Apedaile 6: The Unversity of the South

This past weekend, the whole Apedaile clan woke up very early to head to campus visit #3- to Sewanee- "The University of the South". The campus is about 1 1/2 hours south of us, so we we up at about 5am to hit the road by 6. Even JT rose early, despite our best efforts to remain quiet while we got ready.

All we have heard since mentioning our visit to Sewanee is how gorgeous the campus is. Now that we have been, I totally agree!!! The campus is so beautiful! It has almost an older UK/castle type feel, though I have never been there. Most of the buildings are built from stone and look like they have been there for centuries. The large trees and green campus just enhance the feeling. Sarah immediately fell in love with how the campus looked.

English Department Building

Library

History Building

Front Part of the Food Court, Sarah liked the "step" effect.

This private university is very serious about its studies and I'm sure there are some talented students there. Not that other universities are not serious about their studies, but when you see hand written notes on the entrance of dorms that Quiet Time begins at 7:30 Sun-Thur and Fri-Sat at10pm, you know these students take their courses seriously. Another focus they have is a comprehensive test you take your senior year in the major you are studying. I couldn't imagine the stress level that accompanies that test.

Sewanee is a small university, a student population of about 1,600. With the campus being as large as it is, it feels bigger though. During the sessions, we heard about their English and History departments. Sarah left those thinking she thought their English program sounded good as she is considering being an English major.

Inside of the Food Court

Everything is Buffet Style with many options

Bell Tower

Bringing JT along probably wasn't the best of ideas, but not awful. He ended up not really napping on the way down and was a bit restless once the sessions begun. John was the best Daddy and took time to walk with JT around campus or drive him depending on if it was raining at the moment. I did get praise from him saying he couldn't be with JT all day like I do since he is so active and can be a handful from time to time. It made me smile to get props for the job I love doing :)

Inside the chapel- very traditional and beautiful

Lots of stained glass

Someone was even getting married that day at the chapel on campus!

Besides the price tag for this university, the only other negative I would say is most of their dorms do not have air conditioning! I was pretty shocked to hear that. I guess with the buildings being older, they were not equipped, but it's not like they live in an area where it's cool most of the time, they get just as hot as we do. The student who gave us a tour said they were working on having all the dorms getting A/C.

Once again, we are just turning it over to God to direct both Sarah and us (John and I) where she should complete her college degree. We have about 5 more schools we would like to visit. We have 3 schools scheduled to visit within the next 2 months and 2 that we need to confirm. We are going to try to hit the schools that speak to Sarah's interests of English, History, & Secondary Education as well as try to visit the universities with different student populations to give Sarah a taste of how those schools "feel" different by the size.

Bench in front of the chapel