By Chris Teare

Living as I do, with a wife, three daughters and a female cat, I periodically have to wonder - as does New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in her incisive and witty new book: "Are Men Necessary?" Based on 30 years of research on the college process, my answer - at least when it comes to higher education - is: "Probably not."

Among the options that young women have to consider, to give themselves the fullest range of possibilities, are the 52 institutions that remain, proudly, women's colleges.

Now I know this may seem a little old school, but I am convinced that there is a place for institutions that are almost entirely of, by, and for women. (There are in fact some male professors and administrators at such places.) A generation ago, there was profound concern that girls were falling behind boys in school. A whole host of efforts, from studies by the American Association of University Women to the federal government's Title IX provisions, created conditions that today have young women outperforming young men in academic metrics such as high school graduation rates, college matriculations, and undergraduate degree attainments.

In short, focusing on women worked.

While we wait for similar efforts to help boys, led by strong psychologist-writers like my friend Michael Thompson with his book and documentary "Raising Cain," it's also time for college-bound women to learn more about the colleges that pride themselves on bringing out the very best in women.

The usual reaction when I first broach this possibility to a high school girl is something along the lines of: "Are you kidding?" or "No way" or "Not me" or - usually unstated - "Do you think I'm gay or something?"

And yet, again and again, I have seen initially adamantly opposed young women somehow begrudgingly find their way to a women's college campus for a visit, then walk away somewhere between impressed and stunned. Often they simply can't believe they've been to a place where they can concentrate on who they are, in the company of older and wiser women who know the questions they have before they've asked, and do so away from men, who distort - unwittingly - so much of the female search for self.

If some aspect of the college years is meant to be figuring out who you actually are, isn't it at least worth considering the possibility of removing, at least temporarily, a key impediment to self-knowledge?(Listen: I'm a guy, and I know I am not always a help.)

Here are firsthand observations about a few of these special places: New York 2,287 undergraduate women

Barnard College

When I attended Columbia Univesity's Graduate School of Journalism more than 20 years ago, most nights I walked home past the Barnard College campus. Located on the west side of Broadway just north of 116th Street in Morningside Heights, Barnard has survived - as Radcliffe has not at Harvard - as its own institution. As Columbia has climbed from the lower tier in the Ivy League to the lofty realm of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, Barnard has powered along as well, right across the street and fully coordinate, providing a personal home for women within a sometimes impersonal university hosting powerhouse graduate programs. For a young woman who wants a great education in a major city, Barnard is a superb option. South Hadley, Mass. 2,150 undergraduate women

Mount Holyoke College

The "big sister" of the women's colleges because it was founded before all the rest in 1837, Mount Holyoke will tell you, according to The Fiske Guide to Colleges, "that the nation's first all-female college is not a girls' school without men but is a women's college without boys." A member of the Five-College Consortium that includes Amherst, Hampshire, Smith and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Mount Holyoke is extraordinarily beautiful, set on a lovely campus in a classic New England village. With full access to courses at the other four colleges and free bus service between them as well, Mount Holyoke is a remarkable example of "best of both worlds" thinking. It's a "Please, go see it." Claremont, Calif. 800 undergraduate women

Scripps College

One of the five Claremont Colleges just east of Los Angeles, Scripps made me want smog to disappear so my daughters could enroll tomorrow. To be fair, the day I visited I saw nothing but blue skies, as well as challenged, happy women surrounded by plenty of guys. The Claremont Colleges exist because a philanthropist wanted to re-create in Southern California what he had seen at Oxford and Cambridge in England: a university that was really a collection of diverse, unique institutions. He got it right, because Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer and Pomona are remarkably different from one other and from Scripps. An amazing collection of schools that share facilities and teams. Northampton, Mass. 2,682 undergraduate women

