@4kids4colleges: Sewanee is a good pre-professional school. Not just the social sciences but the physical sciences are good at Sewanee (I know a pediatric orthodontist who attended there as an undergraduate).
As a historical note, one of the early Rhodes Scholars from Sewanee – Frank Gailor – ended up on the Tennessee Supreme Court, back in the day.
The mock trial team at Furman is fabulous. A winning team each year. Furman requires their students to produce a good numbers of papers. My Poli Sci student will tell you they read volumes and write volumes. Her friends who have gone on to law school have had excellent placements. She is off to DC. Many, many Furman grads are in DC working on the hill and in private companies a like.
Best wishes to your daughter. She has excellent choices.
As a native Tennessean and a graduate of Southwestern-at-Memphis, ‘75 (Rhodes’ previous name), I ought to chip in here. Back in the day, we loved our school. Memphis was fascinating, too, and not so frightening as now. I’d go over to Black areas to hear fantastic Blues shows, like BB King and Bobby Bland playing three sets, calling out relatives in the audience. A whole generation of us became amateur folklorists and musicologists. Others, more successful over the long haul, followed pre-med and law tracks that took them where they wanted to go. The dorms were great, roomy and lively, and the architectural uniformity of the buildings never created a Disneyland for the Gothic imagination.
Sewanee, though, offers something really special. It’s located on the Cumberland Plateau, home of hundreds of waterfalls and hiking trails. If your kid loves nature, they’ll find it here… though they’ll be around during the brown season. And Nashville’s bright lights beckon you towards Twangtown, just a few hours distant, with the Smoky Mountains just as close to the east. In Memphis, there was little to draw me out of town except the Ozarks, three hours away. At Sewanee, I would have been begging for a car of my own.
Of Furman, I know nothing, but I’ve read good things about Greenville. Even closer to the Smokies. It just might be the one.
No one has mentioned the obvious… Show me the money! How do the merit aid/financial aid packages look for each school? All three are great schools. I have visited Sewanee and Furman, and have a niece that graduated from Furman. I would start asking where you can get 4 years of college with the least amount of debt. And what does each college say about getting their students into law school?
^ I think in part that the money involved at each school will depend on the individual circumstances of each applicant/applicant’s family. Here is a website that our high school guidance counselors have identified as being useful for comparing the estimated net cost at different colleges: https://collegerealitycheck.com/en/
Other than this website, you may have to go to each respective college’s website and start playing around with the Net Price Calculator that is provided, and run some numbers (even though some of these NPCs haven’t been updated for the current or forthcoming school year).
I only have anecdotal information on law school placements, and most of that involves Sewanee. If there is information from each school about law school placements, I don’t know of it.
The General Counsel at my office is a Sewanee graduate. He loved it. We visited but DD2 did not apply. It was too remote. After visiting Furman, she took it off the list. The vibe was too preppy and sorority/frat-ish for her. She was accepted to Rhodes with good financial aid but it was still $10K more than her final selection, Maryville College, and for us, financial aid matters. Rhodes would have been a great choice as she’s pre-med but MC’s been perfect for her and an easy drive home while Rhodes would have been over 6 hours by car.
All three of your D’s college options are excellent. She’ll thrive wherever she goes. Once made, post her decision!
We sent our son to Sewanee. My brother’s a lawyer in Nashville and he recommended it! LOL!