<p>Has anyone any input on comparing these schools? I've got S who has become seriously interested in education and working with hearing impaired kids, having lost 80% of his hearing as a kid and regaining after surgeries and year of speech work.
Now S is a 6'5" basketball player, loves the outdoors. Has a b+ average and has done reasonably well on the SAT IIs. Taking the ACT today.
I know Vandy fairly well with one kid already there and doubt whether S can get in. It's a major reach but the Peabody School of Education is one of the best in the nation.<br>
The others look awfully good but haven't visited yet.</p>
<p>I've visited Sewanee and Rhodes, which are very similar schools in very different settings. If your son loves the outdoors, then I would suggest Sewanee, but only if you visit. It is quite isolated, but does have a beautiful domain (10,000 acres or so) with lots of outdoor activities available.</p>
<p>musictoad, sewanee has a rep for better or worse of being even more traditional and preppy than Centre or Rhodes (it's closest academic competitors). I think it relishes its anachronisms, delights in its traditions, and pooh-pooh's any thoughts of changing to meet the fashion of the day. I believe standard student dress is still regimented, whether by rule or just "right", I can't say. (Khakis, white shirt, blue blazer, old ball or golf cap ).</p>
<p>A local family has two there now who love it and a friend from Law School went there during dinosaur times. The one thing all those kids have in common is they are all well-heeled, intelligent, establishment and Episcopalian. Interestingly enough, the male parent of the two current students (one male one female) is a Vandy grad who expresses great delight in Sewanee and believes it gives him a feeling of the Vandy he attended. </p>
<p>That all being said, I believe it to be a wonderful school, with outstanding professors . My D will be doing some coursework in conjunction with Sewanee , on the Sewanee campus in preparation for The European Studies program.</p>
<p>I'd also suggest you look at Millsaps, Wofford, Presbyterian, and Furman although BBAll will be markedly tougher at the last three (though not to the Vanderbilt level). I was very impressed with Furman and Millsaps.</p>
<p>Basketball is very strong and popular at HSC.Hope your son contacts the coach.All the schools your son is considering are great.HSC remains an all men's school,very traditional,with conservative,old fashioned values.The tight knit brotherhood existing among the students is a joy to behold.The campus is among America's most beautiful,extremely safe,and nestled in southern Virginia's gorgeous countryside.Hope you and your son get to visit all these great schools and you share your impressions with us all.HSC's lacrosse,basketball,football,and baseball teams are all usually nationally ranked.The friendliness and Southern hospitality there are absolutely non pareil! Good luck!</p>
<p>Indeed. When I applied there (HSC) this last year. Every snail mail correspondense I received from them was handwritten. Which, to me, showed that they took more time in getting to know the prospective students. even the stuff sent to my parents things like: looks like a young man with a bright future..etc.. were inclined(again handwritten) in the mass mailings.</p>
<p>3 of 4 are strong institutions, HSC is very regional, little known beyond its informed circles.</p>
<p>Rhodes is a great value, imo. Sewanee is most definitely a strange sort of place, thinking it's far more superior than the world thinks. Case of being too close to the isolated mirror, especially if one is a Deep South Episcopalian. Very iconoclastic, inbred type of place that people who've gone there don't understand that few others beyond their own have a clue about Sewanee, what it or the Sewanee Review are. Delusional to a degree, I suppose.</p>
<p>Vandy is a great, up and coming national u. Don't know your son's hooping skills, but they better be GREAT to contemplate playing there.</p>
<p>Rhodes, Vandy :)</p>
<p>Sewanee, HSC :(</p>
<p>People in the know respect Hampden-Sydney.Consult The Fiske Guide,Princeton Review"s Best Colleges,The Yale Insider's Guide To The Colleges,Choosing The Right College-America's Top Schools(every edition has lauded HSC),etc.All these guides portray accurately HSC and its incomparable spirit.</p>
<p>Sewanee is isolated, for sure. The closest cities are Chattanooga (50 miles) and Nashville (90 miles).
That being said, this isolation serves to Sewanee's advantage in that it creates an atmosphere in which student and professor can thrive. All the profs live on campus and walk to school with the students every day. Not only do students develop propinquity to the professors through this arrangement, but it also enhances their learning. Sewanee faculty are among some of the best in the LAC arena (Sewanee has had the Tennesse Prof of the Year 3 of the last 5 years). Many are leading national contributors in their fields and nearly all are extremely well-educated.
However, the school definitely isn't for everyone. One must devote himself to "the Sewanee experience," and truly enjoy the environs that the professors, students (many of whom are well-off), and Domain foster in order to take away all that can be from this unique school.</p>
<p>I would suggest adding Hendrix to your list - it has a really strong outdoors program from what I know, and is similar in many ways to Rhodes, Sewanee etc.</p>
<p>My son was interested in both Sewanee and Rhodes, as well as Washington & Lee. We visited all of the above schools, and prior to visiting W & L was by far his first choice school, after visiting though, Rhodes came out on top. He is now a very happy freshman at Rhodes. I think the extremely isolated location of Sewanee was a negative for him. He really likes the fact that Rhodes is a small lac in a metropolitan area. That combination is sometimes hard to find.</p>