Haverford College

Haverford offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 31 majors across humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.[19] All departments require a senior thesis, project or research for graduation,[20] and many departments also have junior-level seminar or year-long project such as in biology (superlab) and chemistry (superlab).[21][22] The college also maintains a distribution requirement, spreading course work in all three areas of humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, in addition to major course works.[19]

Haverford's consortium relationship with Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and the University of Pennsylvania (the Quaker Consortium) greatly expands its course offerings. Haverford and Bryn Mawr have a particularly close relationship (the Bi-College Consortium), with over 2,000 students cross-registering between the two schools.[23] The campuses are only 1 mile apart and a shuttle called the Blue Bus runs frequently back and forth.[24] Some departments, such as Religion and Music, are housed at Haverford, while others like Theatre and Growth and Structure of Cities are at Bryn Mawr. Students can major in these departments from both colleges. Furthermore, students of one of the Tri-Collegiate Consortium Schools (Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford) are allowed to pursue a major in a subject at a Tri-Collegiate institution apart from the one they are a student of.

U.S. News deemed Haverford's admissions "most selective," with the class of 2024 acceptance rate being 18.4%.[25] Applying for admission to the class of 2024 were 4,539 applicants; 835 were admitted. Of those admitted submitting such data, 94% were in the top 10% of their high school class. Of those admitted to the class of 2024, 46.1% identified as persons of color, and 11% of those admitted were international students.[25]

Haverford is ranked 9th among liberal arts colleges in the 2021 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings,[38] and tied for 15th among U.S. liberal arts colleges in the 2021 "Best Colleges" ranking by U.S News & World Report, and ranked 18th for "Best Value" and tied at 23rd for "Best Undergraduate Teaching" among liberal arts colleges.[39] Washington Monthly ranked Haverford 12th in 2020 among 218 liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.[40] The college was ranked 49th across 650 universities and colleges in the 2019 edition of Forbes' "Top Colleges", and 18th among liberal arts colleges alone.[41] Niche ranked the school the 7th best national liberal arts college for 2021.[42]

According to the National Science Foundation, Haverford is sixth among liberal arts college, and eighth among all colleges and universities in the United States, in the proportion of its graduates who went on to earn PhDs across all fields from 2008 to 2017.[43] When limited to doctorates in science and engineering disciplines, Haverford ranks sixth among liberal arts colleges and tenth among all colleges and universities.

Cherry trees surrounding Founders Hall after a snow storm.

The college operates more than 50 academic, athletic, and residential buildings, which are mostly stone and reflect Quaker and colonial design principles. The most recent additions are the Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Science Center and the Douglas B. Gardner '83 Integrated Athletic Center (colloquially referred to as the GIAC). Two dorms, by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, began housing freshman and upperclassman in the fall of 2012.

Haverford's Magill Library boasts more than a half million of its own volumes and has access to nearly two million more through its unusual Tripod computerized catalog system, which integrates its library with those of neighboring Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges. In addition to Magill's main resources, the college houses a number of special collections including the Quaker and Special Collections, the C.C. Morris 1904 Cricket Library, and numerous rare books and other treasures; the college also maintains three smaller music, science, and astronomy libraries on campus.

In the fall of 2017, the College unveiled renovations to Ryan Gym, which now serves as a new Visual Culture, Arts, and Media facility (VCAM), housing the Visual Studies Minor, the Haverford Innovations Program, a Maker Arts Space, and the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and its Philadelphia Area Creative Collaboratives Initiative.[44] The project, designed by MSR Architects, earned a 2018 Education Facility Design Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects.[45] A second phase to the college's recently completed Lives That Speak campaign involves a renovation of Magill Library, which began in Spring 2018 under the direction of Perry, Dean, Rogers Architects[46] and is set to reopen as Lutnick Library in Fall 2019. Beyond that, the college is in the early design stages of a new music building.

Comprising the entire campus, the Haverford College Arboretum is the oldest collegiate arboretum in the United States.[47] In 1834, a year after the college's founding, the English landscape gardener William Carvill was hired to design the plan for the campus. Carvill developed a design to replace the tilled fields, woodlots and pastures, using trees to frame and complement open spaces. He bordered the lanes with alleés of trees and planted groups of trees in odd numbers. Carvill also constructed grape arbors and a serpentine walk, reflecting the English landscape tradition of Sir Humphrey Repton. Carvill's mark is still evident today in the pastoral landscape which includes several original trees including a Swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor, and Bur oak, Quercus macrocarpa, on Founders Green.

In 1901, a group of students and alumni formed the Campus Club to help preserve the campus landscape after discovering Carvill's original plan. Their work eventually led to the founding of the Haverford College Campus Arboretum Association (now the Haverford College Arboretum Association) in 1974, which continues to perpetuate Carvill's original design. To date, the arboretum's 216 acres (0.87 km²) contain a nature trail, a pinetum with 300 different conifers, a duck pond, historic trees of diverse species, sculpture, as well as flower and Asian gardens.[48]

A montage of the Haverford duck pond through three months: October 1, 2007; November 21, 2007; December 6, 2007.

Roughly 99% of the student body resides on campus, where housing options include apartments, themed houses and traditional dormitories. The minute fraction who choose to seek other accommodations do so nearby in neighboring townships. Approximately 60% of faculty also reside on campus.[49]

Themed housing options include La Casa Hispanica, which "supports the endeavors of students actively engaged in organizing programs concerned with the cultures and civilizations of the Spanish-speaking world", the Ira de A. Reid House, which seeks students active in the Black Students' League or members of the African Diaspora interested in the culture and politics of Africans, Cadbury house, which provides a substance-free and quiet living environment, and Yarnall, which has no permanent theme. Various housing and room arrangements exist, including suites of singles, doubles, and triples.

Student publications include The Bi-College News, a newspaper in collaboration with students at Bryn Mawr College that serves both campuses; The Clerk,[50] an independent, online newspaper; Feathers & Fur, a fashion magazine also in collaboration with students at Bryn Mawr College; Milkweed, a student literary magazine; Without a (Noun), the Haverford satire/humor magazine; Body Text, an academic journal; Margin, a student-edited creative magazine; and The Record, the student yearbook.