Guides on Sewanee

Kaplan Newsweek's special publication, "How to Get Into College, 2007 Edition" lists the University of the South as one of the "369 Most Interesting Schools" in the country.  The college resource guide has  admission details and statistics for each of the 369 schools. 

The guide, produced by Newsweek, also provides an overview of the admissions process including an admissions checklist of deadlines and test dates, stories about controversies surrounding the SAT and ACT, strategies on early action and early decision plans, financial aid, and using the web.

Consumers Digest ranks Sewanee as #8 best value in the nation in its list of the Top 25 Best Values for Private Liberal Arts Schools.  The exclusive report was published in the magazine's June 2007 issue.  The eight-page section, called "2007 College Road Map: Making the Right Choices" examines the admissions process and chooses "best values" in public, private, and private liberal arts schools across the country. 

Sewanee is one of the nation's best value undergraduate institutions according to The Princeton Review.  The New York-based education services company features the school in the new 2008 edition of its book, America's Best Value Colleges (Random House / Princeton Review, $18.95) published in April, 2007.  The guide profiles 165 colleges chosen for their excellent academics, generous financial aid packages and relatively low costs of attendance.   The Princeton Review's editors commend Sewanee for its "longstanding reputation in the humanities and increasing stature in the sciences."

The Princeton Review selected the schools for the book based on data it obtained from administrators at more than 650 colleges during the 2005-06 academic year, and its surveys of students attending the schools.  Says Robert Franek, V.P-Publishing, The Princeton Review, "We considered over 30 factors to identify our 'best value' colleges.  They covered four areas: Academics, Tuition GPA (the sticker price minus average amount students receive in scholarships and grants), Financial Aid (how well colleges meet students' financial need), and Student Borrowing.  The 90 public and 75 private colleges we chose for this edition offer a terrific education, plus they have impressive records of meeting students' needs for financial aid.  We highly recommend them as America's best college education deals for 2007." 


 
Confirming the great value and affordability of a Sewanee education, the University of the South has been chosen to appear in Barron's Best Buys in College Education. The 9th edition is now available in bookstores and online.

Barron's Best Buys in College Education provides an essential tool for students and parents seeking a first-rate education at an affordable price. Schools covered in the book range from publicly supported schools that are virtually tuition-free to moderately-priced ones that provide high-quality education at bargain prices.

Colleges are selected to appear in Best Buys in College Education based on various criteria, including tuition rates, as well as the results of a questionnaire that is filled out by the dean of students and by students. The final 247 colleges chosen represent the best combination of sound data and student satisfaction.


The University of the South is one of just 20 colleges and universities featured in a recent book, “Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter,” by George D. Kuh, Jillian Kinzie, et al (Jossey-Bass, 2005). The book is based on a two-year study known as DEEP or Documenting Effective Educational Practice, and, according to the publisher, “provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.”

The volume does this by describing policies, programs and practices that a diverse set of institutions have used to enhance student achievement.

Here’s what the book says about Sewanee:

Engagement is a way of life at Sewanee. It is a small, intimate community with a clear sense of purpose, coherent values, and a collegial atmosphere. Students and faculty members share a “moral obligation” to make Sewanee an intense, rigorous academic experience. Students want a traditional collegiate experience and find it on a campus that has few outside distractions. From the first week on campus, almost all students get involved in something. The institution instills in its students a sense of collective responsibility for operating important areas of the campus. Students tutor peers at the Writing Center, plan major events, serve on institutional committees and task forces, and hold approximately 700 leadership roles in clubs and organizations.

To read more about the book and an interview with its author, George Kuh, go to the Inside Higher Ed Web site.



Sewanee's 10,000-acre campus received high marks in this year's Princeton Review. Students placed it at #5 among the nation's most beautiful campuses. The University's professors  were also rated highly as they were included on the lists "professors get high marks," and "professors make themselves available."

"The bricks and mortar are the academics," according to the Princeton guidebook, The Best 361 Colleges, "by far the greatest strength of Sewanee. Classes are challenging and stimulating at all colleges, but at Sewanee, learning is alive. You don't just take a course; you develop relationships with a preeminent member in the field: your professors. The emphasis is on active learning and incredible student-faculty interaction is probably Sewanee's greatest, and most overlooked strength."


Sewanee was named one of the Fiske Guide's Best Buy Schools for 2006. Only 28 private schools earned this honor from the annual guide published by former New York Times education editor Edward Fiske. According to the Guide "Sewanee's small size means it offers students plenty of opportunity to really make a difference. And, though academics are a focus, they're not the only game in town."