Updated website!

<p>Looks like Rhodes changed their website - aesthetically, it looks much better. Content seems about the same.</p>

<p>It is attractive. I just can't seem to find everything I could find last week.:(</p>

<p>Oh, I miss you both. I thought of y'all when we passed through Memphis last week. Fireflyscout, your DD decided on Carleton, right? I should remember, but my head has been in a total spin cycle for the past month or so. Curmudgeon, I hope your DD is doing well. I bet she'll love Rhodes and Memphis.</p>

<p>Yes, she'll be going to Carleton in a few weeks. It's really strange to hear about all of our kids actually starting college after this long, strange process. And especially that it's starting all over again with a new crop of kids.</p>

<p>SplashMom - I hope your daughter has a fantastic year at Hendrix!</p>

<p>Curmudgeon - I know Rhodes will be a great fit for your daughter. I'll always think about how DD almost chose Rhodes (which I think has the most beautiful buildings of any campus I've seen).</p>

<p>Thanks, fireflyscout. So far, so good. Tomorrow will mark a week that she has been there and she sounds so very happy! DH and I suffered the "woe is me" thing last Wedneday. When DD called on Thursday after meeting with her advisor, her happiness became contagious and we've been smiling since.</p>

<p>I wish your DD the best of luck at Carleton! I'm sure she'll do fabulously well!</p>

<p>Hi Curmudgeon, I see from your posts that your dd is an incoming freshman at Rhodes. We are looking at it for my dd for next year. I wonder if you would share with me what it was that sold your dd on Rhodes and what other colleges she was interested in. I just hope I get through this year in one piece with my lackadasical dd#2, so different from her older sister.<br>
P.S. Did you get any $$ from the school, tuition is quite steep! Thanks
SoCal Mom</p>

<p>By now, you probably know Cur's daughter got quite a bit of $$. My daughter was also offered a very nice scholarship (a bit over 1/3 of total cost). Rhodes is quite generous!</p>

<p>they have been since about 1983 or 84 when they received a huge gift from the Bellingrath Foundation in Mobile. Ever since then they've done 4 major things to reposition themselves ... and it was ALWAYS a great place, simply much more Midsouth/regional vs. national.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Renamed from Southwestern at Memphis (allegedly for President Emeritus Peyton Rhodes, also a former physics prof. Good thing his name wasn't Schicklegruber! And good thing Mr. Bellingrath was long dead.)</p></li>
<li><p>Decided to upgrade an already spectacularly attractive campus. Now it's one of the most magnificent in the country. Lots of deferred maintenance on single pane leaded glass windows and chipped slate roofs. The Library is one of the best ANYWHERE.</p></li>
<li><p>Started to buy some "star" faculty, do a bit more research. Especially a few minority profs.</p></li>
<li><p>Buy great students and lots of them ... like Trinity U. in Tex was doing for along time. And they are still doing this. This will pay big dividends for them over time as they will increasingly be able to compete with Emory, Davidson.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The only "downside" and it really depends upon viewpoint ... is Memphis. It's down in a "hole" on the way to nowhere, a suburb of Little Rock. Even 4 hours from Nashville.</p>

<p>Rhodes is a truly great value, especially when they are willing and able to provide ample scholarship $$ in lieu of loan money.</p>

<p>This is one of the great secrets among the nation's 5,000 colleges and universities. And it'll take 50 years more to put a dent in laggard public perceptions of higher ed institutions. One gets far more bang for the buck than nearly all the elitist East Coast institutions that are sorely over-priced and living on laurel, or ivy.</p>

<p>One rarely hears about Rhodes College beyond Louisville, St. Louis, Little Rock, Jackson, Atlanta. Too bad but good for those who have and are interested in genuine financial aid.</p>

<hr>

<p>The only "downside" and it really depends upon viewpoint ... is Memphis. It's down in a "hole" on the way to nowhere, a suburb of Little Rock. Even 4 hours from Nashville.</p>

<hr>

<p>Memphis isn't a suburb of Little Rock. Little Rock has less than 200,000 residents. Memphis has 700,000. Nashville has 600,000, but Nashville has a larger metro.</p>

<p>That's a figure of speech, tongue in cheek thing. The locals often say that. Believe me, it's not close to anyplace. 5 hrs. to St. Lou. 3 or 4 to Jackson. 3+ to LR. 4 to Nashville. Memphis is a real pain to get to. And expensive flying in or out of ...unless you know someone @ FedEx. But then you might end up being a "Castaway."</p>

<p>If you love Elvis, it's all worth it!</p>