Founded in 1833, Haverford College is a leafy arboretum and campus of 1,200 students just eight miles and 15 minutes by train from Philadelphia. Drawing from its Quaker roots, Haverford life centers around an Honor Code that is entirely student-run and re-ratified by quorum on an annual basis. The Honor Code is not a set of rules, but rather, a set of ideals and expectations regarding conduct in the community. Because of a deep sense of trust, students are able to take tests without proctors and schedule their own final exams. There are no resident assistants supervising the dorms, and there’s no admission enrollment deposit. The campus atmosphere is one of collaboration and congeniality rather than competition.

Every Haverford student will graduate having fulfilled distribution requirements across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. For those who would like to venture beyond campus to take courses, Haverford is a member of the Tri-College Consortium, along with Swarthmore College and Bryn Mawr College. It’s also a member of the Quaker Consortium which allows students to cross-register at the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania. All students at Haverford perform self-designed research under the guidance of faculty members. During the senior year, students put the finishing touches on their research in the form of a Senior Thesis. A few Senior Theses from the Class of 2014 involved the study of anti-microbial resistance, the impact of self-driving cars on highway congestion, and the effects of race and gender on the small business credit market.

Haverford offers its student body a unique mix of primarily co-ed residence hall options ranging from four-person apartments to suites to single rooms. Ninety-eight percent of students choose to live on campus, and most select single rooms. Interestingly, sixty-one percent of faculty members live on campus, too. Two of Haverford’s recently constructed dormitories, Kim and Tritton Halls, were featured in the June 2015 issue of Dwell magazine for their unique single-room design. Neither multi-story building has interior stairwells and elevators — requiring students to venture outside to visit friends from other floors. The resulting benefit, though, is a maximum number of single rooms and an interior courtyard in each building.