<p>Yeah, the party scene at Hendrix is centered around the dorms and is very inclusive. The college itself hosts a lot of campus events too that are fun and well-attended. </p>
<p>Agree with dadof 1 about southern schools and Greek life. S graduated from Furman last May. He found the Greek life a mildly annoying presence (School is roughly 30% overall Greek but looks like a lot more-some of the Greek letters are for things like the music frat and sorority, for example. Kids also tend to dress in the âpreppyâ style but are not necessarily Greek). S was able to build a network of friends and did not feel affected by the Greeks, especially toward the end of his time at Furman. He is now at Carnegie Mellon for grad school and likes that sports and Greek life do not have much of a presence there. He feels that the Greek life he has seen in the north is not as obvious-less dressing up, fewer formals. So, it may be there but harder to detect? Also, S is a grad student now and may not be as aware since the Greeks are an undergrad thing.</p>
<p>@mominsc - my Dâs take on Wofford was the same. It must be a SC thing:). </p>
<p>As far as the Greek scene goes, IME it is not the same at many small LACs as it is at larger schools. At both Sewanee and Centre for instance, parties are open to everyone and the Greek system is very inclusive. At Sewanee, all but one of the sororities are local. Some consist of a dozen friends who decided to form their own sorority. Many kids who would be unlikely to go Greek at a State U, often go Greek at smaller schools. Also, at many LACs, the Greeks live in dorms with non-Greeks. Being Greek doesnât define you or your friend group. I think itâs important to look at nature of the Greek system on each campus.</p>
<p>Thatâs my impression too overtheedge. D is looking for a school where the default option on the weekend nights for most students is not to âhead to the frat house for the partyâ. Weâre still in search of more information on this front for her college decision.</p>
<p>Look thru book Colleges that Change Lives as a starting point. Then see % frat at some of those schools. Earlham College has no frats. Neither does Clark. Not southern butâŠ</p>
<p>I donât think Davidson has fraternities and sororities. Back in 2011, our guide said they had âeating clubs.â I didnât fully understand the concept at the time, which didnât matter because S found Davidson too small and confining - and without engineering - another deal breaker. We didnât visit Davidson with D since it is way beyond a reach for her.</p>
<p>Davidson has eight fraternities, two historically black sororities, and four eating houses (eating houses are womenâs organizations, sort of like local sororities).</p>
<p>Hey, 4kids4colleges, we were kind of stunned that our daughter got 19K per year in merit aid at Stetson considering it was a reach for her. Donât know if you all have heard about merit aid yet but they appeared generous to us. I think itâs based mostly on SAT scores. </p>
<p>Thanks Momzie! Congratulations to your D! Have not heard from Stestson yet. So far, merit awards at Agnes Scott, Roanoke, Guilford, and Westminster (not southern- in Salt Lake City) are all very similar as far as net price. Where else did your D apply? </p>
<p>Mary Baldwin, Hollins, Meredith, Utica, Mary Washington, Longwood and VCU. Got in everywhere and got good merit aid everywhere, even Mary Washington which was kind of surprising given that itâs a state school.
Sheâs been lording the results over everyone all week - Her brother had better scores but also aimed a lot higher so got quite a few rejections. Apparently her essay was really good and sheâs really charming so she did well everywhere that she interviewed. Our son, in contrast, probably didnât ace the interviews. Funny system. Been through it twice in two years and still donât feel like I know anything. It just seems really random to me. </p>
Update: D is in the holiday lull of college admissions. Seems to be the norm on CC⊠posts to the student admits thread have reduced to a trickle. The only concrete information D has received was letters of merit aid from Hendrix (19K) and Stetson (33K). Stetson is trying hard to attract students it appears.
D will be hearing from Centre and Rhodes next week! Looking forward to those and hope itâs good news. Sewanee postponed their EA notifications because of a large increase in applicants. The school has asked applicants to reply with an email to confirm their continued interest in Sewanee. Wonder if this happened in previous years or if itâs a method to increase yield?
Dad, we are finding a similar pattern. D had four acceptances to LACs before the holidays (with merit aid announced at the same time, a really convenient way to do it for families). But weâre not expecting to hear from the others for at least a month. So any talk of colleges in our house has pretty much dropped to nil.
We stopped again at Sewanee (just 5 or 10 minutes off the Interstate) on our way down to see relatives in Florida over the holidays. I was surprised how busy it was there, given that many LAC campuses I have driven through seem to completely close up during breaks. Sewanee is somewhat unique in that many faculty families live on campus, so there were a lot of parents and children out and about. It was also a particularly nice day. D ended up having a great, impromptu conversation with a religion professor who was outside doing some work, on Dec 27th! He was a great ambassador for the school.
I do wonder how long the LACs will be able to maintain such varying admissions timelines. IMO the system seems to be creaking under the weight of ever-increasing numbers of applications and the challenges of colleges in managing their yields. Will everyone eventually move to a rolling admissions system, perhaps?
Hi Dad3 and dadof1. We have had a similar experience, though D got one more acceptance this week to College of Idaho, a super safety. Sewanee has been her top choice, but recently she is thinking a little more about the more formal dress for classes. She is a jeans/leggings person, though not grungy at all. I think she would need a new wardrobe, or at least many more skirts/dresses! We will see.
