On another thread, a poster said that the vibe at the former is very different from the vibe at the latter. Does anyone know to what the poster might have been referring? I asked on that thread but did not get a response (which would have hijacked the thread so understandble), but was left very curious as we had not heard re there being a meaningful “vibe” difference among these schools.
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I wouldn’t divide them that way. I’m a W&L alum, I’ve been back often, and my D23 visited Sewanee last spring. Sewanee reminds me of W&L in the 90s, smartish kids, money, very fratty, not very diverse, beautiful campus. W&L today I think is more like Davidson but more rural, it’s not nearly as fratty as it was 25yrs ago, more intellectual, still beautiful, and still not that diverse. W&L is a much more competitive school to get into than Sewanee. Davidson feels more progressive and more diverse but has a similar vibe to W&L in my opinion. I can’t speak to Rhodes and haven’t been to Duke since they rejected me in 1995 
Someone is bound to point out that W&L has a huge greek participation percentage and they do, but there’s a difference between that and raging frat parties.
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Perhaps the poster on the other thread was referring to the first three feeling more progressive and the latter two more
conservative? Seems consistent with what you are saying.
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These schools are very different. Duke is the major outlier, and Davidson and W&L are much more similar to Duke (just smaller) than Rhodes and Sewanee.
Duke is a major research university with the med school, law and business schools adjacent to campus as well as multiple phD programs, with an undergrad population of 7000, but also grad student classes available to upper-level undergrads, and grad students involved in the same research labs as undergrads(which is a positive feature, in my experience). The other schools are all much smaller. However, the intellectual vibe at Duke is definitely present at Davidson and W&L, and as the above poster said, there is a bit more diversity and progressiveness at Davidson(and Duke) vs W&L. The academic selectivity of Duke is higher than Davidson and W&L, but not significantly, and there is a lot of overlap of student bodies based on CDS stats.
Sewanee and Rhodes pull from a much different pool academically, with common data sets middle 50%SAT (pre-test optional) 1200-1400 roughly. The kids we know there are great, just not the same type of intellectual, driven kids that attend the other three.
So, these differences may not matter to some students, but these schools have fairly dissimilar vibes.
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Thanks for your response, especially the predominant high-achieving academic environment of the schools you mention. We are familiar with all schools’ tangibles, selectivity, etc., so really just looking for cultural vibe (eg frats, social life, political views and environment, diversity, inclusivity, etc); more the intangibles (from the outside), if you will. We are planning visits, and understand that wil provide a unique insight onto those intangibles, but are curious in view of the commentary across which we ran. In particular, we had assumed Rhodes and Sewanee were very very similar (other than as to location).
Sorry for the delayed response; I’m not as active on CC as I used to be.
This is one element. I’d also say that Davidson and Rhodes are a bit more intellectual and quirky and that the social scenes (especially Greek life) are a bit more chill at Rhodes and Davidson. This is obviously relative, and I wouldn’t classify Davidson as quirky compared to, say, Oberlin or Beloit.
Just my $0.02, and I’ll admit that I’m much more familiar with Duke (alum), Rhodes (boyfriend is an alum), and Davidson (I co-supervise a summer research project there) than with W&L or Sewanee.
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@warblersrule Any first-hand experience with Furman or Richmond on these matters?
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Furman was runner-up when kid #1 went to college. Everyone is super-friendly, and the school does a good job of trying to make sure everyone is well-rounded. The campus, though pretty, is very new-looking even though the school is not. The teachers are fabulous.
It is not nearly as much of a party school as some of the other schools mentioned.
As to diversity, better than Sewanne or Wake Forest but still leaves something to be desired. I think it is less political than some of the other schools mentioned.
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These are all great schools, of course, and I know smart folks who went to all of them.
Other data points in thinking about these:
Duke is in Durham.
Rhodes is in Memphis.
Davidson is 25 minutes (21 miles) from Charlotte.
Sewanee is in the mountains.
W&L is in cute little Lexington. Absolutely beautiful setting.
I think the proximity to urban areas has a big impact, especially on Rhodes. Rhodes has embraced being in the midst of a large urban area (though the campus does not feel urban at all, and is across the street from a huge park). Rhodes is a national leader in community service, and gives scholarships specifically for service-oriented kids (as well as the normal merit scholarship).
