Small, southern LAC's discussion revisited

@packattack1018 - My S18 is a swimmer and applied to Trinity, Southwestern, Berry and Austin College. He met all coaches except Berry, who he spoke with over the phone several times (interestingly, the Berry College asst coach recently graduated from Southwestern!).

Keep in mind your D’s times could improve this year, and into Sr year. Sr year S18 had AAA times in his two best events (50 free/100 free), but Jr year he had AA in the 50 and A in the 100 until the end of the season when it moved to AA. The college coaches he met followed him Sr year and he would get congrats texts after a big meet. He enjoys swimming and competing, but he is mostly motivated by having fun in swimming, and doing well on the team.

My D16 attends Trinity U and LOVES it (she is not in sports). Interest in Trinity is increasing, and we heard from admissions this year that they had their “largest and most competitive applicant pool in history” for 2018-19. Will be interesting to see if it continues. They have the best swim team in the conference, and it is a large team. Your D’s times could improve this year - it could end up being a fit.

S18 decided to attend Austin College this fall.

I felt like a CollegeSwimming encyclopedia too! Also spent a ton of time reading the meet recaps on the schools sites.

I have feedback from my son regarding his decision process, if you want to message me. He first reached out to coaches at his top 3 schools in December of Jr year (with my push). As you probably know, you can enter times/events and GPA into RecruitSpot for the schools that have it. GPA is very important to the coaches at LAC’s, because in D3 the academics come first. Your D’s GPA is awesome.

It was quite a journey the past few years, and so fun!

I’ll add another vote for checking out Centre. My son spent a few days there a couple of years ago. He originally had it toward the bottom of his list of schools when he applied, but it jumped way up after he spent time there. We were very impressed by the feel of the campus, the president, professors, staff, and—notably for you—the head of the pre-med program (DS was considering Biology with an eye toward med school at the time). They seem to have great success with med school placement, as I think someone else mentioned. I don’t know about the relative strength of their swimming program, but I know they’re D3. And if your DD liked the feel of Davidson, I’d definitely encourage you to check it out. It’s similar in the type of campus (located in a small town about 30 minutes from a small city), and I hear it’s strong academically, although it’s got a higher acceptance rate than Davidson/W&L, and your DD might get some good merit aid there.

Another vote for Rhodes, especially for pre-med. Very strong in science and a relationship with St. Jude Children’s Hospital for research opportunities. Yes, some areas of the city should be avoided, but as other posters have noted, the campus is gated and there is a lot of security.

Denison does have a great aquatic center, and a very strong and competitive swimming program, as you have heard. We went to a program on “Being a Scientist at Denison” and it was very impressive. I think it would also be great for pre-med. Gorgeous hilltop campus and beautiful small town.

Wooster has a great campus with a new science building coming soon, and the IS program sounds like a great experience for the students.

Also have heard great things about pre-med at Rhodes.

Denison swimming is very competitive with a strong history – Men have won D3 national championship 4 times in last 8 years and Women have been runner up in national championship something like 5 times over past 15 years. Kenyon also has long history of success on Men’s and Women’s side.

Got a visit to Rollins and with the swim coach lined up for next week.

Many good options in the SAA. My son is an athlete at Hendrix and it has been a great experience. The academics and athletics both have exceeded our expectations. The faculty is very supportive of athletes and works with their travel schedules (and we often see them at athletic events), the dining hall is the best, and he really respects his coaches. Teammates are from all over the country and are a close group.

I think you’ve gotten great comments here, and great suggestions. I was actually at Rhodes today! I was driving through Memphis and wanted to pick up something there. Just wanted to add that it’s a place where how you arrive can affect your opinion of the school.

I’ve visited well over a 100 campuses for various purposes, personal and professional, and I think Rhodes has one of the nicest campuses. Today I came in from the west on I-40 right into downtown and then maybe 10 minutes to campus. The campus is in a nice established, well-treed, close-in suburban neighborhood and has stone guard houses at the gates into school. It all felt very pleasant and nice and safe.

I went up North Parkway (which borders the campus and is a nice main avenue through a nice suburban neighborhood) to Summer Avenue (North turns into Summer) to get some BBQ before heading out that way back to I-40. Summer is a very downscale commercial strip, which starts just a few blocks from the campus. It’s not an area that’s going to offer a lot to a college student, except some good BBQ. But if someone first visited the school from that direction, I think they would get a different impression than if they arrived from the direction I came.

Again, great suggestions–some great academic choices with beautiful campuses–I just have to say that Rhodes and Dickinson are really beautiful. And Rhodes feels very safe to me, if that’s a concern.

Have fun checking out some great places.