Southern LACs

College Search & Selection
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<p>One of the big reasons my D is choosing a LAC is for more student/faculty interaction. One metric to gauge this interaction is class size. For every college, generalizations about class size are available, but how this applies to specific majors (like bio) isn’t readily apparent. I’ve tried to find specific class size limits online for a bio major at the LACs D is considering. While I haven’t been able to find this information for all of her LACs, I have found the info for some. </p>

<p>I thought others might want to see this as well, so here is what I’ve discovered so far. Most of these four LACs have similar class sizes overall, but there are exceptions, especially organic chem. Rollins seems to have the smallest class sizes across the board.</p>

<p>Hendrix:
Intro Bio: 28
Organic Chem: 40
Genetics: 24 - 35
Molecular Biology: 24 - 75
Bio Seminar Courses: 24
Intro English: 15
Intro Language: 22
Intro Psych/Sociology/History: 25 - 30
Calculus: 25 - 30</p>

<p>Rollins:
Intro Bio: 24
Organic Chem: 24
Genetics: 12
Molecular Biology: 12
Bio Seminar Courses: 12
Intro English: 16
Intro Language: 15
Intro Psych/Sociology/History: 24
Calculus: 24</p>

<p>Sewanee:
Intro Bio: 21 - 28
Organic Chem: 48
Genetics: 30
Molecular Biology: 16
Bio Seminar Courses:
Intro English: 15
Intro Language: 21
Intro Psych/Sociology/History: 25
Calculus: 22 - 28</p>

<p>Wofford:
Intro Bio: 24
Organic Chem: 24
Genetics: 26
Molecular Biology: 20
Bio Seminar Courses: ?
Intro English: 15
Intro Language: 22
Intro Psych/Sociology/History: 25 - 30
Calculus: 25 - 30</p>

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<p>I cannot comment directly on Bio, but can add:</p>

<p>Furman: Largest class size in ANY class: 32</p>

<p>Elon: Largest class size in ANY class: 33</p>

<p>One further data point: Impressive young man we had lunch with at Furman: Freshman Chem class, started at 30, down to 24 after 3 weeks. Labs taught by the same professor that teaches the lectures. The 6 casualties no longer are interested in pre-med. (Better to find out now, rather than later!)</p>

143

<p>We are visiting Rose-Hulman, Denison, and tentatively Rhodes next week. Then, hopefully, we are done, unless he narrows it down to 2 or so or wants to do an overnight before pulling the final trigger.</p>

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<p>I should add, two of these are certainly not “Southern LAC’s”, so was not planning to post anything on those visits here.</p>

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<p>ColdinMinny: Really hoping you make it to Rhodes. This college is among her top choices, and I’d love to read your take!</p>

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<p>I can’t comment on any Bio classes at Sewanee but all of the classes that my D either registered for this semester were limited in enrollment to either 20 or 24 students. From the US News site it looks like Sewanee has 1% of classes over 50, but it also has largest percentage (among the schools above mentioned ) at 61% of classes with less than 20 students.</p>

<p>@ColdinMinny‌ - based on your tour impressions thus far, I think a visit to Rhodes would be well worth the time.</p>

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<p>Coldminny: I too hope you make it to Rhoades. We plan to visit later this month, but love to hear other views as there may be something we miss.</p>

<p>I have been lurking, loving all of the reviews. My daughter is a Junior and is interested in mostly LAC in the South. The only other college (her favorite) is Washington University in St. Louis. It is medium size but feels smaller than some of the others she has looked at.</p>

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<p>Sophomore1, I will share with you that I have heard from multiple parents that pre-Med at WashU is major league competitive. Gorgeous camps, as of a couple years ago when last there. Almost zero merit aid, so it is not on our radar. But if you can swing it financially, and you have a student that thrives or doesn’t mind a competitive atmosphere, it would be a terrific school.</p>

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<p>Welcome Sophmore1! Please add any information/impressions you have as well.</p>

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<p>Re: Rhodes. We are currently scheduled to see Rhodes next Saturday. However, it is a long drive to Memphis, down from Granville, Ohio where we are touring Denison on Friday. Furthermore, while I have heard a couple glowing reviews of Rhodes from two other parents of kids from S’s school–and parents I really respect–their CS program gives me pause. Everything else about Rhodes–size, “flavor”, merit aid–are all right up S’s alley. I asked about the Rhodes CS program on the Rhodes page, with nary a response. If anyone here knows anything, please enlighten us.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the great reviews @ColdinMinny! Denison to Rhodes sounds like a serious drive - that’s over 18 hours round trip right? Yikes. Maybe you could find a cheap flight. I believe Centre is only 4 hours from Denison. I would love to hear your impressions of Denison. We have a friend who went there and loved everything about it except the weather ;).</p>

