<p>Well if we are including small Uni’s, Rice gets my top vote.</p>
<p>I was considering Furman and Sewanee as LAC’s just going off of US News… I think they qualify.</p>
<p>
Agreed. If you consider a college with ANY graduate programs to be a university, you’d have to remove quite a lot of LACs from the US News list - Williams, Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan, Rhodes, Lewis & Clark, Middlebury, Colgate, Smith, Oberlin, Bard…the list goes on. An absurd practice. The US News/Carnegie classification is sufficient for the purposes of this thread, I think.</p>
<p>Rice is a university and hardly underrated or overlooked on CC. The College of Charleston is definitely undergraduate-focused, but a school of 10,000 undergrads is not exactly what many people are looking for when they want a LAC.</p>
<p>It would be more helpful if people could write something about the schools they’re listing…while throwing out names is nice, just hearing a name isn’t likely to encourage people to check it out. I don’t know much about the following and would be interested in reading something about them:
[ul][<em>]BSC
[</em>]Centre
[<em>]Guilford
[</em>]Hampden-Sydney (men’s college)
[<em>]Hendrix
[</em>]Millsaps
[<em>]Morehouse (HBCU, men’s college)
[</em>]New College of Florida
[<em>]Oglethorpe
[</em>]Presbyterian
[<em>]Randolph
[</em>]Randolph-Macon
[<em>]Roanoke
[</em>]Spelman (HBCU, women’s college)
[<em>]U Richmond
[</em>]Wofford[/ul]</p>
<p>If people can’t write short blurbs about them, maybe mentioning something distinctive would be helpful. Oceanography at Eckerd, art and glassblowing at Centre, Berry’s enormous and beautiful campus, Hendrix’s location in a dry county, etc.</p>
<p>Berea (in Kentucky…sorta south). FREE tuition to all accepted students. Students from Appalachian areas favored in admissions. On campus interview required. All applicants’ families have to make under…I think around $60K/yr. About 30% URM. One of 7 “work colleges” which gives work experience as well as money towards room/board while in school. First college in the south to go interracial and co-ed. The free tuition also applies to international students.</p>
<p>I can say firsthand, lovely campus in the App foothills, about 20 minutes south of Lexington. Quiet (and dry) town with lots of folk art shops.</p>
<p>posts are out of sequence again
Thread started as a shout out to southern LACs. Then was expanded to include small Uni’s and to include schools in the south central areas. Its not restricted (that I see) to underrated or overlooked schools. That said, Rice constantly gets “overshadowed” by the NE schools. So definitely fits the coments in the OP.
Its likely to end up as a list of schools in the SE. So be it.
Feel free to add Oglethorpe too.</p>
<p>Spelman just canned its athletics programs
[Spelman</a> College Ditches Athletics Program In Favor Of Health And Fitness Initiative](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/education/spelman-college-in-ga-ditches-athletics-program/nStZ6/[/url]”>http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/education/spelman-college-in-ga-ditches-athletics-program/nStZ6/</a></p>
<p>Austin College, TX -great for pre-med
Trinity in San Antonio just a very good all-around liberal arts school that give excellent aid and has great facilities.</p>
<p>Davidson and W&L are both popular nationally</p>
<p>Randolph Macon, aka “Randy Mac” from my college days, is a real nice LAC option I think. It is located in the small town of Ashland, VA (the center of the universe- seriously :))and like Davidson, the townies really support the students there. A lot of small town festivals, activities, markets, and super atmosphere for a small college. If you’ve never been to the Hanover Tomato Festival and had a Hanover tomato you haven’t lived.</p>
<p>RMC has dumped a ton of money into its infrastructure and upgraded most of the athletic facilities and dorms. I have several friends who have sent their kids there and they love it. Several are DIII athletes and they rave about the balance of sports and academics. By their parents’ accounts the FA is pretty solid with more grants than loans. Apparently they have a super endowment and strong alumni base for a small LAC. </p>
<p>From what I know,their biological sciences are strong along with the English offerings.<br>
One of those unknown gems.</p>
<p>Randolph College is super small. Around 550 students. They’re really committed to environmental studies and bettering the environment. Plus, they offer student-designed majors.</p>
<p>How about Hollins and Meredith? Any comments/experiences with those two?</p>
<p>Meredith is a well-respected LAC for women. It has a lovely, green campus and is crossed by a city greenway going to the NC Art Museum. Meredith is very close to NC State University and has an engineering dual degree program with State: [Meredith</a> College : Engineering :](<a href=“http://www.meredith.edu/engineering/default.htm]Meredith”>http://www.meredith.edu/engineering/default.htm)</p>
<p>Meredith is a Baptist institution, associated with the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Although students are fairly socially conservative (very little drinking, for example), it is not at all a fundamentalist school and is a welcoming place for women of different religious beliefs; there are Jewish and Muslim student organizations on campus. The following is from the college website: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It sounds great! 
