<p>To All. Wow, I can’t thank you enough for your thoughts and insights. It’s nice to read about all of the different schools and how everyone enjoys the schools they are attending. We’ve visited several in the south already Agnes Scott, Tampa, Fl Southern, Stetson, Rollins, Eckerd, Sewanee, Centre, Rhodes, URichmond, Elon. Some of these only for a pass through campus walk but most for a tour. </p>
<p>Here are my Ds impression of each, FWIW. Agnes Scott: really nice campus, but can’t wrap her head around the all-female aspect. Tampa: Lovely campus, likes being in the city. Fl Southern: had a high school vibe which turned my D off. Stetson: Not much to offer a bio (molecular bent) major and buildings seemed older in general. Rollins: gorgeous campus and bio facilities. Eckerd: Was not impressed with campus look/feel; too much concrete. Sewanee: Gorgeous campus, excellent facilities, isolated, not sure about the whole dress up for class routine. Centre: Nice campus, isolated in the middle of KY. Rhodes: Architecture to die for, library is a place she would want to study, excellent biomedical research opportunities. URichmond: Another gorgeous campus, suburban feel. Elon: Beautiful campus.</p>
<p>She has many options so far; we’ll see how it goes. </p>
<p>@sosconcern. You’re spot on about the percentage of OOS students being important to my daughter. She’s lived many places in the US throughout her life,so D can adapt to most anything, but having half the campus leave on the weekend is a turn off. The South speaks to D (as it does her parents) for both the weather and the general people “atmosphere”. Politically, she’s more moderate than the average Southern voter, but it’s not something driving her decision.</p>
<p>Has she considered Belmont U in Nashville? There are a couple of Master’s programs but it is basically a LAC. Small campus, columned buildings… right next to Music Row… great location. Her numbers <em>might</em> warrant some aid.</p>
<p>Definitely look into College of Charleston. I’m from Charleston and I would attend the college in a heart beat if it wasn’t so close to home. Downtown Charleston is beautiful and definitely interesting. The Medical University of South Carolina is in walking distance of CofC and many students go from CofC to MUSC after graduation. Your daughter could probably get merit aid from CofC too, and its already an inexpensive college. You two should really consider visiting (warning: you will fall in love immediately).
My sister goes to Stetson and she absolutely loves it. Her stats were slightly lower than your daughter’s and she got half of her tuition paid.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks, Improv. CoC NPC cost of $41k/year is significantly more than any of the other southern LACs we’ve examined, so it’s off Ds radar. About a year ago, Stetson was high on her list, and I liked it because of the excellent grant/merit aid. Unfortunately, she was turned off from the campus after the tour. </p>
<p>My D looked at many of the same schools. Centre, which I think is a great school, fell off her list because of its high percentage of in state students and KY feel. She nixed Agnes Scott (all women) and Elon (she didn’t feel the intellectual vibe).</p>
<p>We are full pay and needed some merit aid so that factored into the equation. She applied to and was accepted at Sewanee, Rhodes, Richmond and CofC. I think they’re all great schools, each with something different to offer. Ultimately, she chose Sewanee. She intends to major in English. </p>
<p>Prior to last year, I was not familiar with Sewanee. Frankly, when D read a description of the school to me, I was surprised she was even interested. I would describe her politics as moderate, or slightly liberal, and I didn’t think the traditions (class dress, etc) would appeal to her. She’s also a suburban/urban type girl. But she fell in love with the campus and the people. The school has a very welcoming, inclusive feel and great academics. I’ll let you know how it goes this year. </p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. </p>
<p>I agree that test prep would be well worth it for your D. </p>
<p>@overtheedge I have to say your feelings are exactly those my D has about the colleges you mentioned. Amazing similarity in fact. </p>
<p>Sewanee is a great school but it has so many unique qualities that it has to fit the right person. If my D was more of an outdoors kind of person, Sewanee would be the choice hands down (she got stung by a nest of hornets at camp when she was young, which tempered her enthusiasm for hikes). </p>
<p>Here’s an update to my D’s search that I hope will inspire more comments. </p>
