What Are the Seven Sisters Colleges and What Sets Them Apart?

What are The Seven Sisters? And what sets them apart? These seven schools are historically and currently significant, initially acting as the Ivy League's counterpart for women education at a time when education for women wasn't as widespread as it was for men.

In this blog, we'll talk about everything you need to know about the Seven Sisters: a full list, what makes each one of them unique, their acceptance rates, and ranking.

What Are The Seven Sisters Colleges?

When the Ivy League schools were founded initially, they only admitted male students (with the exception of Cornell). Instead, the Ivies offered sister institutions where women could study. These schools were meant to educate the “sisters of men" in the Ivies.

These colleges are now known as the Seven Sisters: Wellesley, Vassar, Smith, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, and Radcliffe.

Each year, one of the colleges hosts the Seven Sisters Conference, where they discuss self-governance, inclusiveness, and other aspects of their campuses.

The 7 Sisters Colleges Ranked

1. Wellesley College

Location: Wellesley, Massachusetts

Ranking: 7

Acceptance Rate: 13.74%

Wellesley College is the highest-ranking college out of the 7 Sisters, taking the 7th spot on US News’ ranking list.

Founded in 1870, the school remains a women’s college today, offering more than 60 majors to 2,280+ undergraduates. Some of the standout majors offered at Wellesley College are computer science and economics.

The Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW), located on the campus, is one of the biggest gender-focused research centers in the US.

2. Vassar College

Location: Poughkeepsie, New York

Ranking: 12

Acceptance Rate: 17.73%

While it was founded as a women's college in 1861, Vassar College is the only school out of the Seven Sisters that became co-ed in 1969. It was the first women’s college to open its doors to male students!

Vassar College offers over 50 excellent liberal arts programs in fields such as political science and economics, and is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. About half of all Vassar’s graduates pursue advanced study after graduation!

3. Smith College

Location: Northampton, Massachusetts

Ranking: 14

Acceptance Rate: 21.00%

Smith College is also known as one of the Five College Consortium, along with colleges such as Amherst and Hampshire.

Established in 1871, it’s still a women’s college today. Smith College has over 50 academic departments, including excellent majors in Psychology, Biology and Engineering.

The school is less competitive than some of the other Sister Colleges, but it’s just as high-ranking, being the third-highest ranking of the Seven Sisters, and the 14th best national liberal arts college.

4. Barnard College

Location: Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York

Ranking: 14

Acceptance Rate: 8.84%

Barnard is the most competitive out of the Seven Sisters, with an acceptance rate of just over 8%.

Barnard was initially the sister school to the Ivy League’s Columbia, when a student activist petitioned the Ivy League school to create an affiliated college.

While Barnard is a college of Columbia, it maintains its own admission, financials, and curricula. With that said, Barnard’s students share classes, libraries, sororities, and more with Columbia’s students.

Some of Barnard’s famous majors are Econometrics and Quantitative Economics, Research and Experimental Psychology, and History.

5. Bryn Mawr College

Location: Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Ranking: 29

Acceptance Rate: 31%

Bryn Mawr is the only school of the Seven Sisters that’s in Pennsylvania, with the others being in Massachusetts or New York.

Bryn Mawr offers 37 majors, and in 2021, the school’s most famous majors were English, Biology, and Psychology. While its undergraduate programs are women-only, their graduate programs are co-ed.

Bryn Mawr was the first women’s college to offer PhDs programs.

6. Mount Holyoke College

Location: South Hadley, Massachusetts

Ranking: 34

Acceptance Rate: 36%

Mount Holyoke College is the least competitive of the Seven Sisters, with an acceptance rate of 36%, making it more accessible.

Established in 1837, Mount Holyoke was the first of the Seven Sisters colleges to be founded. Today, the school offers over 50 majors and is known for its interdisciplinary programs, such as Environmental Studies and International Relations.

7. Radcliffe College

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ranking: -

Acceptance Rate: -

Radcliffe College is the only school out of the Seven Sisters that no longer stands on its own own – it’s now part of Harvard University following its merger in 1999. The school became the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, focusing on research and scholarship rather than undergraduate education.

Though it no longer operates as an independent women’s college, Radcliffe’s legacy endures. Its historical contributions to women's education paved the way for greater gender inclusivity at Harvard.

Today, the Radcliffe Institute remains a hub for interdisciplinary research and innovation, still representing the values it stood for as a women’s college.

What Sets Them Apart?

The Seven Sisters share a few qualities in common:

• They’re all women’s colleges: even if they’re not all women’s colleges today, the defining factor of all Seven Sister colleges is that they were founded as women’s colleges, and as the answer to the Ivy League’s men-only colleges.
• They all provide excellent liberal arts education: The Seven Sisters colleges are some of the highest-ranking colleges in liberal arts. Wellesley, Vassar, Barnard, and Smith rank among the top 15 best national colleges in liberal arts, while the others rank among the top 35 national colleges. 
• They’re all in the Northeastern United States: Since they were sister schools to the Ivy League, the Seven Sisters are in the northeast as well. Four of the Seven Sisters are in New York, two in Massachusetts, and one in Pennsylvania. 

Final Thoughts

The Seven Sisters are enduring symbols of inclusivity and female empowerment. Whether co-ed like Vassar or still women-focused like Smith, the Seven Sisters are still a testament to the power of inclusive education.

Choosing one of these colleges means becoming part of a legacy that values community and a commitment to shaping the future. 

If you’re interested in applying for a top school like the Ivy League or the Seven Sisters, your application has to be excellent. The best way to make sure you submit the perfect application is by working with expert strategists – students working with Crimson are 7 times more likely to gain admission to their dream university.