A review of Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia begins with the recognition that Sweet Briar College is a school with a long tradition and its all female. Since 1901 when it was founded Sweet Briar has worked to maintain only the highest standards for female education. This is no swank finishing school, it is a place where the academic development of women is the central focus of each day. The results of the hard work done by administration and staff at Sweet Briar are borne out by the accolades that become visible when anyone attempts to review Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia.
A Spot Like No Other. A review of Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia relies at least in part upon an awareness of the exquisite beauty of this college campus. For a student body of slightly less than 1000 students it seems incredible that the campus size is an unbelievable 3,250 acres. in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The huge size of the campus may very well make it seem as if you are living on your own huge estate. After all how many campus sites include 6 nature preserves and two lakes, not to mention miles of walking or jogging trails.
There is no way you can despair of not enough space or peace and quiet at Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia. Not only is the acreage idyllic, the on campus buildings are also exquisite, many of them finding their way onto the National Register of Historic Places. If you find the academics tough and demanding, you certainly can take at least momentary refuge in the beauty that is encompassing your college experience at Sweet Briar College. It was no accident that the Princeton Review evaluated Sweet Briar’s campus as #1 among the most beautiful college campuses in the U. S.
Small enough to succeed. There is no getting around the fact that Sweet Briar is an exceptionally small college. For some women it will be too small and lack the social interaction that might be found on a larger, coed facility. Still for those who select Sweet Briar this should be the recognition that here is a school where size may be in your favor. Sweet Briar is not a place where you will get lost in the shuffle or become a student identification number rather than a real person. Sweet Briar is a school that gives you a place that is small enough to allow you to be yourself and to succeed.
When you step into a classroom at Sweet Briar College you are really central to what is going to happen in that room because in 90% of the classes there will be 20 or less students. There is really no place for you to hide, you have to part of the educational process that is going on. Girls find that Sweet Briar is certainly not MIT, not everyone is a bona fide genius, But girls who go here are bright and competent, 90% finished in the top half of their high school graduating class. When you enroll at Sweet Briar you will be enrolling with a lot of other young women who want a school that will help them to develop, grow and prepare for success.
Academic Offerings It’s rather incredible that a school with as small an enrollment as that of Sweet Briar still manages to offer a full complement of 40 major degree programs from which its undergraduates are free to choose. There are also pre-professional programs in law, medicine and veterinary medicine. You will find the traditional majors here like Biology, Philosophy and Economics. You can also find majors in courses of more current interest like Theater, Dance and Film. Then there is the truly unusual Equestrian Program. Sweet Briar is home to one of the premier equestrian centers in the country and the school provides a degree program that is based in the center.
The Princeton Review gave Sweet Briar College a perfect rating in its 2004 Academic Rating of Colleges and Universities, gaining a score of 99 out of a possible 99. This ranking put Sweet Briar ahead of nearly every college in both Virginia and the rest of the country. The ranking takes into serious consideration the amount of effort that students put in at Sweet Briar and the return they get on their efforts.
It must still be noted that due to its size, Sweet Briar does not offer the vast array of majors or interdisciplinary options that one might find at a larger institution. But considering its size, it does seem to cover most of the more frequented majors sought by today’s undergraduates.
A Women’s College with Purpose Since its founding Sweet Briar has had one very basic goal expressed by its founder Indiana Fletcher Williams, that is to train women ” to be useful members of society”. In pursuit of that goal the leadership at Sweet Briar has worked hard to prepare its women to go forth from Sweet Briar ready to take on whatever fields of endeavor appeal to them. A demanding curriculum has always been a part of an education at Sweet Briar and foreign study has also been encouraged.
Sweet Briar’s efforts to turn out women who had completed a solid undergraduate program of study was rewarded in the 1950’s when it was awarded its own chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. As this is an honor bestowed on only 250 colleges in the nation, being so designated gave tiny Sweet Briar a mark of considerable renown among some of its much larger brother and sister institutions.
Today Sweet Briar continues to accomplish its initial goal. It successfully awards baccalaureate degrees each year to young women who have prepared in their own area of interest to become useful members of society. Statistics bear out the success of Sweet Briar in this regard. Within 6 months of college graduation, 92% of the graduating class from Sweet Briar College each year has been admitted into a graduate school program or has accepted a job. This is a full 12%above the national average.
The fact that Sweet Briar College is a small, womens college has not affected the successful resume it has compiled as a liberal arts institution.
