Bryn Mawr College

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Tours

1. Uniquely Bryn Mawr!

   Experience many of Bryn Mawr's rich and special traditions!

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   1. Lantern Night Tradition

      In the fall semester, first-year students gather on Merion Green where the sophomores presented them with lanterns in their class color or the McBride color of purple.

      The sentiment behind Lantern Night is that the light of knowledge is being passed from one class to the other. It is a welcoming of the first-year students into the community of Bryn Mawr. Students keep their lanterns long after they graduate. 

      The class colors are dark blue, green, light blue, and red. McBrides are always purple, except that some may elect to mix the panes of their lantern with their corresponding graduating class color. Dark blue, light blue, red, and green were chosen as representatives of the four elements: water, air, fire and earth. The McBride purple lantern color was chosen to represent the human spirit.

   2. Athena

      The patron goddess of the College is Athena. Her statue is located in Great Hall. Students make offerings to Athena for her gifts of wisdom and strength when taking finals, writing papers, just asking for a little personal help, and innumerable other reasons.

   3. McBride Labyrinth

      The Bryn Mawr Labyrinth is a classical seven-circle labyrinth between Canaday and Rhoads, overlooking the athletic fields and Vickers Pond. Given as a gift from the McBride Scholars and designed by Jeanne-Rachel Salomon '00, it was installed in fall 1998.

   4. The Moon Bench

      The moon bench sits at the end of senior row. Superstition says if you kiss someone while sitting on the moon bench, the relationship is doomed.  Want the relationship to flourish?  Kiss under Rockefeller Arch to make it last forever.

   5. Senior Row

      Through the middle of Bryn Mawr's campus is a double row of trees known as Senior Row. It is the site of the May Day hoop race. The rumor is, if you walk all the way down Senior Row in between the rows of trees before you're a senior, you won't graduate.

   6. Self-Government Association and Honor Code

      The two primary institutions of student self-government at Bryn Mawr are the Self-Government Association (SGA), to which every student belongs, and the Honor Code, a set of principles stressing personal integrity and mutual respect to which all students agree to adhere. The Honor Code has both social and academic components. Socially, Bryn Mawr students are asked to respect the rights of those around them and to work together to find solutions to problems. Academically, students are given full responsibility for the integrity of their academic work, including original research and self-scheduled exams. The SGA and the Honor Code give students a valuable opportunity at Bryn Mawr.

      When students united to form the Bryn Mawr College Self-Government Association in 1892, the College became the first institution of higher education in the United States to give students responsibility not only for enforcing rules of behavior upon themselves, but also for deciding what those rules should be. It was considered a radical experiment at the time, and is still uncommon. But most Bryn Mawr students and alumnae/i cite self-government as one of the most valuable parts of a Bryn Mawr education.      

      The College’s tradition of respect for students’ autonomy and responsibility has created a unique campus environment where students participate in discussion and resolution of the most important issues facing the College — from the alcohol policy to faculty appointments to the College’s curriculum.   

   7. Welcome the First Years

      During Welcome the First-Years (WTF) Week, upperclass and first-year students come together in celebration. The cold Pennsylvania winter is cast aside for student performances, group activities, and a deepening of relationships between peers.

   8. May Day

      On May Day, students, alumnae/i, faculty, and staff gather across campus to celebrate the end of the academic year and to congratulate the seniors before they leave campus. The day is filled with dancing, concerts, food, and festivities that evoke both the past and the future. 

   9. Senior Bell Ringing

      After all senior year work is complete, each student has the opportunity to go to the Taylor Hall bell tower and ring the bell as many times as their class year.

   10. Senior Steps

       On the west side of Taylor Hall, the stone steps leading to the entrance beneath the bell tower are referred to as the "senior steps".  This is where the seniors sit during "step sing".  Tradition has it that bad luck will come to those underclassmen who ascend the steps before their senior year.
       

   11. Parade Night

       Parade Night celebrates a successful first week of classes. First-year students are showered in confetti and love by their peers through a night of delightful activities and surprises.

   12. Pembroke Arch

       One of the most recognizable images on Bryn Mawr's campus, the Pembroke Arch was the first college archway in America. Friendship Poles are located at the exit of the arch.  Bryn Mawr tradition holds that friends who pass through the poles together will remain forever close. 
       

   13. Emily Balch Seminar

       Emily Balch Seminars plunge new Bryn Mawr students into the heart of a liberal arts education. They introduce all first-year students at Bryn Mawr to a critical, probing, thoughtful approach to the world and our roles in it.  These challenging seminars are taught by scholar/teachers of distinction within their fields and across academic disciplines. They facilitate the seminars as active discussions among students, not lectures. Through intensive reading and writing, the thought-provoking Balch Seminars challenge students to think about complex, wide-ranging issues from a variety of perspectives.                         
       
        Emily Balch, Bryn Mawr Class of 1889, was a gifted scholar with a uniquely global perspective who advanced women’s rights on an international level. In 1946, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, which is one of the treasures in the Bryn Mawr College Collections.            
       
       As a distinguished scholar of economics and sociology, she conducted pioneering cross-cultural studies of immigration and poverty. As an advocate of women’s rights, she was a founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, which supported pacifism during World War I. As a committed activist, she devoted her life to championing humanitarian causes around the world at the League of Nations and other international organizations.

   14. Garden Party

        Garden Party happens on the Saturday of graduation weekend every year. Each senior chooses a non-senior to be their "garden party girl." The garden party girls then chooses a spot on the lawn in front of Wyndham and Erdman and decorates a picnic the senior's family.

   15. Rock Arch and the Owl in Rock Arch

       Superstition says that if you kiss under the Rockefeller Archway, it will solidify your relationship.  Conversely, if you kiss while seated on the Moon Bench, your relationship will not last.
       
       In the center of Rockefeller Arch, there is a stone owl who is said to be the protector of the college. 

   16. Customs Week

       Customs New Student Orientation Week helps get students situated when they first arrive on campus. Orientation leaders, also known as "customs people," live on the same hall as the first-year students and support them throughout the whole school year.