<p>We attended the CTCL fair in Michigan recently, which my D enjoyed very much. She came away having discovered Birmingham Southern College as a potential. My family already had a trip planned to visit URichmond and Wofford, but because of the BSC intrigue and having already walked through URichmond, my daughter decided to skip URichmond and visit BSC instead. </p>
<p>D arrived this morning at BSC cold (without having contacted the admissions office of her being in town) and was pleasantly surprised at the reception! The president of the school (General Krulak) talked with her for about 15 minutes… this is without having been notified ahead of time! Apparently, he’s a super guy; true people person. I know he speaks with many students considering BSC but still… impressive. </p>
<p>The admission counselor took my D on a spontaneous tour of BSC. D liked the campus atmosphere and decided she will be applying there too. I like the idea of generous merit aid. </p>
<p>Tonight, the family is in Spartanburg with a scheduled visit to Wofford tomorrow AM. Good times!</p>
<p>Any more thoughts on these schools from the CC literati: Wofford, Rhodes, BSC, URichmond, Rollins? </p>
<p>^ A family I know has a daughter who is starting her sophomore year at Birmingham-Southern. Although I have not spoken to the daughter, her parents tell me that she is having a great experience at BSC, and they have described BSC as a “very nurturing” place. Also, I had a very impressive former student who got her bachelor’s degree at BSC; so I know that you can get a good undergraduate education there.</p>
<p>A friend has a daughter who is a nursing student at Wofford, and I hear good reports about Wofford from the dad.</p>
<p>If you are going to be in Spartanburg to visit Wofford, what about stopping in Greeneville, just up the road, and taking in Furman as well? It has a beautiful campus, and a good reputation; I know several kids who attend there, and they love it.</p>
<p>I have a D at Berry College, it has a beautiful, expansive (26,000 acres) campus, a new science facility, and a 100 year history so the endowment giving allows for large merit aid awards. Berry is a residential campus, students are required to live on campus all 4 years, so the community feel is more tight-knit. No greek life, dry campus, team sports are enjoyed but not dominant in the culture of the school. It appears an Eno hammock and a pair of chacos are required to truly enjoy the relaxed Berry atmosphere. With 2,000 students there are enough variety of kinds of students so there is no one type (artsy, hipster, geeky, etc.) dominating. We were very pleased with the merit aid received.</p>
<p>My niece attended Furman and got a chemistry degree. She loved it, but when her younger sister went to apply with equally top-notch stats there was much less merit aid being given out. It appears to be a more recent college decision to change the way they recruit based on a higher demand for Furman.</p>
<p>BSC had some financial issues in the past 5-8 years, but they appear to be recovering now. At the time we knew students that were weeks away from moving into dorms at BSC being told “oh, by the way, we are canceling your intended major. Sorry.” It was a blow to the school, but I think the new president is handling things well and things may well be back in good order by now. Not sure how those financial struggles have affected merit aid scholarships.</p>
<p>Retaking the ACT is worth the effort ! Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I have experience with Hendrix, Berry and Furman with my son. These are my impressions via my son</p>
<p>S was accepted at Hendrix, did an overnight at the accepted student’s weekend. Great school with interesting classes. We were treated well and the food was good. Friendly students, no greek life, some “hipster” kids, plenty that are not.Down side-my son was turned off by the town-small and rural.</p>
<p>S attended Berry for two years and transferred to Furman. Berry’s music program was small (with very nice faculty);S wanted a bigger program. S liked Berry overall and the professors were incredibly involved with students. Berry was 70% students from Georgia and many were heavily involved with their religion. S grew up in a diverse, university town community where religion wasn’t emphasized (though he did attend church) so there was a bit of adjustment to the community at first. He wished there had been more kids from other places and he was a little uncomfortable with the strong Christian religious presence. He still has friends from Berry he keeps up with, though and attended church the whole time he was there! Great financial aid and scholarship-almost as cheap as a state school. He found the town a bit stifling with not much to do. The outdoor opportunities were fantastic and the emphasis on work and service to others was great. The campus is simply amazing and a sprawling land mass-Berry has its own mountain.</p>