<p>Also on the class size issue - Centre says no class is ever more than 30 students. Wow. </p>

<p>Another point - are any of you familiar with The Alumni Factor ranking guide? You can find info here if you are interested: <a href=“https://www.alumnifactor.com/”>https://www.alumnifactor.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Sewanee and Centre get HUGE thumbs up on all alumni rating factors in this guide. For some reason, Rhodes, Southwestern U, Hendrix, and a few others do not appear in the guide, apparently because the authors did not get enough survey responses from those schools’ alumni.</p>

<p>Interestingly, Sewanee reported 68.9% of alumni had post-grad degrees. This is comparable to Wellesley (69.8%), and Amherst (67.9%), and actually slightly higher than Harvard (65.4%), Dartmouth (64.4%), Columbia (66.2%), Colby (63.9%), Haverford (64.8%) and Bowdoin (63.4%), for example.</p>

<p>Some of the highest percentage of alumni with post-grad degrees are Williams (74%), Bryn Mawr (72.9%), Swarthmore (73.3%), and Brown (72.2%).</p>

<p>Centre and Furman are a little lower but still good (58.3% Centre and 56.7% Furman), comparable to Bucknell (56.1%), Connecticut College (58.5%), Occidental (56.9%), Kenyon (59.5%), Trinity (TX) (60.3%), Washington and Lee (61.6%)</p>

<p>Elon and Rollins come in significantly lower, with 32.5% post-grad degrees reported at Elon and 37.6% at Rollins. </p>

<p>I can’t say anything about the methodology used in this guide, but it certainly is interesting. Coming from a school where virtually everyone went on to graduate school, I really would like my D to have a similar experience. </p>

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<p>@ColdinMinny‌ - I’m not familiar with Rhodes’ CS department. I have some friends who were bio majors there, however, and they were pleased with their education. </p>

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<p>D received her first admit response: accepted into the honors program at Univ of Tampa. Interestingly, the merit award was exactly as predicted by the NPC. We’re hoping some of her other colleges follow suit with the NPC and others don’t!</p>

<p>@ColdinMinny Did you decide to make the journey to Rhodes? I don’t know anything about the CS department, but it does seem a bit small. However, I did see that one of the department’s assistant professors received an impressive NSF grant this past summer.</p>

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<p>That’s great news @dadof1! Do you mind sharing the merit award amount? Univ of Tampa is still on D’s (way too lon list). Did your D like the campus a lot? </p>

<p>Congratulations! </p>

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<p>Thanks @4kids4colleges it’s good to have one college under the belt! D received the Presidential scholarship at $13,000/year. COA for room and board/tuition/fees would be a little over $22,000 for the freshman year. We’re still hopeful D can win a biology departmental scholarship but won’t know that for some time. </p>

<p>UT has a much different from any of the other Southern LACs we’ve toured, but D loved the UT campus. Right in the city along the riverfront. Most of the buildings are new/newer it seems. Most of the dorms are high rises of 8 - 10 stories… like living in an apartment complex on Miami Beach. The campus seems small for the number of students, but I think many of the upperclassmen live off campus. I don’t get the feeling that students are as connected to each other compared to smaller LACs. The educational facilities are OK but nothing spectacular, maybe expect for the business school. </p>

156

<p>Lurker here…enjoying the reviews. Anyone here familiar with Roanoke College in Salem, VA? My D really liked it and applied since it has rolling admissions. </p>

<p>Roanoke College, Salem, VA: Small LAC with 2,000 undergrads, attractive campus, academics seem strong - although definitely a step (or two) down from LACs discussed here. Roanoke has an honors program, small class size, and significant scholarship money.</p>

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<p>^ I can’t say that I know anything about it, although I’ve got family in SW Virginia. I’ll ask them what, if anything, they know about it.</p>

<p>Normally I would suggest going to the Roanoke College board on SuperMatch; but there does not appear to be a “Discussion” link or option there.</p>

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<p>@mominsc Welcome. I’m not too familiar with Roanoke College, sorry. </p>

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<p>@gandalf78‌ @dadof1‌ Thanks. I have friends in VA who haven’t heard of Roanoke College either. It is not that selective, but has an honors program, and offers great merit aid. General scholarship criteria is ACT score 28 and above, mostly A’s, most challenging courses, etc. D found out about it from her college counselor. </p>

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<p>^check that the honors program isn’t just one class per semester; to be worth it, it should include priority registration, honors housing, more than one Honors class per semester that can be taken (ie., perhaps a common Honors class plus some Honors gen ed classes or sections - not regular sections where the one honors students has an “honors option”), and nice are fellowship advising, experiential learning (trips, conferences, lectures), and college-supported research project with an option to travel and present it.</p>