What should you do if you want to attend a small college, but you also want a broad range of courses or access to very specific facilities that are available only at a larger institution?
One option is to look for colleges that share courses and resources. For example, students at Bryn Mawr and Haverford can easily enroll at the other institution, and the schools even run frequent bus service from one campus to the other. That’s especially handy if you want to study things like The Growth and Structure of Cities, which is a major offered only at Bryn Mawr. Students at both colleges are also able to take classes at Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania, although logistics can be a little tricky because those schools are further apart.
Similarly, the Five College Consortium allows students to enroll in courses and use the resources of UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Hampshire, while on the West Coast, enrolling at any of the Claremont Colleges grants you access to Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pitzer, Pomona, and Harvey Mudd, as well as resources from several graduate schools!
If you enroll in a college that’s part of a consortium, it’s best to choose the one where you’ll be spending the most time, because travel off-campus can be time consuming.