All Male Colleges?

College Search & Selection
61

@gandalf78
When did I ever say I was interested in Morehouse? That school is terrible. Not trying to offend anyone, but their average SATs and GPA aren’t even close to Hampden-Sydney’s. Hampden-Sydney’s average GPA is 3.5, and their average SAT is 1800. Morehouse has an average GPA of 3.24, and an average SAT of 1750. Morehouse is NOT preppy, and that is a bid downside. Also it’s not really conservative either. Hampden-Sydney and Morehouse are not in the same league. If you were to ask a CEO down south which one is more prestigious, they would most certainly tell you Hampden-Sydney. Morehouse is more well known, because Dr. King(a man I deeply respect) went there. I never said Hampden-Sydney is as prestigious as Harvard, but it is very well thought of here in VA, and around the south. HSC’s acceptance rate has been going down drastically(it used to be in the 60s, and now it’s down to 47%) and average SATs have been going up ever since Dr. Chris Howard became President. I would never even look at Harvard or Yale for undergrad, because of the crazy professors they have. I will be visiting Hampden-Sydney in the Spring of 2016(they are doing a lot of renovating right now with classrooms, and buildings which will end at the end of 2015. I want to go when all the renovation is done) It seems to have everything I want

  1. Excellent Academics
  2. Very Preppy (ranked #1 preppiest college in the US)
  3. Very conservative
  4. Lot’s of fashioning and hunting (I LOVE doing both)
  5. Small classes
  6. Right next to a golf course, and pretty good golf team( I want to play golf in college, and ultimately want to join a Country Club)
    A lot of you guys on here are ridiculous. Why am I a bad person for being old fashioned? It makes absolutely no sense. Just because I despise modernism doesn’t mean I’m a bigot. America was just fine before Modernism.
62

Top firms in tech, consulting and i banking recruit at Morehouse. They do not recruit at HSC.

63

You know… except for anyone who wasn’t a straight, white, Christian, middle-upper class male, that is…

64

Really grasping at straws if you’re saying a difference of 50 points on a 2400 point test (2%) isn’t even close.

65

What’s fashioning?

66

I thought it was a typo of fishing, but maybe not.

67

Considering that HSC is overwhelmingly white and Morehouse is overwhelmingly black, and that the overall black-white gap on the SAT is I believe in the neighborhood of 150 points, HSC’s 50 point edge looks especially paltry.

Relative to their respective communities, Morehouse is by far the more elite school.

68

"their average SATs and GPA aren’t even close to Hampden-Sydney’s. Hampden-Sydney’s average GPA is 3.5, and their average SAT is 1800. Morehouse has an average GPA of 3.24, and an average SAT of 1750. "

You honestly think there is a significant difference between 1750 and 1800? LOL! But honestly, neither college is notably selective. And if Morehouse were truly so “terrible”, how come its alumni are better represented than HSC alums at top graduate school (like Yale Law or JHU Medical)?There are currently 6 Morehouse alumni enrolled at Yale Law and JHU Medical schools, compared to none (0) HSC alumni. Considering the size of Morehouse, 6 is significant and comparable to other top rated LACs. Just because you don’t feel that Morehouse is a good fit for you does not make it “terrible”.

And while the criteria you so tidily laid out above are legitimate, I am not sure that they necessarily make HSC the perfect college:

  1. "Excellent academics": According to whom? There are few people in the academic or professional world who would describe HSC as "excellent academically".
  2. "Very preppy": HSC may be preppy, but so are dozens of other colleges. And whatever source claims it to be "#1" in this domain lacks credibility. How can preppiness be quantified?
  3. "Very conservative": That is probably the one criterion of yours that is indeed exclusive to HSC.
  4. "Love of fashioning and hunting": Can't you do those things anywhere?
  5. "Small classes": Again, hardly unique to HSC.
  6. "Right next to a golf course and a pretty good golf team": Believe it or not, some colleges and universities have their own golf courses. Regardless of what college you attend, you will be able to improve your game in your bid to one day join a country club. But honestly, I don't see how attending HSC (or any other college or university for that matter) will get you that country club membership.

I think in your case, HSC is the right fit because it is all-male and conservative. The other criteria really aren’t unique to HSC, nor does HSC necessarily excel in any of them.

69

Can the OP afford HSC? With COA approaching $55K per year, it might not be an option for the OP.

70

@Psata82
I think I made a mistake when I said I live a “middle class” lifestyle. Upper middle class would be more appropriate. Money isn’t really an issue for me, when it comes to schools. Besides I’ll get a ton of merit scholarship from HSC anyway. Forbes ranked HSC #4 best private college in the south. Also Hampden-Sydney is ranked #105 best LAC by USNews. Morehouse is ranked #133. Don’t tell me Morehouse is a better school.

71

Morehouse’s reputation is better on the whole because it is an HBCU with comparable results/statistics to Hampden-Sydney. Blacks are heavily recruited to big business companies or high ranking graduate schools from schools like Howard/Morehouse/Spelman because of their reputation of churning out quality black students. It’s mainly reputational. I’ve lived in the south all my life and have never heard of anyone attending Hamden-Sydney or anyone reffering to the school in high regard. The fact is that once someome says “Morehouse” you know exactly what they’re talking about because there are very few schools like it. With Hampden-Sydney, the reputation isnt there.

Your modernism comment was laughable, so was the Civil Rights Movement, Womens Suffrage, and Gay Rights Movement simply superfluous since the nation was so great before that?

Anyway, your talk about the country club lifestyle leads me to believe you may enjoy High Point University? Though it may not have academically what you need, the atmosphere seems right.

