Sweet Briar College - closing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the tip of the iceberg. In 20 years time, many schools will be shutting down.

The sky is not falling down. Just look at the acceptance rates for many SLACs. There are many more applicants for many colleges, including foreign applicants, than spots for a lot of schools. Some will close as some have always closed. SB's model is out of date. Women's colleges have either gone co-ed or have extremely health endowments like Smith. You don't see many (any?) all-male colleges out there either. Add to that SB's rep, deserved or not, as being a post-finishing school for elite white girls, and its time has passed. That will be true for other schools of course but we don't need to go global over it.

[Anonymous]

What is disturbing is with an endowment that is way larger than most private colleges in America and little debt that the board could not find a way reposition the school and stay in business. They had a marketing problem that could have been solved. This is a total failure of leadership. Hollins College (all women) is thriving and Hampden-Sydney College (all male) just enrolled its largest class ever. These schools are not for everyone but they have incredible tradition, excellent academics, and very tight alumni networks. The students that attend these schools SBC included love these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had always heard that it wasn't a "real" school, and am surprised to hear it was even accredited.

Actually, it was a finishing school. It was only accredited for 117 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had always heard that it wasn't a "real" school, and am surprised to hear it was even accredited.

Actually, it was a finishing school. It was only accredited for 117 years.

I posted that. 117 years as a degree-granting institution isn't bad. I actually just thought it was a place to send silly girls after high school. I didn't even know they granted degrees other institutions would recognize.

I didn't grow up in this region and only heard about the school as an undergrad elsewhere myself, when my classmates from the mid-Atlantic made fun of this anachronistic place for not-so-smart girls who nevertheless have to maintain some kind of social standing in their little southern towns.

It seems, from the comments here, there was some of that, but it has been an actual college.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:You can't charge a lot of money and not have a lot to offer. I think we will be seeing this more and more. The single sex part was the nail in the coffin.

There are a number of quite good single-sex colleges remaining. But what will be the deathknell for them is the way they are twisting them selves in pretzel knots to remain women's colleges in theory while allowing trannies and "women in transition." Recently Mount Holyoke I think cancelled a performance of the play "the Vagina Monologues," not because it is insufferable, but rather because some might deem it insensitive to students who self identify as female but who have penises. If these schools are already accepting those who might accurately be called "girly men," then they might as well go ahead and accept men generally.

"Girly men"?

Tell me, are you able to buy shirts, what with your knuckles dragging the floor like that?

Oh, knock it off. This PP makes some excellent points.

Really? Buried in all that snottiness is a point?

Yes, I think so. In a desperate attempt to attract more $tudent$ some of these colleges are being idiotically politically correct, thus turning off more people than they are actually attracting.

It's a small minority of bigoted alums who are upset about the schools being trans-inclusionary. The schools are better off without them.

Either they are women's colleges or not. If they are going down the road of pretending to maintain their supposed single sex status while indulging a politically correct gender freak show, why not just go coed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they could give the campus to Virginia Tech? Use it for something.

Why not affiliate it with VMI as the women's division?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I've never even heard of it, and I'm one of those people who brought a horse to college (albeit to the University of CT). Clearly their marketing wasn't stellar.

Their former riding coach was the coach for the US Olympic Team. Dedicated riders knew Sweet Briar.

+1
I can't believe there would be any equestrians, especially on the east coast, who wouldn't have heard of Sweet Briar.

Don't colleges require a medical exam before matriculation? Determining whether or not one is female should be pretty easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had always heard that it wasn't a "real" school, and am surprised to hear it was even accredited.

Actually, it was a finishing school. It was only accredited for 117 years.

I posted that. 117 years as a degree-granting institution isn't bad. I actually just thought it was a place to send silly girls after high school. I didn't even know they granted degrees other institutions would recognize.

I didn't grow up in this region and only heard about the school as an undergrad elsewhere myself, when my classmates from the mid-Atlantic made fun of this anachronistic place for not-so-smart girls who nevertheless have to maintain some kind of social standing in their little southern towns.

It seems, from the comments here, there was some of that, but it has been an actual college.

And remember, when it was first founded there were few colleges that even allowed women. Most colleges were strictly for men. Now, I know that the curriculum has certainly changed over the years (home economics, anyone?) but it was truly a liberal arts college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never even heard of it, and I'm one of those people who brought a horse to college (albeit to the University of CT). Clearly their marketing wasn't stellar.

Their former riding coach was the coach for the US Olympic Team. Dedicated riders knew Sweet Briar.

+1
I can't believe there would be any equestrians, especially on the east coast, who wouldn't have heard of Sweet Briar.

Yes, I too was surprised by the UCONN poster's ignorance. I'm from New England and have always known about Sweet Briar. Their success at vet school admissions is the only reason my daughter would have considered it. She would have brought her horse but, no, she is not a hunter/jumper princess.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:You can't charge a lot of money and not have a lot to offer. I think we will be seeing this more and more. The single sex part was the nail in the coffin.

There are a number of quite good single-sex colleges remaining. But what will be the deathknell for them is the way they are twisting them selves in pretzel knots to remain women's colleges in theory while allowing trannies and "women in transition." Recently Mount Holyoke I think cancelled a performance of the play "the Vagina Monologues," not because it is insufferable, but rather because some might deem it insensitive to students who self identify as female but who have penises. If these schools are already accepting those who might accurately be called "girly men," then they might as well go ahead and accept men generally.

"Girly men"?

Tell me, are you able to buy shirts, what with your knuckles dragging the floor like that?

Oh, knock it off. This PP makes some excellent points.

Really? Buried in all that snottiness is a point?

Yes, I think so. In a desperate attempt to attract more $tudent$ some of these colleges are being idiotically politically correct, thus turning off more people than they are actually attracting.

It's a small minority of bigoted alums who are upset about the schools being trans-inclusionary. The schools are better off without them.

Either they are women's colleges or not. If they are going down the road of pretending to maintain their supposed single sex status while indulging a politically correct gender freak show, why not just go coed?

How charming that you refer to trans people as a "freak show."

Also? This is not the point of the discussion. Admission of trans students is not why Sweet Briar has to close. Nor is it the reason other small, non-exemplary single-sex schools have closed. If they aren't on the level of, say, Smith, there is not much attraction for women who can go to Stanford or MIT or Harvard and direct their alumni money there later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they could give the campus to Virginia Tech? Use it for something.

It would be great as a satellite campus and then transition to another state school. Virginia needs more state colleges.

[Anonymous]

Sweet Briar was once the only accredited college in Virginia that women could attend. William and Mary was the first public university in the state to admit women, in 1918.

[Anonymous]

I'm sad for the current students, I'm sure they are all wondering where they'll end up, and I imagine there won't be much focus for the remainder of the semester. I feel especially bad for the freshman, they just went through the difficult admissions process to get into the school and they'll have to do it all again.

[Anonymous]

Looks like Liberty University will have a new satellite campus

[Anonymous]

Why wouldn't they keep it open and just stop accepting new students. I thought thats how schools closed? Let the freshman finished and close in 4 years.