<p>Would any Rhodes parents or students be willing to post a few words about their experiences at Rhodes College? We've recently added this school to the college list and plan to visit shortly. My son will be pre-med and I've heard that Rhodes College has a terrific program with St. Jude's. Any and all comments would be valued. The review in Loren Pope's book, "Colleges that Change Lives" was spectacular.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon can probably answer your questions. If he doesn't pop in here, send him a PM. You can also check this forum for older threads - I think he's posted on this subject before.</p>
<p>My son will be attending Rhodes as a freshman this fall. We have consistently been impressed with the Rhodes faculty and admins, the campus, the student body, and the curriculum as we've been interacting with them.</p>
<p>Although my son is planning to be an International Studies/Econ major, I would not hesitate to recommend Rhodes for its pre-med program; it is very strong. Rhodes is a very pre-professional type school, and in some ways it feels like Duke. (We visited both.)</p>
<p>We decided on Rhodes because it was, in our opinion, one of the top two schools within 5 hours drive of where we live, because of the excellent merit aid program, and because it's small enough to give each student personalized attention but yet is situated in a large city with excellent internship and research opportunities. (Many of the pre-meds do research at St. Judes children's hospital.)</p>
<p>You should visit the campus - it's lovely.</p>
<p>OP, I posted this a while back. I will answer any specific q's you have.
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facilities are beautiful, library and student center are as good as you will find anywhere. Kids do have the work/play hard thing happening so be aware it's not BYU . Plenty to do in Memphis but you'll spend most of your time on campus. D is in a sorority and loves it BUT her roommates (by choice) are a girl in a different sorority and a GDI. It's NOT an exclusive "we only talk to each other" place at all. </p>
<p>Her prof's have been outstanding. Just super so far. As far as intellectual atmosphere, my D's friends are all pretty accomplished kids. Most could have gone to Vandy or Davidson or Emory or Bowdoin or many other more selective schools - but Rhodes is now a 48% acceptance school with a student body that it is well over 70% OOS and somewhat self selecting. She says that the top 20% at Rhodes are as smart as the smartest kids anywhere she's been and the next 50-60% are the "smart" kids in high school that made good grades, and cared a lot about their studies. While she thinks the bottom quarter may not be as smart as the bottom quarter at super selectives, she says "They are certainly NOT stupid". She says everyone at Rhodes works hard. She thinks there are a critical mass of intellectual kids to push the envelope , that she can be motivated by and that she can motivate. There ARE a number of pre-professional kids, but there are at most schools. If you are really opposed to pre-prof kids, it's maybe not the best place and Grinnell becomes a better choice IMO. BTW, I like Grinnell a lot. What I said is not a slam on Grinnell. It just attracts a more arty/edgy bunch. (Don't get me wrong, Rhodes has plenty of "Save the World" kids and actively recruits them and rewards them handsomely, check out Kinney Scholars and the other programs for big community EC kids. These kids are phenomenal go getters and very bold in their approach. Independent wholly self-designed Mission to poorest Africa? Why not after freshman year? LOL)</p>
<p>So far so good.
The Hab for Humanity thing puts you in a good place because Rhodes values Community Service maybe as much as anything else EC wise. </p>
<p>Any specific q's?</p>
<p>Another BTW. Rhodes kids are very proud of where they go to school and think that it will be known as a top school before long.
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<p>Here's another
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Very happy with Rhodes :) </p>
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<p>Just wanted to say to any who stumble on to this post that I am very happy with D's school of choice. She is a second semester first-year who could have gone anywhere (almost literally) and she chose Rhodes for what appears to be very good reasons. The opportunities for an ambitious student are phenomenal. She is a science major (Bio or Chem or both ) and she has found her Prof's to be top rank and the research and volunteering opps beyond belief. </p>
<p>The campus is as pretty and well maintained as any I have ever seen. Truly outstanding facilities. Well planned , wonderful walking campus. Gorgeous.</p>
<p>Rhodes takes liberal arts education seriously and the Search program (required interdisciplinary) is a highlight of her week. She has had zero duds as Prof's (although I know there has to be at least one). Grading is tough. Coursework is demanding. Grading is tough - did I already mention that? LOL Rhodes is not a place to go if you plan on sliding by on your intelligence alone. Rhodes also expects excellence in your academic writing and when a course is labeled as "writing intensive" you better believe it. </p>
<p>She was concerned about the sorority/frat influence but was repeatedly told that it wasn't as exclusive as at most schools and that is the way it is working out. She did pledge and is having a great time but her best friends either did not pledge or are in other sororities . There is no difficulty maintaining those relationships. </p>