I was just wondering if anyone on this forum had any personal/first-hand experiences to share! I’d love to hear about them.</p>
<ol>
<li>1,300 students in a town of 18,000</li>
<li>Within driving distance of Lexington, Louisville, and Cincinnati</li>
<li>U.S. News top-50 national liberal arts college </li>
<li>One of the least expensive of the top-50 LAC’s</li>
<li>85 percent of students study abroad at least once by graduation.</li>
<li>The Centre Commitment: All students who meet the College’s academic and social expectations are guaranteed an internship, study abroad, and graduation in four concurrent years, or the college will provide up to an additional year tuition free.</li>
<li>More than 98% of students graduate in four years.</li>
<li>25% of students complete double majors; also offers self-designed majors</li>
<li>Will match selected state-based scholarships (including Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee)</li>
</ol>
@justaGuy have you visited? We plan to visit; seems like what my D is looking for except the distance :).
New College of Fllorida is great for an independent, free spirit type of student. It is a state school, but is very small. About 800 students ( the state honors LAC) but they have a goal of having about 1200 in the next few years. It’s right on the water, and pretty…natural Florida style. It is unique in that they do not give grades, just narrative evaluations. This doesn’t seem to have any negative affect on getting into grad school, though. They seem to be good at getting students into good grad schools. They’ve recently upgraded some of their furnishings and we’re working on the cafeteria when we were there not long ago. Students here tend toward the “hippie” vibe, lots of bare feet ( the only place shoes are required is the science building).
Not far from there is Eckerd College, older but prettier ( imo). Eckerd is more known for its water related majors and activities. Average test scores not as high as New College. A more chill atmosphere…made me think of California a bit. Lots of students on skateboards, and very easy access to free water sports equipment. The dorms are right on the water with fire pits out front. Most of the buildings are old Florida ( I liked the charm of that) but some are much more modern. They had updated a couple of the dorms ( wow!) when we visited and were planning more upgrades.
I loved this campus. Didn’t care for the food though. It was a bit too laid back for my D.
My daughter has applied and been accepted to all of these (except Rhodes, they haven’t sent out yet). They all have their strengths but she’s leaning towards Hendrix for a number of reasons. We are in Texas so 3 of them are in Texas. Most of these are on the CTCL list. Hendrix, Rhodes, Austin College, Southwestern U (in Georgetown), and Trinity in San Antonio. While Southwestern and Trinity have University in the title, in every other way they are LAC’s (size, philosphy, classes). And Southwestern is on the CTCL list so they consider it one. They also compete closely with Rhodes and Hendrix.
@justaguy, what does it mean that Centre will match the state scholarships for the states listed? Do you mean like Bright Futures in Florida?
Just an FYI. This thread is a couple of years old, so you may not get much satisfaction from asking questions of previous posters.
@shoboemom It is interesting that some schools will match state scholarships. Apparently, Wofford gives OOS students the money in state students would receive from the South Carolina program.
I have a D at Berry, and it is definitely a Southern LAC. Very service oriented, and every student, regardless of finances, is eligible for a work study job on campus. The campus has 26,000 acres and is full of deer and hundred year old trees and is famous for their eagles that nest on campus. A lot of students hammock or hike and enjoy the outdoors, but there is not one particular “type” of student at Berry, so you’ll find your “tribe” within the 2000 students attending.
They are known for education and the science majors, and have a new nursing program in recent years. Sports are appreciated, but not dominating. A new football team is still struggling, but some of the smaller sports seem to have more prestige.
Come and tour Berry in Rome, Georgia, which is halfway between Atlanta and Chattanooga. It is worth the drive just to enjoy the beauty of the campus.