<p>A young African friend of ours has won a full scholarship to study abroad for 4 years in the US. The program that is paying her way has relationships with the following schools:</p>
<p>"The Hendrix College, University of Arkansas Little Rock, University of Arkansas- Fayetteville, Harding University, Henderson State University, Southwestern University, University of the South at Sewanee, Lyon College, Ouachita Baptist University, Birmingham-Southern College, Philander Smith College, Wofford College, Millsaps College, Morehouse College, Spelman College, University of Central Arkansas Conway, and Washington & Lee University."</p>
<p>She is, needless to say, an outstanding student - one of the top in her country - with a strong interest in the sciences. On a personal level, she is deeply religious (Evangelical), exceptionally mature for her age and is socially adept - but has had very little opportunity to see the world outside of her immediate community - even internet access is a challenge making it hard for her to research these schools on her own.</p>
<p>Of the schools being proposed (and excluding Morehouse since it's all male), which of these would be the best option, socially and academically, given her background? Keep in mind that she will have very little money for personal expenditure, and will almost certainly need to work, so a school with a wealthy preppy vibe and a lot of very affluent students would probably be a poor fit.</p>
<p>Southwestern is really nice and when we visited, it did not seem to have a rich/preppy vibe to it. It is so close to Austin that it felt like it was in a far north suburb of Austin rather than a separate town. The students and faculty we met were really friendly. Nice all around. It is one of the CTCL schools. It had a welcoming vibe to it. Completely unpretentious.</p>
<p>Wofford is lovely. Compared to Southwestern it had a bit more of a rich/preppy air to it, in my opinion. Not a lot - not that my son would have knocked it off of his list - but a bit. The campus is very nice. The people we met with were really very nice and friendly. You could very easily walk downtown to shops and restaurants. The weather would be very nice at Wofford. It seemed the more religious of the two.</p>
<p>Maybe it is not unusual that Texans have less of a preppy air than the South Carolinians who live in golf country.</p>
<p>Both of these schools have excellent endowments and give good financial aid, so they are not “full of rich kids.”</p>
<p>I love both of these two schools, based on our visits and tours. I don’t have any first hand knowledge on any of the other schools; I did read here that Birmingham Southern is a bit hard if you don’t have a car.</p>
<p>Washington & Lee is 80% Greek, and quite preppy so anyone attending ought to be aware and comfortable with that. Lexington is a pretty sleepy town, which also houses the Virginia Military Institute. My parents lived there for years, and I have to say, I was not especially impressed with the trash scattered in the yards of the frat houses on weekends. It’s got excellent academics - the profs tend to be more liberal than the student body. My impression is that social sciences are their strength not science science.</p>
<p>It depends so much on what kind of environment she would prefer. Does she want a small town or more urban atmosphere? A big state u. or tiny private college? Religious school or non-religious? Diverse or not so? HBC?</p>
<p>Academically, I’d pick U of A Fayetteville (a bigger school, nice college town, a good number of foreign students there) over UCA, and U of A- Little Rock. Harding would be my pick of the more religious schools (also a good number of internationals there). Hendrix is excellent academically, but maybe not the best for a strong evangelical type–but she could find those groups in Conway if not so much at the school. All of these would be good in the sciences. Lyon is tiny and in a small town, so maybe not as good for finding jobs.</p>
<p>Not Sewanee or W & L–I’d think they’d be too preppy.</p>
<p>Many of those schools are fine. There’s a danger of overthinking this, too. Washington & Lee has, I think, the best academic reputation of those schools, by a considerable margin, although I think highly of Hendrix, Sewanee, and Spelman, as well. I know it’s preppy and Greek-y, but I am confident that most kids can handle that, even Evangelical kids from Africa. It draws on a huge pool of strong students in Northern Virginia and elsewhere in the shallow South.</p>
<p>Spelman is an outlier in this group – single sex, big city, historically black. It’s a quality institution that still attracts strong students, although obviously it has been affected by the fact that the students it once had first call on are now being courted by every college under the sun.</p>
<p>Spelman is academically fantastic (they also have a term “trade” arrangement with Harvard), the President Beverly Tatum is sensational, and she would be quite at home evangelically speaking, without religion permeating everything. It is an HBCU of course, and she would need to decide if that is something she’d want. Good city, too.</p>