D applied to too many safeties, I think, in retrospect. Several of these offered merit plus the opportunity to compete for more money, including possible full ride (Roanoke, Agnes Scott, McDaniel, Whittier in CA). Weâve discussed it and the only one we will pursue is Agnes Scott. We just canât possibly attend all these events, and even if she got more money, I think it would be a couple thousand, probably not enough to make up for the somewhat lower caliber of these schools compared to Sewanee, Centre, etc. Agnes Scott is the exception - we are attending the Scholars Weekend in March.
We are also visiting Southwestern U and Trinity U in February, attending their open houses. I really like Southwestern on paper. A friend of ours, life-long Texan, recently raved about the school, and of course about Austin. Will let you know how that visit goes!
At the last minute D applied to Grinnell, Denison, and Tulane. I see Grinnell and Tulane as reaches/matches, Denison as match. But we need merit $, so that will be a big deciding factor.
Still no merit award from Stetson, its been a while⊠Probably not in the running anyway.
Good luck with upcoming admission decisions!
Hi 4kids and Dad3. For our situation, it doesnât matter too much for us when we receive admissions notifications. CoA plays a large role in the final decision and will be taken into consideration along with Dâs âfeelâ for a school. So, we will wait until April to make a decision.
There is the psychological part to admissions timing though. We get more excited about schools that send decisions earlier and with more generous merit aid. They receive more discussion in the household than they might if the schoolsâ admissions decisions were received late in the game. That pyschological advantage is not to be overlooked, IMO. On the other hand, we always keep schools in mind during the process that made good first impressions during college visits or have a greater reputation.
Dad3, thanks for the Sewanee note. Itâs one more data point on the school that reinforces the specialness of the college. People associated with the school have almost a cult-like reverence for Sewanee. Maybe itâs the relative isolation of the place and uniqueness of the âDomainâ that gives me that impression? We were also visiting FL over the holiday break and drove very near Sewanee. D wanted to stop for a quick visit and show the school to Mom, but too much Atlanta traffic meant we would have arrived after dark. It was raining as well, so the Sewanee stop was canceled.
4kids, D was also concerned about the unofficial Sewanee dress code for classes, but it doesnât seem like everyone wears dresses and khakis to class. More informal attire like leggings is apparent too⊠is this your impression?
4kids, Congratulations on all of the âenhancedâ scholarship opportunities. Of those you mentioned, I also think Agnes Scott is a cut above. Will you and D be going to the Pirate Preview in Feb? Maybe D and Mom will travel there to see the school and get a break from the cold winter!
Best of luck to all!
We, too, have noticed the impact of early admissions/scholarship decisions.
I think this partly goes back to the âitâs nice to be wanted threadâ that was discussed a month or so ago. It is only natural that the early offers and scholarships are going to garner strong discussion and consideration. My S starts to picture himself at those schools, while the other decisions may not come until April 1. In addition, the schools that have made nice offers are now calling and emailing him, which is very nice too.
This suggests to me, at least, that it is a competitive recruiting advantage for schools offering merit aid to good students to have EA or rolling admissions, rather than just RD. I suspect that the reason some schools do not, is due to yield issues? Is there some other reason they donât want to get out results and offers earlier in the process?
This is going to be a long couple months waiting, and then sorting this out.
Good luck to all.
@dadof1, yes, D and I are attending the Pirate Preview in Feb. Bringing our 8 year old D as well - never too early to start looking at colleges, right? 
Would love to meet your D and wife if they make it out! The Texan friends I mentioned have a cousin who works in the Provostâs office at SU - I hope to talk to her and maybe get an âinsideâ view of the school.
About Sewanee dress code, when we visited I do recall that our tour guide wore a dress, and Dâs overnight host wore a skirt, which made an impression. Then in the (male) dorm room we toured, there was a suit coat, tie, and dress shirt nicely laid out on the bed - our tour guide explained this type of dress was common for going to class. But Iâm sure there is much more casual dress as well (though not ripped jeans, etc.) I donât think it should be a deal-breaker at all. It seems like such a special, amazing place. One of a kind.
@ColdinMinny A school I am familiar with made the change from rolling admissions to precipice (everyone notified at the same time) admissions this year. Their justification for doing so is that they are better able to allocate resources (merit and need based aid) when they can compare all the applicants. They are not eliminating merit but trying to reduce the number of merit awards so they are able to give out more need based money. It remains to be seen if it works but that is the reasoning they give for the change.
Re dress at Sewanee, D wore nice jeans to the class she visited in November and felt that she fit right in. The kids in the âMy Sewanee Experienceâ videos seem nicely dressed, but not over the top.
Conversely, on a visit to Ohio State, we saw an attractive, regular-looking female student walking across campus in a sweatshirt that read " **** Michigan" (but with the word spelled out). I was taken aback. Not likely to see that at Sewanee, by my guess!
@MidwestDad3 Only if the sweatshirt had Rhodes on it instead of Michigan! 
^LMAO.
I just returned from taking D back to Sewanee. If you have the opportunity while visiting, I highly recommend the Sewanee Inn. Very cozy (especially in front of the big fireplace on a cold night), the rooms are lovely, and the Sunday brunch is great.
D wears a lot of sundresses to class in warmer months, but her class dress during cooler months is mainly nice jeans or leggings with boots and a sweater. At most, sheâll throw a skirt and tights in there to mix it up. Class dress is a âtraditionâ, not a dress code requirement. Some kids dress up more, some less. For D, it depends on her mood and the weather. It really hasnât been an issue.
Last year Sewanee did not send an email asking for affirmation of interest. Iâm curious to see their application numbers this year. It sounds like theyâve been thrown for a loop. For a long time, the student body has been very self selecting. I wonder if that is changing.
Good luck everyone!