<p>Who is still seriously considering Rhodes for next year? My D has jettisoned several including many early favorites, and Rhodes is a definite front-runner. Who else and what is their contemplated major?</p>
<p>As of Thursday morning, Rhodes was definitely on my daughter's short list. She's visiting another college right now, so I'll find out how things stand soon. It's the only college on her short list that doesn't get very, very cold in winter (could be a very big factor to my cold-phobic daughter). Contemplated major - history/international relations.</p>
<p>Cool. I am so gladddd! I realized I forgot to put that D is a projected Bio major although she was babbling something about their new neuroscience program/interdisciplinary major thing-y after her last visit. </p>
<p>She met a whole bunch of IR kids including a really cool girl from Austin. Seems like a very good program.</p>
<p>i am! im interested in bio too</p>
<p>Today I put the envelopes in the mail. My son will be attending Rhodes in the fall, and I mailed the other letter giving Ohio Wesleyan their 80K plus back. It was really hard to drop that letter in the mail box, but other than the money Rhodes just felt right on every other level to both my son and my husband and I.</p>
<p>CinciMom, :eek: that is impressive commitment. Congratulations on your son finding his college home. Other than "everything" what impressed him or you most? D and I have visited 4 times and she has visited once on her own but I'd like to hear your take on it.</p>
<p>odd. ohio wesleyan is much better known in the northeast and the midwest than rhodes is. academically, the profile appears to be about the same. odd choice to pick rhodes over ohio wesleyan but if it is about feel and fit, i understand that the fit is more important than the overall reputation.</p>
<p>rolio, actually Rhodes is ranked much higher if you care about such things. OWU was a school we had great interest in and they recruited my daughter heavily. I have nothing negative to say. I would be proud of my D attending BUT, let's look at the numbers (if a school can indeed be ranked, and I'm not so sure about that).</p>
<p>USNWR-2006[ul]
[<em>]Peer assessment R-3.5 OWU-3.0
[</em>]Sat 75% R-1370 OWU-1320
[<em>]Overall Rank R-45 OWU-100
[</em>]Top 10% R-51% OWU-28%</p>
<h2>[li]Fac/stndt ratio R-11/1 OWU 13/1[/ul]</h2>[/li]
<p>Other numbers follow the same pattern. Rhodes' peer instututions are lower ranked Gettysburg, Denison , DePauw and Sarah Lawrence, and higher ranked Dickinson. OWU's are Juniata and Bennington, and higher ranked Wells, and Wash and Jeff -excellent schools all. </p>
<p>I don't believe all that stuff matters a lot but just wanted to keep the record straight.</p>
<p>Our situation may be a bit different than some others in that sports plays a big role. My son will be playing basketball at Rhodes and this was a big factor in our evaluating all of the schools that we looked into. My son goes to school so that he can play sports. He has always done well scholastically, but playing a sport has always been really important to him. He knew that if he was being realistic he needed to look at DIII schools if he wanted to play, and he prefers being somewhere warmer than Ohio. Back in his junior year of high school he went on line and printed out a list of DIII schools in the south and gave it to me and said "Here Mom, look these over and tell me which ones are good schools." I did some research and came up with a list of possible schools. Ohio Wesleyan was only on our list because we had been in Delaware, Ohio several years ago for another sporting event and he liked the community. We visited Sewanee, Rhodes, and Washington & Lee during spring break his junior year. His older brother currently attends Centre so we have been there on several occasions. After our visits we crossed Sewanee off the list because of its isolated location, and he just didn't like the feel of Washington & Lee when they visited. He also did not really want to go to the same school as his brother so Centre was not high on his list either. Both Ohio Wesleyan and Rhodes displayed a lot of interest in him as a basketball player and we went to both schools for a second visit to watch a game. My son felt that he would have more to contribute immediately at Rhodes and also has always liked the idea of getting out of Ohio for college. He also likes the fact that Rhodes is right in Memphis as he is more of a big city type of kid. We have to give Coach Hilgeman at Rhodes a lot of credit, because he drove up to Cincinnati to see our son play in the high school tournament, which is a long ways to watch one kid!