72

Hampden-Sydney has an acceptance rate slightly above 50%. I do not think that any college can be considered “elite” until is acceptance rate is 25% or lower. In fact, I would suggest that 20% is a better dividing line for elites. Being “elite” is a matter of exclusivity, not necessarily about quality.

As others have pointed out, the differences between Hampden-Sydney and Morehouse in ACT/SAT scores are not only modest, but also cannot justify calling one “elite” but the other “terrible.”

Given that you are “a devout Episcopalian (conservative High Anglican)” it looks to me like Sewanee could be the best fit. While not deeply conservative, Sewanee is a place where conservatives should be comfortable (unless one hates the isolated rural location). If you are that conservative of an Episcopalian, then why not consider some of the conservative Catholic colleges. Take a look at Thomas Aquinas College in California (about the same size as Patrick Henry) or University of Dallas (much larger). Both have high quality academics, and do accept non-Catholics.

If you want conservative academics, then Hillsdale probably is the most conservative school on your list.

Personally, I am a big fan of Wofford and wish that I at least knew about it when I applied to college.

73

I think it’s terrific when a kid finds a college that fits so many of his criteria, and where he stands an excellent chance of admission. I think that the OP should apply to H-S as early as possible, indicating his strong interest. Then, he should chill out and enjoy his senior year. He might open his mind and heart a bit, once the pressure is relaxed.

74

The difference between 105 and 133 is negligible… in that range, the difference in ranking is due to a very large number of ties among similarly situated institutions… the schools are pretty much the same level, with only minor, insignificant differences in scores in various categories… it’s just that there are a lot of schools in that range that create large numbers of ties and make it seem like there are differences to the statistically naive individual.

That said, I find it curious that the OP seems so insistent on making it clear that he thinks Morehouse is “terrible” and far, far beneath HSC. Things that make you go, “hmmmmmm…”

I went to graduate school at Berkeley and met dozens of graduates of HBCUs such as Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, FAMU, Tuskeegee. Not one. One of my friends who attended Morehouse turned down MIT, and another who attended FAMU turned down Stanford. Never met a single HSC graduate in my entire life. Not one.

75

I should note that in a way, Morehouse is more elite than HSC… Morehouse manages to put together a solid student body while only catering to at most 6% of potential students, whereas HSC can target 50% of students. Morehouse has to draw on a population nearly a tenth the size of HSC, and comes out pretty close to similar.

76

@woogzmama, the OP is only a Sophomore in High School. He is over a year or more from applying to Colleges. I think you might have been mislead by the over 67 threads he have generated about various Colleges, most of which, quickly morphed into a discussion of a single College, Hampden-Sydney.

77

@Psata82 - I missed the fact that he is only a sophomore. He seemed so heavily invested that it never occurred to me that he wasn’t a rising senior.

78

Hmmm… Morehouse actually “ranks” higher than Hampden Sydney (its brand is national) but if you mean USWR, they are in the same “grouping”; since SAT scores correlate with income, “expected” scores for well off kids place HSC’s students lower than those for Morehouse students (more of whom are middle and working class).
Since you look at Harvard Law placement, Morehouse would make your head turn. It’s “the” elite HBCU for men in the US, along with Howard.
If you asked a Head of HR whether they’d rather hire from HSC or Morehouse, there probably wouldn’t be a huge difference, although all other things being equal, Morehouse being an incubator for African American talent is well-known throughout the country, which would give it an edge over HSC.
You’re right, HSC is well thought-off in VA, and around the South, but it doesn’t mean it’s not “in the same league” as Morehouse.
Morehouse IS preppy to a certain extent (unless you restrict “preppy” to a certain “white” style of dress… but Morehouse men tend to “dress” conservatively and business-like most of the time); it’s also religious and conservative for a LAC so you might want to give it another look.
If it’s not the right fit, it’s not the right fit, but this would have nothing to do with being “terrible”.

I agree Sewanee, High Point, Wofford, Hillsdale are all good options. Check out Grove City. Any reason why you don’t like Wheaton Illinois or Calvin MI? What about Hope?
If HSC remains your favorite, apply ED.

“America was just fine before modernism”… is an odd sentence. I’m not sure what you mean: Modernism is an artistic movement that includes Impressionism, skyscrapers, Picasso, Le Corbusier, etc… If you mean Modernity, I’m not sure how “fine” America was before WWI. Its place in the world, how hard it was to eke out a living for almost all people, lawlessness, not to mention absolute disregard for the rights of an overwhelmingly large majority of the population… If you do mean Modernism, you’re entitled to your own artistic taste, but that’s not what people are criticizing here - I don’t think people really care whether you admire or despise Picasso, but your post about Morehouse being “terrible” they do care about because if it does reflect your way of thinking, it means you’re very close-minded and too prompt with assumptions which are at odds with facts (such as Morehouse being preppy and conservative, not to mention a great path to Havard Law and, until this year, excellent at golf.)
You do seem to wish to return to 100 years ago. Majoring in history is a great path to Harvard Law and if you can study abroad as well, it’d be very beneficial. Right now, Spain, the UK, Germany, all have conservative governments - David Cameron was just re-elected, for example.

79

At one point, the OP commented:

I’ve lived in the South (North Carolina) all my life, and no, Hampden-Sydney is not considered prestigious here, at least not in the academic sense. I am sure it is a perfectly fine college and a wonderful fit for many young men, but “prestigious”? Not any more than any other perfectly fine college.

And Morehouse, which is the object of OP’s scorn for some reason, is considered in the South to be a perfectly fine college as well. The graduates I’ve known from there have been quite impressive.

80

I’ve lost brain cells from reading @Kdkhan’s posts. Good lord.