Being an Old Money type school out in the middle of nowhere and very small enrollment, I can only imagine what must go on there
A specific kind of Old Money too. The irony is that the typical student population of the “University of the South” consists largely of Old Money primarily from Northern/New England United States. Your average Sewanee attendee has never had any kind of personal connection to “the South” outside of deciding to attend “the university of the south” upon HS graduation.
Yep. They do have some token local boys (to teach the others proper English). My wife's cousin (about 10 years older than us), Franklin County native, went on scholarship. Shirley Majors was football coach for something close to 20 yrs (?). He orginally was HS coach down the mountain in Huntland before that.
I will say though in defense of Sewanee that despite the nightly drug/booze infused debauchery party scene that runs Sewanee student life, our dude who grew up with us that attended Sewanee on scholarship would always emphasize that they do not screw around academically over there. Their academic standards and their student honor code of academic conduct is rigidly enforced. The academic side apparently is incredibly rigorous and demanding compared to maybe a typical public state school with 30k students. Like if you miss more than two classes you automatically fail that class. No ifs and buts about it. Come a hangover from hell or high water, at the very least Sewanee students have no choice but to attend virtually every class unless they want to fail out. Whereas I think most of us here who are UT alums would acknowledge that we likely all had our semi-fair share of classes throughout our UT undergrad career that we didn't necessarily always have to attend no matter what in order to ultimately achieve a decent passing grade in.
No doubt you will still have your fair share of Southern bois/gals there. However I think it's surprising to many when they learn how the "University of the South" essentially serves as a 4 year post HS southern boarding school for Trust Fund Yankee/East Coastal elite types with too much of daddy's money at their disposal. Funny how you had folks out there locally like my born and raised Tennessean grandpa who knew what was up with that school and vehemently forbid his kids from even considering that school bc of how unimpressed he was by Sewanee's reputation as a whole. Yet simultaneously you have wealthy social circles from other parts of the country who view it as an honor and social status symbol to send a child to be educated at the "University of the South". Apparently there are plenty of big name New York City, ect. firms that love signing up Sewanee grads for their highly sought after jobs bc certain folks prestigiously view that school as a mini Ivy type. Talk about a matter of differing perspective that exists out there when it comes to assessing the overall value of an education from the "University of the South".
L My mom tells a story of doing the Bunny Hop down Gay St after beating GaTech on the road. Different days but my love for UT football is both Genetic and Environmental…Freud that! Edit: No idea what that ‘L’ is. Unintentional
We don't seem to be having much trouble attracting premier talent to camp with us. Somehow, I don't think we're doing this by courting favor with Byron DeVinner.