Basicly it came down to the fact that although the money would be nice, it isn't absolutley necessary as we can afford to send him to college on our own. We did get some money from Rhodes, just not nearly as much as Ohio Wesleyan.</p>
<p>I don't put a lot of stock in the US News rankings primarily due its big weight on the measure called peer assessment - a measure that is not based on objective data. Also, when you get to the part of the table when the differential between schools is positive but not big, it doesn't mean much when it also becomes statistically insignificant. I mean, in all honestly the difference in ranking disappears if you consider only objective data indicators. </p>
<p>For example, let's consider a peer institution of Ohio Wesleyan - Denison University. The school has approx the same academic indicators as Ohio Wesleyan (slightly higher) but people who are familiar with both schools will agree that they are in the same academic group. Denison recruits in about the same market (which accounts for the adverse selection bias applicants of the measures that you mention). Its peer assessment, however, is a lot higher than OWU's. That alone places Denison about 40 spots ahead of OWU in the rankings. I think this peer assessment score alone preserves the status quo of the rankings from year to year without really being based on much data. One can right a lot on the how the magazine comes up with it and what schools may do to improve that alon without really improving anything about the quality of their education.</p>
<p>OWU has a big edge over Rhodes in various other areas that the rankings do not capture:</p>
<p>(1) Name recognition for graduate schools
(2) % earning PhDs
(3) Minority Diversity
(4) International Diversity (this is a big one)
(5) Faculty holding PhDs
(6) Faculty publications</p>
<p>However, I can see your point. I hope your D likes Rhodes. I guess she has already made her choice so this discussion is interesting but will not be helpful at this point. Rhodes is a great school either way.</p>
<p>After having Rhodes as her first choice for as long as I can remember, D has decided to go elsewhere in spite of a fabulous merit scholarship. Had a lot to do with the "stuffy" attitude she encountered through the correspondence with the admissions office and hearing from someone who lives in Memphis about how Rhode is perceived by locals. She also didn't hear about her merit scholarship until a letter finally showed up on April 6, so it was a nice surprise, but other colleges that had been courting her for months offered her scholarships much, much earlier, and with pretty comparable amounts. So although it definitely wasn't too little, it was very much too late, as we really couldn't get her back to the campus at that point to take another look before May 1. Had we known earlier, things might have turned out much different. Ah well. No bad choices on her short list, so it will all turn out the way it is supposed to.</p>
<p>Have just found this website! My D has been going to prep school in the NE for the past 4 years! So we've already mastered the "being away from home". So her list of school covered everywhere! She has narrowed her list to Rhodes and College of the Holy Cross (MA). Out of all the colleges we visited, Rhodes was not one of them! And of course, her college counselor said she just did not see how D could make a decision without visiting! So, we are going in late April! Was hoping to have all this decided by now. </p>
<p>My H and I have read everything we can find. It sounds like a place she would fit and get a great education. She has a friend at school that has a friend there, so D will spend the night with her in dorm. </p>
<p>After being in the NE for 4 years, D would like to get back to South and all the personalities that go with it. Being a native TX, NE has been quite different--great, but different. Was glad to see that 78-80 kids are from TX. Would really be nice to have a friend nearby over holidays. That probably was our biggest surprise with the prep school. Holidays and summers were hard--since we moved to a different city when in 9th grade--so she knows no one where we currently live. </p>
<p>Do you know anything about the Greek system there! Had always preferred D go where there was no Greek system--but am quite sure she will be interested! </p>
<p>Any information you can give me would be great!</p>
<p>TXMOM1, you have joined on a historic day. Historic to me anyway. LOL. The day my kid decided to accept her offer of admission to Rhodes. </p>
<p>She is a scholarship recipient but her decision to consider Rhodes comes from the 10th grade and encompasses 5 visits. I think I can draw a campus map from memory. Let's just say we left no stone, or leaf unturned.</p>
<p>My D is also NOT the sorority type and never wanted a big greek influence. She is now considering it after seeing that it is not like UT or Alabama or several other "transfer if you don't get the right bid" schools. I don't believe it is as exclusive an experience as other southern schools. </p>
<p>Grad school rates , med school rates, prestigious fellowship rates (Two Goldwaters announced yesterday) are all excellent. The campus is stunning. Downtown provides plenty of opportunity for merry making :eek: and St. Jude's is closeby for repentance and research.Study abroad is very good. Check out the European semester done in conjunction with Sewanee. Outrageous. </p>
<p>My D could have gone anywhere and she has chosen Rhodes. I agreed with her decision. Ask away. We're done!!</p>
<p>BTW, Texas, too.</p>
<p>i visited rhodes during the fall this year, but never had the chance to venture out into the city...could you possibly provide some info about the city? sorry i know thats fairly vague</p>
<p>D has only talked about St. Jude's, the civil rights museum, the really cool minor league baseball park and Memphis Grizzlies FedEX forum right downtown. Big name acts at U of Memphis, live music nightly on Beale Street, outstanding BBQ. </p>
<p>Other than that the town is old, historical, southern, and has their share of poor neighborhoods. (The immediate neighborhood is fine. Sketchy within blocks. D is a worry wart and she was OK with it. ) For a college student interested in both fun and opportunities for service (big regional med center, med school and St. Jude's), seems like a pretty good town with great air service. </p>
<p>It ain't New York, but I believe a college kid can find what they want to find, and plenty of things they don't need.</p>
<p>sounds great! yeah i noticed the area around rhodes was a little rundown, im guessing the students go off elsewhere when they leave campus</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, wow! I know that you have put an enormous amount of time and energy into this college search. The fact that your daughter has decided on Rhodes just makes me feel that much better about my son choosing it. Here in Cincinnati, Rhodes does not have much name recognition and when we tell people where our son is going the general response is kind of a blank stare followed by the question "And it's where?". </p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter! What a relief to have the decision made!</p>
<p>im definitely going!!!! if anyone else is feel free to im me at katherined09 or facebook me!</p>
<p>Good choice. My D is happier with her choice every day.</p>
<p>I sent my deposite to Rhodes on Monday. It was a really hard choice as I was deciding between my shortened list of Trinity (CT), George Washington, or Rhodes. Rhodes was such a happy and friendly place that seemed much more interested in an education and a good environment that I did not find at my Northeast schools. I'm from PA, so I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited, about moving to the south.</p>