Sweet Briar College

[PaulaO]

My friend's daughter has been accepted at Sweet Briar with a full swimming scholarship. They visited the college last weekend and stopped at the riding center. In his words "if I were a horse, I would want to live there." I'm so happy for his daughter. She will have an incredible college experience.

[galopp]

(Good education but really far from any social life. mho)

[Snork]

I'm sure the stables are lovely BUT ... If it was my child, i'd steer her somewhere else. Horses are nice, stables are nice, all girls liberal arts school is nice, but education is less about nice and more about academic achievement in a stable environment, using stable in the "not barn" kind of a sense.

Sweetbriar is ranked #140 among "liberal arts colleges" and has an acceptance rate of 95%. A quick look at the stats makes me wonder why the 5% who are rejected even apply to college in the first place? And then there's the 4-year graduation rate of 57%.

At 35K tuition, plus room and board, 95% acceptance rate and 57% 4-year graduation rate, I'd say this is a suitable school for delicate young ladies from fine families who do not discuss money and do not look at education as an investment. Add to it the whole teetering on the brink of closing issue and if this was my child, with "sweetbriar kind of stats" I'd steer her towards University of Illinois. I get it that the kid is going on a full scholarship but there will still be living expenses and if she can get a full scholarship at Sweetbriar, she can get a whole lot of help in a higher ranked school with more secure future. JMHO but college is a financial investment and you only get to do it once.

[Grounded]

Snork:

I am a long time lurker (both here and on the old UDBB) and as an SBC grad I felt the need to register to correct some of the false impressions you got from the US News & World Report Rankings you cited in your post.

If you look at what their numbers are based on, the 95% acceptance rate was for the freshman class for the fall of 2015. In March of 2015 the then board told all current and prospective students that they were closing the college and that they would need to go elsewhere. From the time that the settlement was reached in late June to keep Sweet Briar open until the start of the fall semester, Sweet Briar had about 6 weeks to recruit a freshman class. Most, if not all, of those in the Fall 2015 class that make up the “95%” acceptance rate were students that had previously applied and been accepted and decided to re-apply and switch to SBC from the colleges they had committed to attend after the closing announcement.

Prior to the closing announcement, the first year retention rate generally ran at about 75-76%, which is right around the national average. The current retention rate is lower as it was skewed by the closing announcement. I am not sure what years the 4 year graduation rate you cited covers, but I suspect it may also be skewed by the almost closure. Based on the statistics I have looked at, Sweet Briar’s graduation rate remains above the national average.

Currently, the most popular majors are Biology, Business, Engineering and Math, and almost all of the students receive scholarships, Pell Grants or other financial aid of some sort and many have student loans. Many recent graduates are working for engineering firms or are in graduate school – including law school, medical school, and vet school.

For the last 2 years the college has operated under budget and not drawn down on any of its endowment. In the past 2 years, alums have donated well more than $20 million to the college (I can’t find the current total), with almost $2 million of that being raised in the past 30 days. While the college is not completely out of the woods yet, the current administration and alumnae are working very hard to get it there and set it up for future success.

Sweet Briar is not for everyone. All classes are small – there are no big lecture hall type classes taught by graduate students, the professors truly know and appreciate their students, class participation is not an option, and the social life at an all women’s college in rural Virginia can be challenging. If you are a city chick who lives to shop every day and go out to clubs every night, it is not for you. But to otherwise dismiss it out of hand is to miss out on the opportunity to explore whether attending a college where you learn from some dedicated professors whose primary emphasis is on teaching, and where there are multiple opportunities develop leadership skills, is the right fit.

While I may now be an old fart (and BTW, a practicing lawyer who graduated in the top 20% of my class at a top 25 ranked law school), I have recently spent some time on campus and met some current students. They are amazing young women with lofty goals for joining alumnae who have gone on to graduate school, becoming lawyers, doctors, vets, entrepreneurs, and/or otherwise making a difference in the world. Despite its reputation as a “finishing” school from long ago, today it is far from a college for “delicate young ladies from fine families who do not discuss money or view education as an investment.”

[Woost2]

*clap clap clap* for Grounded. Well presented.

[Koolkat]

Yes, I thought so, too. Obviously she got her money's worth out of that English Comp class!

[PaulaO]

Thank you, Grounded.

[heddylamar]

The emphasis on teaching is admirable, but on paper there's not much else going for Sweet Briar academically. It may be different in person, but I'm not impressed with what I've read in Chronicle of Higher Ed or in the news.

It's an unfortunate situation for the former faculty too. Years of teaching without anything to show for it on their CV makes it impossible to compete for comparably tenured positions elsewhere.