Results: America’s Most Child-Friendly Universities

A few months ago, one of my readers asked me about child-friendly universities: ie. as a mother, if you chose to go back to school, which institutions would support your academic as well as your personal goals? Although it’s not exactly what Momaboard does, it was definitely a worthwhile question to pursue, so I did.

In order to find the answer, I launched a quick survey to gauge exactly how “child-friendly” the largest universities in America are. The survey consisted of 11 questions ranging from the availability of childcare facilities on campus to tuition subsidies to local crime rates. The method is far from being statistically airtight (sorry: Randy Frost!), but is meant to provide a starting point for parents who are interested in learning about the current state of affairs and can then probe further.

The original survey can be found here, if you are interested. The respondents to the survey are a combination of students and administrators (some obliged, some didn’t) and in order to remove bias, I have indicated which is which.

The results were not horrendous: Of the 17 universities represented, most offered part-time programs (MIT,Harvard, University of Chicago, Stanford, Emory included), and all but one have students with families (NYU Law). 7 have specific information on their websites about students with families, or family resource centers, UC Berkeley, Northwestern and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign among them. Unfortunately tuition subsidies are a rarity, but counseling and childcare facilities are often available. Crime rates are mostly low in university towns and almost all universities had access to child-necessity facilities like parks, hospitals and open spaces. Finally, at a whopping 14 (82%) of these universities, the respondents believed it was possible to succeed while having a family. That’s good news!

So there you have it – no more excuses. But don’t take my word for it, see the results for yourself!