Do we need women’s colleges?

Yes we do need women’s colleges according to an editorial in the Boston Globe by Joanne Creighton the president of Mount Holyoke College.

You would expect that the president of a women’s college would be in support of their continued existence but the arguments in favor of women’s colleges is quite strong. As pointed out by President Creighton, the number of successful women that have attended an all women’s college is very high. Modern women’s colleges are not the finishing schools that many believe them to be. Their placement rate into top graduate programs is very high and their graduates are able to compete in the “real” world just as ably as those women who attended coed colleges.

Several of the all women’s colleges are also very strong in educating women who come from a lower economic status. Smith College and Mount Holyoke College have some of the highest percentages of students who qualify for Pell Grants of any four year college in the country. And given the education that the women who attend these colleges receive make that statistic all the more impressive.

If you are a women looking for a very high quality education you might want to consider an all women’s college. Admission to even the best of the all women’s colleges is relatively easier than comparable coed colleges because they have fewer students that apply. And if you investigate the all women’s colleges what you will discovery is that many of them are associated with coed colleges so there will be men on campus and in the classroom. For the right women, these colleges represent an excellent educational opportunity.