<p>S got a merit scholarship at Furman because the music department had just gotten a huge grant from the Duke foundation. Agree with previous poster that they are handing out fewer academic merit scholarships. Positives about Furman - more diversity than Berry culturally, less so economically. S was happy with academic classes (four credit liberal arts model-lots of depth) and loved the city of Greenville-big enough to have fun in. Kids come from Clemson and Wofford to hang out there on the weekend so there was a “college feel” downtown on the weekend evenings. Gay students seemed comfortable and, although Furman was associated with the Baptists 20 years ago, the religious overlay wasn’t there. Professors were very helpful with writing references for grad school and advising S.</p>
<p>Downside-not enough economic diversity. Aside from kids having top scholarships for academics, many of the scholarship or aid kids seemed to be limited to musicians or athletes. 30% of the students were Greek and students did tend to dress up more than where he is now for grad school -the northeast.The nice dress does seem to be a “southern thing”, perhaps</p>
<p>hornet, I agree with your impressions of Hendrix, except for describing the setting as “rural.” I have been visiting there for several years (my son is a junior). Conway is really just an outer suburb of Little Rock–more of a big small town than a rural community. The population is about 63,000–slightly bigger than Greenville. It’s not the most interesting place, but it has a few decent places to eat and lots of nice natural areas nearby. My son and his friends go into LR all the time for shows and more interesting restaurants and shopping–it’s an easy half-hour drive on the interstate.</p>
<p>Sally-we only saw Conway Arkansas over a weekend; I do stand to be corrected on matters of Conway. Since you have a child there, you know the community in ways I never will. I have a real fondness for Hendrix. It and Earlham were my top choices when my son was considering options. My son decided otherwise. </p>
<p>I don’t want to belabor the point or be tiresome but, like you, I want readers to have an good sense of location when considering colleges. The city limit of Greenville SC, as you indicated, has a population of 61,000. Greenville County, however, is urban and home to 474,266 people. It is hard to tell where the city ends and the county begins. The metro area (MSA) of Greenville which includes neighboring towns had a population of 850,965 in 2013; bigger, but similar to Little Rock’s MSA (including neighboring towns) of 724,385 in 2013. </p>
<p>My husband and I were quite taken with Greenville; it is a great place to visit with a variety of foods and things to do. Downtown there are folks living in the floors above the restaurants and shops, huge old churches and a couple of large multistory hotels that always seem to be adding a flood of convention goers to the mix. The city has a zoo, pro baseball and ice hockey feeder teams, a 16,000 seat indoor arena downtown, several museums, an opera house and a good philharmonic with its own dedicated performing center (Peace Center-wonderful place-I miss it). The crime rate is quite low and a river runs through the town, adding to the atmosphere. I thought about it as a possible place to retire-good weather and close to the mountains. Enough, I am starting to ramble!</p>
<p>hornet, you are not rambling at all. And I love hearing about interesting communities, especially in the south (I live in the frigid midwest, but a girl can dream…). I honestly know nothing at all about South Carolina, but it sounds great!</p>
<p>Several posts ago, I mentioned my D was taking the ACT again. She had a 28 on the last test and received a 30 today! So happy for her (and my wallet)!! </p>
<p>She’s still considering Richmond, Rhodes, Rollins, Wofford, BSC, and UTampa. Hendrix may get added to the list too. Maybe a SoCal LAC or two as well (Pitzer, Occidental). </p>
<p>One other thought: Mercer University in Macon, GA (not strictly a liberal arts college, but not overly large either). I have a cousin who graduated from there, and then went on to medical school at Wake Forest. Mercer also has an affiliated medical school.</p>
<p>Good luck, and let us all know how things turn out!</p>
<p>D submitted her first set of five applications today: Rollins, Rhodes, Sewanee, Birmingham Southern, and Univ of Tampa. All but Rollins are early application. About seven more to go. </p>