<p>I am considering applying to Rhodes College and had some questions about the surrounding area and the social life in general. To start general, how is the city of Memphis? Is it an ok place to live, plenty of things to do? What is the Rhodes Campus like? I have yet to visit, but have seen some photos around the web, how is the campus as a whole? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance to all who reply!</p>
<p>Hi, I’ve lived in Memphis for over 10 years. Full disclosure: I work at Rhodes. </p>
<p>Memphis has some great amenities, but it’s not without its problems. </p>
<p>On the plus side: The civil rights museum is awesome. I like the Ornamental metal museum. Overton Park is right across the street from Rhodes. It includes forest trails, the Levitt Shell (free concerts), the Memphis Zoo (very nice), the Brooks Art Museum, the Memphis College of Art, and a public golf course. There are some great restaurants nearby, including a couple of Indian and several Vietnamese. Also an excellent Italian and a nice brewpub. There’s a great live music scene. If you enjoy sports, the Grizzlies (NBA) call Memphis home, and the Redbirds (AAA baseball) play in a very nice stadium downtown. You can ride your bike on the greenline to Shelby Farms, an enormous urban park that’s undergoing something of a renaissance. The symphony is excellent, and there’s also a ballet and an opera. I recently saw a great musical at Playhouse on the Square. There’s a downtown farmer’s market on Saturdays through October. You could possibly intern at St. Jude, a world-class research hospital. </p>
<p>On the negative side, there’s a lot of poverty in Memphis, and some crime to go with it. Most of it is away from Rhodes, however; many Rhodes students and faculty see little or nothing of it. Memphis can be rather provincial at times. </p>
<p>Anyhow, I like living here. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.</p>
<p>Thank you very much, that was extremely informative. Do you happen to know if there are any comedy clubs/ places to perform stand up comedy? I was interested in trying some while in college.</p>
<p>I have a friend who goes to Rhodes, and every once in a while he updates a photo album just titled “Memphis”. Pretty entertaining stuff. I get the impression that Rhodes is extremely nice, whereas everywhere else could use improvement.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman at Rhodes–I have been to the campus twice now; once as part of a visit, and once when we dropped her off at the begining of the school year. I had never visited Memphis before these visits, and frankly, did not think I was going to care for Memphis. I was wrong. Rhodes itself is a quite an attractive part of the city. As mentioned earlier, it is across the street from Overton park, but it is also surrounded by some older, very beautiful, well maintained, and (I would expect) expensive homes. You should take a drive down some of the residential streets near the schools—some lovely residential architecture. As you move away from the campus, it becomes a bit more urban, and more typical of any large city–commercial, functional. There are a large number of places to eat and shop relatively close by (I would think you would need a car to reach most of them)–but lots of choices within 10 to 15 minutes. If you head west on Poplar Road (very commercial road with an endless supply of stores, restaurants, etc.) for maybe 25 - 30 minutes you end up in a pretty high-end shopping area which I think boarders Germantown. Downtown Memphis was not great–it does have Beale Street which is touristy, but fun, and you can see the Peabody Hotel and the Ducks, but the rest of downtown did seem a bit seedy to me. It is major metropolitan area, so I suspect there are places (even relatively close to school) where you don’t want to be walking alone at night, but I think that is the same in many places.</p>
<p>As far as the campus goes, it is quite pretty. A fair amount of well maintained open green space with very attractive buildings. To me, Rhodes campus loooks like how I imagined Hogwarts of Harry Potter fame would be. If I did have one criticism, it would be that it is a very homogeneous looking campus–all of the buildings are of the same style, have the same stone fascade, etc. It works, but some might prefer some variation in architectual style.</p>
<p>I would also mention that you should also look at Rhodes required curriculum—I personally think it provides the bedrock for a very fine liberal arts education, but it is structured in that you need to take classes in (I think) 11 or 12 distinct areas. Most of the liberal arts colleges we visited were not quite as rigid in terms of their general education requirements. So it is not a good or bad thing—really depends upon what you want out of an education.</p>
<p>So far my daughter loves it.</p>