated arboretum. The school is just 2 hours north of Manhattan, allowing students access to a major metropolitan area from their small college town. Notable for its art galleries and architecture, Vassar is particularly passionate about theater and dance, and is the alma mater of many well-known performers. Originally founded as an all-women’s institution, the college has been co-ed since 1969.
Learn more about Vassar College and what it takes to get accepted.
Wellesley College
Founded: 1870
Location: Wellesley, MA
Admissions Rate: 14%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,500
Notable alumnae: Madeleine Albright, Nora Ephron, Hillary Rodham Clinton
One of the most prestigious women’s colleges, Wellesley is known for its esteemed alumnae, such as Nora Ephron and Hillary Clinton. Located just 40 minutes from downtown Boston by train, Wellesley sits in close proximity to many other colleges, and students can cross-register with schools including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University, Babson College, and Olin College.
Learn more about Wellesley College and what it takes to get accepted.
Note: Originally, the Seven Sisters included Radcliffe College as well, but the college is no longer independent of Harvard.
Why Should I Attend a Seven Sisters College?
1. Liberal Arts Education
As liberal arts colleges, the Seven Sisters boast rich histories, strong alumni networks, close-knit communities, and above all, a dedication to quality undergraduate teaching. As a student at any of the Seven Sisters institutions, you can be sure that you’ll have small class sizes, attentive and dedicated professors who prioritize teaching, strong support resources, and an education that emphasizes intellectual inquiry and ability.
2. Strong Networks
Women’s colleges exist to empower women by offering an experience that will not only prepare you for the world with a world-class education, but will also ensure that you remain well supported by the relationships you foster and connections you make during your four years (as well as by the particularly strong alumni networks).
The Seven Sisters offer a myriad of opportunities with other institutions, and many of them have close relationships with neighboring colleges, such as Bryn Mawr in the Tri-College Consortium and Smith and Mount Holyoke in the Five College Consortium.
3. Inclusivity
The Seven Sisters pride themselves on the inclusive environment they offer towards underrepresented students, including LGBTQ+ students and people of color. Of the Seven Sisters members that are still women’s colleges, all admit transgender women, and any student who transitions while enrolled will have no problem graduating. Mount Holyoke also admits transgender men and nonbinary students.
3 Tips for Getting Into Seven Sisters Colleges
In addition to having a strong academic and extracurricular profile, these other nuances will help you in the admissions process when you’re applying to a Seven Sisters college.
Tip #1: Make sure you’re using the right language.
It’s a huge faux pas to misstate facts or frame information incorrectly on your college application. Pay attention to the language the Seven Sisters use in their admissions materials, on tours, and any place else you encounter.
For example, those that are female-only refer to themselves as all-women’s colleges as opposed to all-girls’ colleges. Pay attention to this and other nuances to prevent yourself from committing avoidable gaffes on your application.
Tip #2: Do your research.
Research is an important aspect of the college admissions process in general. You need to make sure the college is the right fit for you as well as demonstrate to the college that you’ll thrive in its environment.
Many of the Seven Sisters have strong ties to their surrounding communities and neighboring colleges. Research, in this case, is essential to understanding these relationships and the resources they provide.
Tip #3: Demonstrate your commitment in your essay.
Many of the Seven Sisters specifically ask you to explain why that particular college or specific aspects of the college appeal to you. For example, one of Wellesley’s old supplemental prompts stated:
When choosing a college community, you are choosing a place where you believe that you can live, learn, and flourish. Generations of inspiring women have thrived in the Wellesley community, and we want to know what aspects of this community inspire you to consider Wellesley. We know that there are more than 100 reasons to choose Wellesley, but the ”Wellesley 100” is a good place to start. Visit http://www.wellesley.edu/admission/100 and let us know, in two well-developed paragraphs, which two items most attract, inspire, or energize you and why. (p.s. ”Why” matters to us.) (2 paragraphs)
In your response to this and other Seven Sisters prompts, you need to make it clear that you’re committed to this college in particular. Performing your research is fundamental to crafting a solid response.
Additionally, perhaps more so than for other selective colleges, history and culture are qualities that are especially important to Seven Sisters colleges—schools that all boast strong communities and thrive on their original missions of delivering educational opportunities to those who didn’t have access to them previously. Make sure to incorporate elements of the colleges’ cultures, noting, for example, traditions that appeal to you.
For More Information
Is a Seven Sisters college for you? To learn more about these and other all-women’s colleges, check out our Guide to Single-Sex Colleges.
It’s important to remember to create a balanced college list. If possible, a student should apply to 8-10 schools, with about 25% being safety schools, 40% being target schools, and 35% being reach schools. These categories—safety, target, and reach—are determined by your chances of acceptance at the schools you are applying to.
Because personal chances of acceptance at any of the Seven Sisters colleges will differ from the average acceptance rate, we’ve made it easy to figure out which schools fall into which categories with our free chancing engine. By taking into account your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, we’ll estimate your odds of acceptance at different schools and give you tips on improving your profile.