<p>Ahem … Threads on choosing Harvard vs Yale are overthinking … Not this collection of schools, which really does include schools with appreciably different feels, not the least of which is HBCU vs not. I think that’s the biggest issue she should likely deal with first and then go from there.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I was reacting to the dismissal of W&L as being too preppy/Greek.</p>
<p>For my personal taste, it may well be too preppy and too Greek, but if it were my best educational option I would go there anyway. And . . . I would probably like it. If I was poor and had to work and was socially adept, I don’t think I would want strangers deciding that I couldn’t handle making friends with rich kids. There’s every chance someone like that would find a way to fit in and would love it.</p>
<p>I agree – and I pointed out – that Spelman was a different sort of choice, but also potentially a great one.</p>
<p>I just don’t think the right way to go about it is to count people who have your most obvious characteristics and assume that you belong wherever has the most of them, much less the fewest of their opposites.</p>
<p>Friend’s daughter (they’re African-Americans) went to Spelman–daughter wanted a black school because she’d gone to white, private schools all of her life. Her Dad (Stanford grad) felt she was making the wrong choice, but liked that his D was practically getting a free ride at Spelman and made peace with his D’s decision. All turned out well. Friend’s daughter did well at Spelman, took advantage of the exchange programs there and got a job offer before she graduated. She’s very happy with her decision and feels she got a great education.</p>
<p>Does anyone know about relationships between African Americans and Africans from Africa at the HBCUs? I am only asking because in high school these relationships can be strained in some places.
And, for the other colleges, does anyone know if the students self-segregate? Or how the relationships between African Americans and Africans from Africa are?</p>
<p>Is W&L the school that’s had a lot of issues with the Kappa Alpha fraternity / Cinfederacy celebration? I may be completely off base / misremembering.</p>
<p>I’m not dismissing W&L as too preppy and Greek, I just think you should be aware going in. If the scholarship doesn’t cover dues in a place where nearly everyone is Greek, you may feel out of place. I know it’s a great school for the right kid and it certainly has top notch academics. (Just bring the pearls for the football games.) I have no idea what it’s like to be an international at W&L but in general, I think the when “southern hospitality” instincts kick in, you can have a wonderful experience. It’s the only school I know at all in this bunch. I thought Lexington - the town - was a great place to visit.</p>
<p>Sure, but you’re an Establishment guy with a lot of educational bona fides - your family members at Harvard for all those years and so forth. I have full confidence you could handle an extra helping of preppy and / or an extra helping of Greek life with aplomb. I’m meaning that as a compliment!</p>
<p>Background: Full scholarship that allowed her to attend a small (graduating class of 40) private (but spartan by US standards) girls boarding school in a suburb of a small city. No one has a personal computer or cell phone. I want to add that she has no financial resources of her own: Raised by her grandmother, no siblings or other reliably engaged family members. A remarkable young woman in every way given her personal history.</p>
<p>And thank you, everyone, for your responses to date. Very interesting and helpful. She is a survivor, so ultimately she’ll be fine where ever she goes - but I’d like the transition to be as easy as possible.</p>
<p>Hey I applied to both Hendrix College and Wofford College this year (complete with campus visits) so I thought I could give some insights.
Hendrix College has a decent sized African population, actually when I was sitting in on a class the guy next to me was from Rwanda. The campus is super friendly, and they do seem to really care about how their students are adjusting to campus life. I think Hendrix might be a good bet because they do have a good number of African students and they probably would then have resources for them. In fact my admissions officer was from Zimbabwe and had attended Hendrix.
Wofford College I would say is the more conservative of the two and I was more impressed when talking to their faculty. However there is a VERY large Greek presence on campus (like half of students are involved). I liked it a lot (I’ll be going there in the fall, actually :)) and I think they would also strive to make sure the students adjusted well. The students there also seemed very friendly.
Wherever she goes I think smaller schools might be best because they might give more individual attention if she ever needs anything.</p>