Duke and Davidson are outliers in this group in their sports culture. Davidson is one of the rare LAC’s with division 1 sports (basketball, home of Steph Curry). Duke is Duke. This will be attractive to some students… it also breeds a particular type of partying.
Greek life at all five is quite strong but manifests in different ways … I believe W&L still asks not to be ranked by the Princeton Review, b/c they were embarrassed at always being the top, or near the top, of the party and drinking rankings?
Final thing to add to this discussion: NY Times back in 2017 published stats about the percentage of a student body from the top 1% of income, versus the bottom 60%. (Some Colleges Have More Students From the Top 1 Percent Than the Bottom 60. Find Yours. - The New York Times)
US Ranking among colleges/universities of size of gap between wealthy and not is the first number.
- W&L 19.1% from top 1%, 8.4% from bottom 60%
- Duke 19.2% from top 1%, 16.5% from bottom 60%
- Davidson 17.4% from top 1%, 16.4% from bottom 60%
- Sewanee 14.4% from top 1%, 18.0% from bottom 60%
- Rhodes 11.6% from top 1%, 17.1% from bottom 60%
The wealth differences plays out in many ways, cultural and otherwise.
One is the correlation b/w SAT scores and wealth: the difference that can be seen in average SAT among these schools is partly linked to the wealth difference. In terms of the level of academic discussion and debate in the classroom? I suspect that you wouldn’t find much of a difference.
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In some subjects (probably mostly the social sciences), a lack of perspectives and experience from the bottom 60% of SES may lead the gaps and blind spots in the discussion, similar to how many discussions on these forums look at topics mainly or exclusively from an upper middle to upper class viewpoint (e.g. posters seeing themselves as “middle class” but “will not get college financial aid”).
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Excellent point, 100% agree. When I wrote that late at night, I was thinking of a different element entirely - that slightly lower SAT scores at Rhodes/Sewanee (due to fewer kids with SAT tutors and extensive college prep) would not translate into a less rigorous academic classroom environment.
I 100% agree that more economic diversity will improve the quality of the college experience, academic and social.
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I just realized that the auto-format function numbered the schools from 3 to 7, replacing the numbers that I had written for the schools. W&L is indeed 3rd in the nation, but the other schools are lower - Rhodes in the 60s … apologies!
Please clarify what you mean by that numbering, not sure to what you are referring with 3 vs 60.
Sorry for the lack of clarity. Comes of trying to do things too quickly! The NY Times data source that I cited ranked colleges and universities by the gap between how many of their students came from the top 1%, versus the bottom 60%. This was used as a proxy for talking about economic diversity and wealth on campuses. I think it was around 38 schools that had more from the top 1% than the bottom 60%. The ranking continued on, however after around no 38 it was negative numbers (ie, more students from the bottom 60% than top 1%).
For many of the elite private schools, and a handful of publics, students in the bottom 60% of national income are heavily subsidized with financial aid.
In that data set, from 2017, W&L was no. 3 in the US in the size of their gap. Of the schools in this thread, Rhodes was “the bottom” at no. 68.
Funny how we got that same impression just from watching the videos produced by the admissions offices.
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Fixed it for you and added a few more (#1 & #2, plus some other NC schools):
38 colleges had more students from the top 1 percent than the bottom 60 percent
#1 - Washington University in St. Louis 21.7% from top 1%, 6.1% from bottom 60%
#2 - Colorado College 24.2% from top 1%, 10.5% from bottom 60%
#3 - W&L 19.1% from top 1%, 8.4% from bottom 60%
#20 - Wake Forest: 21.7 from top 1%; 17.0 from bottom 60%
#26 - Duke 19.2% from top 1%, 16.5% from bottom 60%
#33 - Davidson 17.4% from top 1%, 16.4% from bottom 60%
#51 - Sewanee 14.4% from top 1%, 18.0% from bottom 60%
#68 - Rhodes 11.6% from top 1%, 17.1% from bottom 60%
#151 - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 6.0% from top 20.7% from bottom 60%
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One of my children’s friends, from a pretty poor yet well-educated family, went to W and L. She stood out like a sore thumb. She found a core group of friends, but didn’t really fit in.
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