What Are the Tri-College and Quaker Consortiums?
What’s Covered:
- What Is the Tri-College Consortium?
- What Is the Quaker Consortium?
- What Are the Benefits of the Tri-College and Quaker Consortiums?
- For More Information
High school seniors often struggle to determine which college will best meet their needs. After all, every school comes with a list of positives and negatives. While one college boasts optimal academics and campus life, another might have the student clubs and extracurriculars you’re seeking. That’s where college consortiums come in.
Networks of colleges and universities, college consortiums enable students to attend one school while taking advantage of the academic offerings and resources of another. Additionally, these groups can help students from diverse backgrounds find friends and allies, since they’ll enjoy access to a much wider community of peers. Keep reading to learn about two well-known college consortiums—the Tri-College Consortium and the Quaker Consortium.
What Is the Tri-College Consortium?
Located near Philadelphia, the Tri-College Consortium is a group of three private liberal arts schools that allow students of any one institution to take courses and participate in activities at the other two. While Bryn Mawr is a women’s college, Swarthmore College and Haverford College are co-ed. Here’s what each of these institutions has to offer:
Swarthmore College
Location: Swarthmore, PA
CollegeVine Ranking: No. 29
Acceptance Rate: 7%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,700
Founded by the Religious Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, Swarthmore has been educating students since 1864. Boasting more than 40 programs of study, this prestigious institution also invites students to design their own majors. Additionally, the school offers over 100 organizations in which students can take part.
Bryn Mawr College
Location: Bryn Mawr, PA
CollegeVine Ranking: No. 69
Acceptance Rate: 29%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,370
Located just outside Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr holds the distinction of being the first women’s college to offer PhD programs. Currently, students can choose from more than 35 majors and 54 minors, and can partake in more than 150 clubs and organizations. Additionally, the school’s Praxis Program enables students to earn college credit for work and research completed in the community.
Haverford College
Location: Haverford, PA
CollegeVine Ranking: No. 34
Acceptance Rate: 13%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,430
One of the benefits of attending Haverford is that every student takes courses in three major academic divisions—Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. The end result is that students have access to a broader range of intellectual concepts and paradigms. Along with exceptional academics and a 9:1 student-faculty ratio, Haverford boasts a financial aid policy dedicated to meeting 100% of accepted students’ demonstrated financial need.
The Bi-College Consortium
It’s worth noting that the relationship between Haverford College and Bryn Mawr is especially strong. This association—known as the Bi-College Consortium (or Bi-Co)—involves, among other features, the schools sharing both a radio station and a newspaper. Additionally, students from Haverford can pursue majors not available at their home institution. For example, Bryn Mawr students can enroll in the Music and Fine Arts program at Haverford.
What Is the Quaker Consortium?
Students at Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore don’t just benefit from the Tri-College Consortium. They also have access to a fourth school—the University of Pennsylvania—courtesy of the Quaker Consortium. As a result, Tri-Co students can take Ivy League classes, and UPenn students have the chance to enjoy a more intimate, small-college experience.
Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania participates in a 4+1 engineering program with Bryn Mawr and Haverford. In other words, Haverford students can receive a BS from their home school and a Master’s in Engineering from UPenn, all in five years.
University of Pennsylvania | UPenn
Location: Philadelphia, PA
CollegeVine Ranking: No. 8
Acceptance Rate: 5%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 10,500
A top-tier research institution in Philadelphia, UPenn is a highly selective university that comprises four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools. The school has boasted an all-grant financial aid program since 2008. As a result, students accepted to UPenn will not be offered merit-based scholarships or student loans as part of their financial aid package.
What Are the Benefits of the Tri-College and Quaker Consortiums?
One of the best reasons for attending a Tri-College or Quaker Consortium school is that you’ll have access to courses not offered at your home institution. Some of the academic programs are even designed to feature courses from all three liberal arts schools, with Tri-Co majors including Linguistics, Environmental Studies, and Arabic.
Additionally, Bryn Mawr students can take up to two undergraduate courses per semester at UPenn and a total of four classes in the university’s pre-professional programs due to a special relationship between the two institutions.
For students’ convenience, shuttle buses provide transportation to the various Tri-Co campuses, as well as to shops, cafes, and community service sites. Currently, students traveling from one of the Tri-Co schools to UPenn and back have to take the train or drive themselves.
Additionally, Tri-College and Quaker Consortium students have access to a wider range of clubs, extracurriculars, and activities. For example, Swarthmore students can take part in Haverford’s Women in Stem organization, while Bryn Mawr students enjoy access to Swarthmore’s Animal Allies club.
For More Information
If you found this post helpful, take a look at our other posts:
What Does it Really Cost to Attend UPenn?
Should You Attend a Women’s College?
What is a Liberal Arts College, and How Are They Different?
While each of these colleges has a different average acceptance rate, they are all selective. It’s great to be interested in selective schools, but it is also 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 your personal chances of acceptance at these schools may 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.
