Good colleges keep crawling out of the woodwork... Furman? Sewanee? INfo?

[JFS in IL]

I love getting emails/snailmail from colleges (ds has appointed me his college guidance counselor ;)) and both of the above look good and may join the short list with Gettysburg (another one I'd never heard of until they started bombarding ds with snailmail).

So far the most I know is we want to find something small, full of smart kids, and within a two-day drive from northern Illinois. Nearby wilderness for ds to hike in is a must. Must have a strong history dept. and small class size for my introvert son. Private preferred - can not afford out-of-state tuition.

[8FillTheHeart]

well, I don't know about the history dept......my ds is a math/science guy.......but we LOVE Tennessee Tech. It is an extremely small school for a public university. Ds hasn't had more than 15 people in any of his classes. Definitely in the middle of the wilderness.......ds is an avid rock climber and climbs all the time.

He loves it. Of course, he is majoring in engineering, but I thought I would throw it out there b/c it is extremely affordable with a quality education (ds has been highly recruited for co-op jobs with fantastic salaries by companies that interviewed at universities across the entire country......that says a lot today!)

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

I love getting emails/snailmail from colleges (ds has appointed me his college guidance counselor ;)) and both of the above look good and may join the short list with Gettysburg (another one I'd never heard of until they started bombarding ds with snailmail).

So far the most I know is we want to find something small, full of smart kids, and within a two-day drive from northern Illinois. Nearby wilderness for ds to hike in is a must. Must have a strong history dept. and small class size for my introvert son.

Have you read Colleges that Change Lives by Loren Pope? If not, I urge you to do so!

Dd will be looking at Sewannee. The Cumberland Plateau is an amazing place to explore. Furman is beautiful and a solid school and has a lot to offer, not the least the mountains very close by.

If it weren't for the geography of the place, I'd recommend he look at Wabash College. Small, strong academics, good scholarships available, very involved faculty and student body.

Have you looked at UNC-Asheville? It's known locally as "the Harvard of the South." Not sure how accurate that is, but there you go. Oh, and don't forget to check out Davidson. Both of these schools have fabulous "big backyards."

[Oak Knoll Mom]

Furman is a great school that fits most (if not all) of your requirements. It is a beautiful campus in a great city and very close to lots and lots of great hiking. It has a reputation for being an academically strong school.

I can't speak to class size and strength of the history department.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

Have you looked at UNC-Asheville? It's known locally as "the Harvard of the South." Not sure how accurate that is, but there you go.

The word on the street around here is that UNCA is harder to get into than UNC, which is generally considered one of the top state schools in the country. Much of that, though, could be attributed to size and location. The UNCA campus is fairly small and who wants to live in Chapel Hill when you can live in Asheville? :D
:auto:

[Susie-Knits]

What about Brevard? in western NC.

Too many choices.... I am going thru the same thing here for ds - trying to find a good match for an engineering/mathie who wants to stay within 300 miles of home.

Susie:tongue_smilie:

[Tamarind]

Dear JFS
Sewanee is an outstanding college that meets all of your criteria. Excellent academics and 13,000 acres to explore on foot and bike. Good luck in your search!

[Oak Knoll Mom]

What about Brevard? in western NC.

Too many choices.... I am going thru the same thing here for ds - trying to find a good match for an engineering/mathie who wants to stay within 300 miles of home.

Susie:tongue_smilie:

I wouldn't choose Brevard College for a math/engineering focused student--I recommend Clemson for that. It's still in the same general area, feels much smaller than it really is because the town of Clemson is so small, and offers a lot of outdoor fun (or distractions!) with a lake and the mountains nearby.

[Susie-Knits]

My bad! I was offering Brevard up for the original poster and meant to add that I was deep into looking at colleges for my ds too. We are not considering Brevard. Thanks for the Clemson info though.

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

What about Brevard? in western NC.

Too many choices.... I am going thru the same thing here for ds - trying to find a good match for an engineering/mathie who wants to stay within 300 miles of home.

