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The Seven Sisters was a name first applied in 1927 to seven American Women's Colleges . Two of the Seven Sisters, Mount Holyoke and Smith, are members of the Five College Consortium . Vassar and Radcliffe are no longer women's colleges. Formation and name As noted by Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, and Elizabeth DeBra, "the 'Seven Sisters' was the name given to Barnard, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Radcliffe, because of their parallel to the , seven sisters from Greek mythology. MEMBERS The members of the Seven Sisters are: HISTORY Background Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, and Elizabeth DeBra also state that "Independent nonprofit women’s colleges, which included the 'Seven Sisters' and other similar institutions, were founded to provide educational opportunities to women equal to those available to men and were geared toward women who wanted to study the liberal arts" {Link without Title} . They also offered broader opportunities in Academia to women, hiring many female Faculty members and Administrator s. The first member of the seven sisters, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (1837), became Mount Holyoke College in 1888. Barnard College became affiliated with Columbia University in 1900 , but it continues to be independently governed. Since the 1970s Mount Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Barnard are still women's colleges. Vassar College adopted coeducation in 1969. From 1963 , Radcliffe students received Harvard diplomas signed by the presidents of Radcliffe and Harvard, and joint commencement exercises began in 1970 . The same year, several Harvard and Radcliffe dormitories began swapping students experimentally, and in 1972 full Coresidence was instituted. The schools' departments of Athletics merged shortly thereafter. In 1977 , Harvard and Radcliffe signed an agreement which put Undergraduate women entirely in Harvard College. In 1999 Radcliffe College was dissolved, and Harvard University assumed full responsibility over the affairs of female undergraduates. Radcliffe is now the ''Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in Women's Studies at Harvard University.'' In 1983 , Columbia College began admitting women after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard for a merger along the lines of Harvard and Radcliffe. For the first time in 1978, women had served as the President s of all of the Seven Sisters colleges. THE SEVEN SISTERS IN POPULAR CULTURE In the 301st episode of the television show '' The Simpsons '' (" I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can "), the fictional character Lisa Simpson , who has been offered a scholarship to a Seven Sisters college of her choice, has a dream in which each of the colleges is humorously personified. {Link without Title} SEE ALSO REFERENCES
TRIVIA Up until the late 1960s , the Seven Sisters maintained extensive social ties with nearby Ivy League universities, including weekend visits, dances and parties inviting Ivy and Seven Sisters students to mingle. Women at Barnard College would date men at nearby Columbia University while women at Radcliffe College and Wellesley College would court the men at close by Harvard University. Although the women at the seven sisters colleges would usually date the men at nearby Ivy League schools there were some instances were the men of these schools would travel a fairly great distance to see women whose schools were far away from their schools. (The movie '' Animal House '' includes a satiric version of the formerly common visits by the men of Dartmouth College to Massachusetts to meet the women of Smith College and Mount Holyoke College, a drive of about 110 miles.) EXTERNAL LINKS |