What Matters in College After College

Recently, Sweet Briar participated in a survey on outcomes commissioned by the Women's College Coalition and conducted by Hardwick-Day, a leading research company in higher education. This survey compared the experiences of women at women's colleges to those of women at liberal arts colleges and flagship public universities in an attempt to understand the value of single-gender education.

We were also interested in how a student's experience at Sweet Briar specifically compared to that at other colleges and universities. So, as part of this survey, we asked Hardwick~Day to survey separately a random selection of Sweet Briar alumnae to get a sense of the value of a Sweet Briar education.

For years we have believed that women's colleges do a better job of preparing young women for life after college. The results of this survey have confirmed that feeling with hard data. The results have also identified areas where Sweet Briar does an even better job than its peer group.

We have created a selection of slides from the research findings we believe best demonstrate for prospective students/families the value of the experience at Sweet Briar. The first several slides outline the research process. Following those introductory slides are many, many slides (62 to be exact) that contain graphs of how Sweet Briar graduates rated their college experience compared to how women from other types of institutions rated their college experience. Because of the methodology used to gather this data, we are confident the conclusions drawn here are valid and accurate (any sort of "bias" has been removed from the data collection).

While all of the information in the presentation is interesting and worthwhile, we encourage you especially to see slides 8, 11, 12, 14, 18, 22, 29, 31, 32, 38, 39, 48, 49, 60, and 64 for some of the most remarkable "value-added" experiences at Sweet Briar.

If you have questions about this research or comments about the conclusions, please share those with us (admissions@sbc.edu or 800.381.6142) — we're certainly interested in your feedback.

If you would like to see the entire presentation, you can find it here.

Enjoy your reading!