Haverford is the school to come to if you want to be really involved. Not every one is, and it certainly is a goo place to be really dedicated to academics, but in general it is a good place to get involved and be really dedicated to something. It is true that the school is rather small, although you have easily access to Bryn Mawr's classes, and Swathmore's and Penn's as well. The activities here are run by the students, so most people are really dedicated to something. In addition, though this may not be the most progressive school, we are trying and we have the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, E-house (the entirely green house) and our Dinning Center is attempting to use more local food. We still have a lot of work to do though.
Here we are privilege to be part of a very community oriented school, where we have such things as customs, which is group integration with your hall (instead of orientation) and works to build community and ensure that you are not lonely. We all have to go to Plenary which is the place where the student body as a whole makes decisions for the college, or to suggest to the faculty or staff. Our exams are all self-scheduled or take home, and we have an Academic and Social Honor Code that everyone agrees to follow, instead of a set of school rules.
The Main Line is the suburban area around Haverford, and it is nothing special, but there are two ways to get to center city Philadelphia and neither takes more than a half an hour (they are both public transport, one costs $3-5, the other $2.75). Also, the Haverford campus, and the Bryn Mawr and Swathmore campuses with which it is associated are beautiful.
I hang out in the INSC, which is the gorgeous new Integrated Natural Science Center. It is open 24 hours a day and has a great big room for quiet, but not silent studying and lots of nooks for studying in small groups or just hanging out.
Sometimes there are issues of diversity being silent, that there is not a voice for "diverse" groups or much action, and although the student body is mostly white, there are actually lots of outlets for "diverse" activities, but there sometimes is a lack of awareness or action, usually because people are so busy with other things.
The thing I dislike the most is that getting sleep, and generally taking care of yourself physically are put on the back burner, academic work, student activities, and social life come first.
Speaking of social life, we tend to have great concerts in Lunt basement, and the Lunt cafe is a great place to hang out in comfy chairs, get yummy food, drinks, or snacks, and play board games.
We also have a lot of great speakers that come from outside of the school or within the student or faculty body, but I can rarely go to them because they happen at the "no academics" time at around 4:30pm, which is when I have crew practice for much of the year.
Students really do have a voice here, and our student activities coordinator, Jason McGraw is amazing, he is fun, dedicated, and creative.
In general it is a very open and liberal campus, where there are many people who are to the left of center and GLBTQ or who have funky hair, or rather radical views of how life is to be lived or run, but there are all kinds of people here. The draw to people seems to be the reputation of school and academic interest, so all kinds of people come here, but although this is true of many people, the school still only has pockets of academic focus, where being immensely dedicated to being intensely academically knowledgeable and really celebrating academics (as this is probably the only time in four years that we will get to be so devoted to academic learning and to reading books) is the culture.
There is a rather interesting culture here romantically though. There is little light hearted romantic or sexual interaction (although it does happen), but in general it is an all or nothing kind of culture: random hookups do happen, but there is very little "dating," instead it tends to quickly morph into a dedicated relationship of some form (probably because you will see the other person almost every day), which is why the term "havermaried" is common. These relationships are not bad, though they may be a little exclusive for friends who want to also spend time with one of the participants.
I really enjoy being here, and living in a group where I am not anonymous and where I know or recognize most of the students. I have had personal interactions with the faculty or my classes and the president of the school, Steve Emerson. In general everyone is very friendly and it is a safe space; hanging out with a new group of people, partying with them, dancing with them, or having a conversation about life, school, relationships, whatever, is not uncommon.