Smith College

When I first saw it nearby 30 years ago, Northampton looked like a dump to me. Today it is remarkable, with a street life that combines live theater, first-run movies, classic films, restaurants, bars and art galleries. Someone who likes to walk in Manhattan would enjoy an evening in this small city. And the key element, as far as I can tell, is Smith College. Sophisticated, political and uncompromising, Smith has a physical presence and a social consciousness that make Northampton a destination for women. Characteristic of its ethos is Smith's having created the first engineering program at a women's college. These women are not kidding when their T-shirts read "A Century of Women On Top." Wellesley, Mass. 2,289 undergraduate women

Wellesley College

On an almost unbelievably beautiful campus close to Boston, which highbrow academics used to call "the Athens of America," Wellesley will certainly hope to retire the trophy as "first among equals" among women's colleges if New York's junior senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the presidency in 2008. Not entirely pleased with having been the setting for the retro chick flick "Mona Lisa Smile," Wellesley certainly deserves its own, current view. A visit will quickly create in any observer's mind a vision of smart women in quality facilities taught by professors at the top of their professions. This is quite a college.

- - -

Regarding other specific women's colleges, I am looking forward to seeing two more on a trip this spring because they are in the Atlanta area, which much closer to us here in the Virgin Islands. Decatur, Ga. 973 undergraduate women

Agnes Scott College

Agnes Scott College has completed a capital campaign that has led to new facilities including a campus center, a science center and a library expansion. Situated on 100 acres in historic Decatur, the campus offers suburban safety and pace with the resources and excitement of a major city right next door. The liberal arts balance of quality in mathematics, science, and literature sounds first-rate. Atlanta 2,065 undergraduate women

Spelman College

Spelman College is the other place I can't wait to see because it not only is single-sex, it also is one of the nation's foremost Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This HBCU was founded in 1881 and has been - along with its all-men neighbor, Morehouse College - regarded as an elite choice for young people of African heritage. Not so long ago, Spelman received a $20 million gift from comedian and social commentator Bill Cosby, and the school continues to thrive with its especially strong programs in the natural sciences and the humanities. This college intends for its graduates to be leaders.

- - -

Now let's deal with a common, though often unstated, concern: Women's colleges are not about being gay. Sure, some colleges are more political about sexuality and more "out" than others, but the reality at progressive, liberal colleges these days is that we've moved beyond discussions of coed dorms and coed bathrooms into questions of transgendered living: in other words, what do we do with the boys who think they might actually be girls, and vice versa? I'm not kidding.

Ask enough questions of a tour guide at a progressive coed school like Oberlin, as I did last summer, and you will get a - pardon the expression - "straight" answer on just how wide-open questions of sexuality are on many campuses these days.

Even at coed schools, you may hear the expression "Gay Until Graduation" or "Lesbian Until Graduation" (the latter sometimes truncated into an acronym, "LUG"). Experimentation in college in the '70s mainly had to do with various controlled substances, and spilling the bong water on the carpet was about as problematic as things got. These days the experimentation may be sexual, certainly where women are concerned, and it is naïve for parents to think that the only place that a young woman will have the invitation or opportunity for a homosexual experience is a women's college.

I personally encountered the corollary in 1976, when I was the last one on my hallway in a coed dorm to realize that my roommate was gay. Thus, it's highly likely you'll meet people of same-sex orientation whether your college is single-sex or coed. It's like contemporary society at large.

Finally, it is no accident that, regardless what you think of her politics, the first front- runner for a major party nomination for president of the United States is a graduate of a women's college. Hillary Rodham, at least nominally Clinton, moved from suburban Chicago to attend Wellesley and in 1969 became the first student graduation speaker in the history of her college.

With the moxie that has made her a national force today, young Hillary turned in one speech to be approved by the college administration, then stood and delivered another, excoriating a present and fully chagrined U.S. senator for our government's conduct in the Vietnam War. You may not agree with Hillary's view or her action, but it takes a confident woman to gain the platform, then make such use of it. Women's colleges teach women courage.

And now, having devoted so much attention to females, I might seek consolation in the fact that our hamsters are, as best as my daughters can tell, male. But hamsters are rodents, aren't they? My homeboys.

Thank goodness there's still one football game left this season.