Susie:tongue_smilie:

Susie, SERIOUSLY look at Tennessee Tech. We have about a dozen friends who graduated in some sort of engineering and math field who have been very successful after graduation. (Some 20 years later, now.) And of course, you have our very own momof7's son who attends and who is thriving there.

[Susie-Knits]

Thanks Pam. Mathie was there last week to take the AMC (American Math Contest) with a few other profs' high school kids. They know us well in the math department - that homeschool family from Franklin, TN. They have been a great resource for him since moving back to TN (not a great math state) from NC (a great math state).

I don't want to hijack the original post ... but my mathie's is short list is TN Tech, University of Evansville, and Rose Hulman. We are investigating UofAlabama/huntsville though I think that they are more a commuter school. As with JFL in IL (I lived/worked in Naperville, IL in the '80s!), we have visions of colleges swirling in our heads! haha

Maybe we should get a college/jr post going.
Thanks all,
Susie

Susie, SERIOUSLY look at Tennessee Tech. We have about a dozen friends who graduated in some sort of engineering and math field who have been very successful after graduation. (Some 20 years later, now.) And of course, you have our very own momof7's son who attends and who is thriving there.

[lmrich]

I am so thrilled to see Furman listed already. My husband and I both graduated from Furman so we are totally biased. But... we both got outstanding educations in completely different majors (elementary ed. and his math). It is a liberal arts school so your kiddo will take classes that will favor the classical method. As mentioned the campus is beautiful. I think most importantly is that the friends we made at Furman are still our good friends today and that being at Furman felt like being part of a community, not just going to school. Let us know what you find out.:001_smile:

[mcconnellboys]

I love both these and another that has never been on my radar until we got mail is Maryville College, at the backdoor to the Smoky Mountains (and gorgeous!)....

[JFS in IL]

Ooohh... Maryville looks good, too!

I just requested info from Harvard, Yale and Princeton for the heck of it ;)

[FloridaLisa]

I have always thought of Sewanee as somewhat of a party school. Is that an incorrect impression? Perhaps it looked like just too much fun, what with all of the spelunking and Christmas break outdoor trips and all. ;) Furman is on my ds' radar, so I'm glad to hear good reports of it. A couple of other North Carolina LACs: Elon (excellent) and Wofford, though I can't give you much detail about either at this point.

Lisa

[Chris in VA]

When I lived in S Florida as a teen, Sewanee was a school many aspired to. I knew several who went to Seminary there (it's Episcopal, and I actually know the Dean now! lol), and the college is very interesting. Kids wear their academic gowns to class, and to football games! It's kinda preppy (kinda? lol) and it definitely has its own culture. The area is beautiful, and there is a lot of drinking on campus--but the kids often drink scotch and other kinds of drinks, not just beer--it's weird. Anyway, the educational standards are very, very high, and I've heard it continues to be a competitive school. Worth a visit, certainly.

[mcconnellboys]

Oh, yeah, Wofford is good, too! LOL, JFS, could you just do all our research for us and schedule us for visits along with you, pretty please????

[mcconnellboys]

Oh, and Lisa, I meant to add that Sewanee's known for whiskey drinking. I don't think there's a school I've looked at that I can't find something in writing, somewhere, that attributes some kind of partying to the school, LOL.

I asked a Centre guide last summer about allegations that they party hard. She said, "Yes, but you must remember that we also study hard - first."

[JFS in IL]

Oh, yeah, Wofford is good, too! LOL, JFS, could you just do all our research for us and schedule us for visits along with you, pretty please????


Well, looks like we will break ourselves into college visits by first seeing the (flat, boring) Illinois campus at Champain-Urbana (huge - too big for ds I think) and Springfield (teensy but still U. of Illinois system). Then once we know what we are doing we will take longer trips to Sewanne, Furman, Centre, and probably one or two more down yonder, plus Gettysburg and whatever else would fit in on a trip eastwards.

Now what is this Wofford of which you type? H'mmm....off to google another college!