Mount Holyoke College

Date: Apr 12 2006
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
My experience at Mount Holyoke was terrible. Most of the social life is dominated by the lesbian culture on campus, and you are made to feel unwelcome and unwanted if your straight and actually wanted to socialize with men. Most of the off campus socializing involves attending frat parties in amherst where all of the guys think you are desperate and ready to jump in the sack with them if you go to MHC. Its absolutely pathetic. I'm not really a party person, but I expected a lot more than this from my college experience.

Most students also tend to form small groups of friends during their first year, and if you don't get into one of these groups your generally ostracized, and the girls can be very catty and nasty if they feel you don't fit in. Thier definetly is a certain type of student that goes to MHC, and real diversity (not just by skin color) is almost non-existant, because these students really dominate the culture on campus. If you don't hold the same views or fit the profile of the typical student here (either lesbian, ultra feminist, or sheltered background), you will be snubbed by the majority of students and left depressed and miserable.

While the faculty and staff are mostly wonderful and supportive people (one of the only positive experiences I had here), the administration is another story. In my experience the administration holds a very discriminatory attitude towards students with disabilities, different learning styles, or those who don't think or act the way they expect you to (basically anyone other than the typical MHC student they cater to, lesbians or those from sheltered backgrounds). They seem to have a certain formula for the kind of experience they expect you to have at this school including the kind of activities (academic, social, athletic etc.) they expect you to be involved in otherwise you are not "worthy" student in their eyes.

Any deviation from the norm leads to some form of sanctions (mostly in the form of bogus honor code charges, or intimidation to leave the school, or outright expulsion) from them, and I have both heard and experienced many instances where students who didn't meet the norm were forced to leave the school. These are students like myself who may have medical issues one semester, and after details of my health problems were discovered by the college are discrminated against forced to leave. The administration is particularly hostile towards students with disabilities, which I've also experienced as a student with a learning disability. Even though I made more than satisfactory progress academically, because of my LD and health issues during my senior year, I was forced to leave the school, and the administration made it so it was impossible to finish my degree other than by taking classes elsewhere (after fighting with them for 2 years to transfer remaining credit back from another school where I finished my classes, I finished my degree, so I am officially an alum, which I'm sure they are less than happy about).

I truely regret not transferring after my first year, and wish I had never heard of this school. I know there are some who were happy and had a great experience here, however if you are a strong independent straight woman, working your way through school, or have a disability, or just plain want to have a life while in college and go to school in a TRUELY diverse environment (diversity is not just about skin color, but diversity in life experiences, family background, class, thought, and opinions etc.), this is not the place for you. If you are a first year and unhappy here, don't fall into the trap I did in thinking things will get better, or stay because you plan to go abroad and figure you'll at least have a year away. I never got any funding to go abroad, and things only get worse socially as you approach your senior year. Get out now and save yourself from wasting any more years of your life!