Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

Mount Holyoke College

The Official Seal of Mount Holyoke College
Former names	Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
Motto	That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace — Psalms 144:12
Type	Private
Established	Seminary, 1837 (Seminary charter, 1836) Seminary and College, (Collegiate charter) 1888 College, 1893
Endowment	$667.6 million (2016)
President	Sonya Stephens
Provost	Jon Western
Dean	Marcella Runell Hall
Academic staff	234
Students	2,215 (Fall 2015)
Undergraduates	2,126 (Fall 2015)
Postgraduates	89 (Fall 2015)
Location	South Hadley, MA, USA 42°15′20″N 72°34′28″W / 42.255586°N 72.574503°W / 42.255586; -72.574503Coordinates: 42°15′20″N 72°34′28″W / 42.255586°N 72.574503°W / 42.255586; -72.574503
Campus	Rural, 2,000 acres (8.1 km²), academic campus: 1,000 acres (4.0 km2)
Colors	Light blue and white
Athletics	NCAA Division III NEWMAC, Liberty League (golf)
Nickname	Lyons
Affiliations	NAICU AICUM CIC Annapolis Group Oberlin Group CLAC Seven Sisters Five College Consortium
Website	mtholyoke.edu

Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and it served as a model for some of the others. Mount Holyoke is part of the region's Five College Consortium, along with Amherst College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The school was founded in 1837 by Mary Lyon as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Mount Holyoke received its collegiate charter in 1888 as Mount Holyoke Seminary and College and became Mount Holyoke College in 1893.

Mount Holyoke's buildings were designed between 1896 and 1960. It has a Donald Ross-designed 18-hole golf course, The Orchards, which served as host to the U.S. Women's Open in 2004.U.S. News & World Report lists Mount Holyoke as the 35th best liberal arts college in the United States in its 2016 rankings. In 2011–2012, Mount Holyoke was one of the nation's top producers of Fulbright Scholars, ranking fourth among bachelor's institutions according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Mount Holyoke's founder, Mary Lyon, is considered by many scholars to have been an innovator in the area of women's education. Her establishment of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was part of a larger movement to create institutions of higher education for young women during the first half of the 19th century. Lyon's contemporaries include Sarah Pierce (Litchfield Female Academy, 1792); Catharine Beecher (Hartford Female Seminary, 1823); Zilpah P. Grant Banister (Ipswich Female Seminary, 1828); and George Washington Doane (St. Mary's Hall, 1837 now called Doane Academy). Prior to founding Mount Holyoke, Lyon contributed to the development of both Hartford Female Seminary and Ipswich Female Seminary. She was also involved in the creation of Wheaton Female Seminary (now Wheaton College, Massachusetts) in 1834.Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was originally chartered as a teaching seminary in 1836 and opened its doors to students on 8 November 1837. Both Vassar College and Wellesley College were patterned after Mount Holyoke.