<p>I was wondering if anyone has any reviews of Sweet Briar? I'm really interested to know about your experience there, whether you visited, go there now, or have been there. No need to sugar coat anything. If you hated it, please tell me about why you did. If you loved it, tell me why. I'd like to know about your whole experience! Dorms, food, professors, student life. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)</p>
<p>On the whole, this is a wonderful school. Most of the women are courteous and friendly, and there is definitely a “team-work” vibe here. I’ve heard people call this place one big sorority, and in some ways I suppose it is. I’m a freshman here, and I must preface this by saying that I’m not a social person, so I can’t tell you about party life (I do know that most students go to other schools for parties, esp. Hampden-Sydney).</p>
<p>The thing that drew me here (and there are a lot of draws) was its professors and small classes. I can’t imagine taking classes in an auditorium with 70 other people and actually getting a quality education; classes here are very small at around 15-20 people (oftentimes even less), and every professor I’ve had has been available for each student. I haven’t met a prof that I don’t like and haven’t connected with in some personal way (one class I was in even went to a prof’s house a couple times).</p>
<p>The dorms are nothing special, neither big nor small. The food is quite decent, by college standards, but not phenomenal. Dining services occasionally splurge on holidays and go all-out with carved turkeys & ham (on Thanksgiving and Christmas).</p>
<p>There are definitely preconceived notions about SBC girls, and sometimes they ring true, but mostly they’re pretty stale. Very few women I’ve met are here to get their “MRS,” or otherwise ■■■■■■■■ for husbands at the local all-boys school. There are a lot of riders, a lot of spoiled princesses, tomboys, students from wealthy families, students from less affluent families (like myself), hardcore republicans, and hardcore democrats… it’s quite hard to think of an average student here. The thing that sticks out most to me is that almost every woman here is involved in many different things. It’s not uncommon for someone to be a chair member of multiple clubs, play a sport, and remain active in social activities. I don’t know why so many of us are over-committed, but it’s definitely a trend.</p>
<p>One thing that I don’t like is the paucity of minority students here. I come from a diverse neighborhood in the north, so it was weird coming here and seeing almost no racial minorities. It’s not bad; it’s just strange. I can count the number of African-Americans on one hand. We do have a sizable international population, but most of those girls are only here for a year.</p>
<p>I hope I gave you some good info. Most of it was off the top of my head, so I probably left out some stuff. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks so much. :)</p>
<p>Psypomp, seriously considering SBC, applying this fall, fall 2011. Plan to major in Poli Sci and play field hockey. Things still good at SBC?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>My daughter is attending Sweet Briar now…class of 2015. I have to say, if you asked me a year ago if this was where Annabel would end up attending, I wouldn’t have believed it in a thousand years! When I started hunting down schools for Annabel it was kind of daunting. I am fussy about schools and Annabel was a tough match as well. The school had to have…</p>
<ol>
<li> less than 3,000 students</li>
<li> wonderful academics with interesting teachers</li>
<li> mainly residential campus</li>
<li> a beautiful campus with good living conditions and acceptable food</li>
<li> a good quality of life</li>
<li> excellent financial aid</li>
<li> a great writing program with published authors teaching at least 3 different genres and a literary magazine written and published by students</li>
<li> a decent theater program that does at least 4 productions a year and at least one of them Shakespeare…</li>
</ol>
<p>Who would accept a so-so (2.47 GPA) student with average SAT scores (about 1300) and average activities.</p>
<p>So, I came up with a list of about 30 or so schools from 3 different categories…Reach, Good Fit, and Safety Colleges. I told her to chose 3 Reach colleges, 4 Good Fit colleges, and 6 Safety colleges. How did I figure out which college belonged in which category? I just wildly guessed. At different times, Sweet Briar was in all three categories. </p>
<p>Annabel kept crossing Sweet Briar off the list, while she was checking out the list I gave her. I kept adding it back in saying the financial aid was so amazing she just HAD to apply. Bel was against it because it was too pink, the stuff the admissions office sent was badly written, it was a girl’s school…blah, blah, blah. I told her to ignore the pink and stop being so anti pink, that the English department had nothing to do with the Admissions lit…it was probably done by some stupid advertising firm, that girl’s colleges rock…and the financial aid was supposedly amazing…so APPLY FOR GOD’S SAKE. She was looking over the Holllins stuff and dealing with some “stupid boys” in her group project in school and she came and announced that Hollins was RIGHT…there SHOULD be women’s colleges!</p>
<p>With Annabel’s spotty academics, her acceptances were all over the place. One from the Reach, a couple from the Good Fit and a couple from the Safety groups. Schools I thought were no brainers, of course they would accept her…refused her, et cetera. Meanwhile, her best friend, who had almost a B+ average was accepted by EVERY school she applied to! And Annabel was accepted by Sweet Briar!!! By this time, Bel had figured out that she would be LUCKY to be accepted by such a wonderful school, so when the acceptance came, she was SURE it was a mistake and begged me to call and make sure they didn’t mean to send her a rejection letter. </p>
<p>There was a mix-up with FAFSA (after you send in your FAFSA be sure to call and make sure they actually SENT it to each school, my tip for you) but her financial aid package was all we could ask for (we don’t have much money and I have four daughters). </p>
<p>Why was she accepted since it is hard to get into a college if you have a less than a B average and she had a less than C + average? I think being from out of the area (we live in Napa, CA) helped. Her SAT scores were decent, she got good recommendations from her teachers at her High School, and she wrote a pretty funny essay on one of the questions they had on the app. Sweet Briar asked what concerns she might have going there and Annabel replied that she wasn’t much of a Pink Person…</p>
<p>She is doing pretty well there! There was a class called Y-1 which, if you took it, they would give you an iPad for free. She signed up for it, of course…but it was about modern world politics…and Annabel really couldn’t possibly care less. In her other classes, she got an A in Acting, a B in Spanish, and I cannot quite recall what else she took.</p>
<p>While we braving the application process, Annabel kept crying about what a screw up she was and why would anyone take her and even if she did, she would just flunk everything. I told her that living on a small campus where you can roll out of bed and be in class in 6 minutes really did change things. You don’t come home to a home in chaos, you have meals made and the library open crazy hours along with every other kind of facility…like is just WAY easier. Of course I was totally right!</p>
<p>-Karen</p>