Four local college campuses just got immensely larger.

For example, last fall, more than 1,000 Bryn Mawr College students grabbed their books and strolled into class just down the street at Haverford College.

Mirroring a growing trend nationwide, that resource-sharing network for both academics and extracurricular activities, popularly known as the Bi-Co, has grown into the Tri-Co with the addition of Swarthmore College, according to a Forbes feature by Nina Berler.

Add the University of Pennsylvania into the mix, and you have what’s called the Quaker Consortium, a reciprocal agreement among the four institutions honoring their shared Quaker heritage and academic excellence.

Because it opens many classroom doors to anyone from the schools, the Quaker Consortium is a hit with students.

“In surveys, we see that the consortium is a definite draw,” said Bryn Mawr Associate Director of Communications Matthew Gray. “It allows our students to have the personalized attention of a smaller school without having to compromise in terms of the breadth of courses they have available.”

The Bi-Co agreement has even recently extended to administration and record-keeping.

Read more about the Quaker Consortium and others like it across the country in Forbes here.