<p>Dining hall food leaves something to be desired but I think that is the norm at most places. So...big neg's ? Well for a science major and potentially double major there are not enough spaces to take all the cool courses you want to outside your major field. D is taking Spanish in Spain to free up 3 slots. And this campus would be horrible for a kid who succumbs to temptation too easily. Memphis is "lively" entertainment-wise and the campus opportunities dwarf Memphis. I can see how kids don't make it past Christmas (and there are more than a few each year that don't.). I wouldn't have made it, that's for sure. </p>
<p>It has really been a great experience for my D so far and I don't believe she can outgrow the opportunities that Rhodes has made and will make available to her over her four years. It's just so difficult to pick from the cornucopia of choices, both academic and community sevice related. She is constantly fighting against becoming too involved - or maybe I should say, I am constantly fighting her against being too involved. Everybody needs a little down-time, a little me-time.</p>
<p>For a smart, charitable, ambitious kid with good standards of behavior and a healthy work ethic this may be as good as it gets.</p>
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<p>Let me say ditto to the comments of others here. My S will be a freshman in the fall coming from Cal. Like most, my S had a number of choices. Why Rhodes? Small class (less then his HS). Individual attention (his summer counselor took more time trying to fit his classes to his needs then all his counselors in his entire MS & HS career - and his HS is ranked in the top 200 HS in the country)! Most of all, he was attracted to the quality of education he was going to get. He got accepted to a number of UCs, all fine institutions, but he just knew that the liberal arts structure, honor code, and community service component will put him head and shoulders above the vast majority of graduates from other schools.</p>
<p>The campus is to die for, Memphis is a fun town – even by the entertainment standards of metropolitan LA. We considered carefully the crime issue and concluded that like any city caution is necessary but certainly no worse then some other higher profile schools (e.g. USC is a place where the surrounding downtown area is not where you want your S or D to wander on foot day or night).</p>
<p>Both my Wife and I separately visited the campus, spoke to students, administration and faculty. They are fabulous. The President and his wife stopped me in the halls on a visit, introduced themselves, and talked to me about my son and our concerns. I told them my S was looking at the UCs and some of the obvious issues - West Coast kid coming to TN. Not only did he say the obligatory “we hope he picks Rhodes” but my S cornered me later in the day and was completely floored that the President and wife had apparently went looking for him after our chat, sat him down and proceeded to talk to him about his choices and expressing the hope he picked Rhodes – think any of the admittees have that experience with the Chancellor at a UC?</p>
<p>Finally, while Rhodes is certainly not considered to have the national profile of an Ivy, or some of the large research university such as U of Penn, UC Berkley etc, it is still ranked on virtually every list I’ve seen in the top 50. More importantly, for most of the graduate programs, Rhodes is considered a tier 1 school. I think that is why you see such high admissions rates in medicine, law, international studies and psychology. This year, Rhodes picked up the maximum Goldwater scholarships (3). The entire UC system (all 10 campuses with 500,000 undergrads) only got 6! I suspect Rhodes will eventually achieve national recognition, but even if they don’t, I am convinced that serious, honorable kids willing to apply themselves will have as much opportunity as a Rhodes graduate as virtually any other college or university in the country (save perhaps a handful).</p>
<p>I loved Rhodes!!! I visited 26 some campuses and not more than 3 did i even want to go to. Rhodes was my second choice. The admission knew who i was, knew my application and knew my eassy. when i wrote back to tell them i would not be accepting, they told me they had been looking forward to me attending and if my first chioce doesnt work out, to contact them again. Our # 5 student out of 550 + in my sr class is attending this year. I wear the sweatshirt with pride!</p>
<p>I would second getting in touch with Curmudgeon - he and his daughter helped us out when D went alone for an overnight visit to Rhodes for the Discovery Day in June, they are the BEST!! The students went out of their way to show my D the summer research they were doing ...she is also a pre-med hopeful and was sold on the St. Jude's opportunities. She was also very impressed with the library and the athletic opportunities - even though Rhodes is a southern school the members of the team are from across the US and Canada, not just one particular area. Rhodes is definitely one of her top choices at the moment, but she will have to return sometime to interview for merit consideration. Funny though how many here think she is applying for a Rhodes Scholarship instead of to Rhodes College - the name recognition definitely isn't in our area yet....</p>
<p>A sincere thank you to all of you who took the time to share your thoughts and insights. My S is in the midst of writing several of his college app essays and Rhodes is in the mix. An easy choice would be to attend the University of Michigan (in-state for us); but all the reasons for attending a small, liberal arts school are very appealing to him.<br>
We will visit in early October, allowing us to see both the campus and the student body. I hope his stats (34 ACT, 4.0 unweighted GPA, all AP/AC classes) will find him a worthy candidate for the admissions department. He loves the challenges of the classroom, and based on the feedback regarding the rigor of the academics at Rhodes, that would be a good fit. Rhodes College has very little name recognition in our city, so I am very grateful for everyone's input.
Thank you again!</p>