College Searching: Sewanee

I have now returned from Sewanee, Tennessee. As I mentioned, I was there to visit The University of the South, aka Sewanee. I can tell you right now that the campus is gorgeous. So much nature! As much time as I spend in front of my laptop or on my couch with various books, I love nature. And the architecture is lovely. Here are a few pictures, to prove my point:

The All Saints Chapel

McClurg Dining Hall

Another view of the chapel

Another building. And grass. And trees.

The stone architecture and the arches and towers and everything is very castle-like. And the trees and grass and everything, and you could see stars at night...it was beautiful. Which is definitely a strong selling point. Plus it looks like Hogwarts and if you have a high enough GPA you get to wear a black Harry-Potter-like robe ("gown") to class. Which for a Potternerd like me is pretty awesome.

Other pluses included:

-the dorms/rooming situation. The dorms were nice, and after your freshman year you get to pick your roommate, and the students said that freshman roommates are usually matched up really well.

-the size. It's a pretty small school, and I like that. Everyone knows everyone, and you get to know/work with your teachers pretty closely, and it seemed like a really close-knit community.

-the theater program. Oh my gosh. I have fallen in love with the theater program. Acting + playwriting and screenwriting + directing + set design + costume design + lighting + learning how to dance (including ballet, which I've always wanted to do) + it's mostly applied to film and TV, which is definitely an area I'm interested in.

-the sciences. The impression I got was that I could fill the general distribution science requirements with astronomy and a lab course involving exploring plant life in the forest. Stars + nature + significant lack of chemistry = YAY.

-they'll teach you how to ride a horse.

-the fact that they have PE credits that I would take even if it weren't required. Sewanee requires two PE credits (one freshman year, one sophomore year), which would normally not be a good thing since I'm ridiculously uninterested in sports, but you can earn PE credits through courses like fencing, beginning riding, beginning ballet/tap/jazz, and principles of aviation. Umm, yes please.

-everything in the curriculum seems very writing-intensive. This is a good thing for someone who writes as much as I do.

But there were some things I was not so impressed with, as well:

-Granted, I did not eat much of the dining hall food, but I wasn't particularly impressed with what I did eat. The desserts were great, though, and there were lots of options that I didn't try which I'm sure would have been good.

-The English program was a bit of a letdown. I mean, it's kind of their big thing and it's all very writing-intensive, but creative writing courses don't count toward the major and it's a lot more focused on specific types of literature than I necessarily want. All of the English courses are literature-based. Don't get me wrong, I love literature and reading and all that, but there don't seem to be any courses that are specifically about writing. Except creative writing. Which, like I said, doesn't count toward the major.

-AP credits count as electives. You can't get out of any general distribution classes with AP classes. Which kind of sucks, because I was hoping that taking AP Calc next year would get me out of college math.

-It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I'm exactly a big-city kind of girl (traffic eeek), but I like to be around civilization. I love nature, but I want to be somewhere that I can do other things as well. It's heavy on the nature and significantly lacking in manmade entertainment. Which means not as much TV (probably good), but no bowling or swimming pools or anything like that (bleh).

And then some things I'm not really sure about. It was impossible to tell what the atmosphere is really like. Everyone was being really nice and friendly and all, but that's probably because for this weekend, that was their job. And academically...I'm really not sure if this is what I'm looking for.

I think it'll be easier to tell once I have something else to compare it to. I didn't fall instantly and immediately in love, but it did seem like a very nice school (and I adore the theater program, I think) and I have by no means crossed it off my list yet.

Unfortunately, I still have school tomorrow, so I need to go work on my homework. Until tomorrow, interwebs!

Love,

Bex