<p>I have a D who is very interested in Sewanee. She loves all things fine arts and excels in this area. However, she is less interested in the core subjects and gets B's in most of them. Assuming she has the scores to get in Sewanee, will she be happy there? Are most of the kids who choose Sewanee the kind of kids that thrive on academics? I just don't want her to choose a place where she will feel that she can never measure up or never fit in academically.</p>
<p>I think the combination of academically interested students, smaller classes and accessible faculty is a good prescription for good students who want to become better students. The core cirriculum requirements will stretch your student but that is what a liberal arts education is all about.</p>
<p>Auntcc, I could have written your post myself. I, too, have a D who is an average student and very interested in Sewanee. We visited campus last summer and she fell in love with the place. I know D will do well there, I just worry about her getting in. The average ACT there is 28 and she won’t take it till fall when she is a junior. She also needs to get her GPA above 3.0.</p>
<p>Just to ease some nerves, I was recently accepted to Sewanee with a 2.9 unweighted gpa and 25 act! Granted, all my classes are AP and I have passed all of them with 4’s or 5’s. I really think Sewanee takes a holistic approach; im sure community service, course rigor, and-to a good extent- demonstrated interest helps a candidates chances!</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement, Attila, and Congrats on your acceptance. I hope you have an awesome college experience on the mountain!</p>
<p>auntcc:</p>
<p>Is your daughter the kind of student who can be affected by a really good teacher? Here’s why I ask: in high school, college, and law school, I have taken many classes in which I had no real interest – either because it was required, or because I needed the hours for some reason. On many occasions, I found that the uninteresting class was taught by a really wonderful teacher, and I was surprised to find myself becoming interested in the class. </p>
<p>At Sewanee, the professors are truly wonderful. I picked up two minors (history and religion) that I hadn’t previously intended to get, because I took one class in each just to satisfy a requirement, got hooked by a fantastic professor, and just kept going. I also had several friends who were studio art majors, and they all had lots of non-art classes they just loved.</p>
<p>Incidentally, if your daughter does go to Sewanee, when it comes time for her to take a lab science, I STRONGLY recommend that she take either Intro to Geology (my choice) or Intro to Forestry. Unlike at most schools, where those labs are spent sitting in a classroom, at Sewanee they’re spent hiking around the domain.</p>