Closing of college stuns students

WASILLA — On March 5, I opened my email box and got the worst information I could ever expect. Sweet Briar College was being shut down. I had been accepted to Sweet Briar College in November and had earned a $60,000 scholarship that was spread out over four years. I was eagerly awaiting the trip to my first day of college in the fall.

All of that crashed and burned after the email.

The college gathered current students and shared the news before the story went public. The students sat mutely and dissolved into tears or burst out asking if this was some sort of joke. I checked on the news, where it was confirmed that the report wasn’t a prank.

All over the country, alumnae, students and accepted applicants reacted the same way.

For the first time in three years, I cried.

I had been looking forward to Sweet Briar because it seemed perfect for me. The student-to-teacher ratio, the large campus that was used as an outdoor classroom, and even the classes themselves, were a great fit for me. Now none of it would be possible for me to experience.

Sweet Briar said that “insurmountable financial issues” were the reason for the college closing. The class of 2015 would come back and finish their school year. But the freshman, sophomores and juniors would not be coming back to campus. Students and accepted high school graduates started frantically looking for other colleges to apply to or transfer to for the upcoming school year.

I applied to Sweet Briar College with early admission in October 2014. As a condition of early admission, I couldn’t apply to any other colleges until I received a refusal from Sweet Briar. I was accepted in November, so I had no other college plans ready. Because the students and applicants were told in March about the closing, almost all of the deadlines for other college applications had passed.

Thankfully, other colleges have been quick to give frantic students a hand in their education. Some colleges, such as Scripps and Bryn Mawr, reopened their application processes to those students. Agnes Scott, one of Sweet Briar’s sister colleges, offered a scholarship to match any scholarship the student had been receiving from Sweet Briar.

Now I am applying to other colleges including Scripps, Bryn Mawr and Agnes Scott. The scholarship I earned for Sweet Briar no longer exists, so I am now applying for extra scholarships to cover my financial costs. My goal is to be accepted to the class of 2019 so that my plans for college aren’t delayed.

Sweet Briar students received an enormous shock when we got the news. Something broke inside all of us, and now we must scramble to fit ourselves into a new home for the next four years. We will go to other colleges and piece ourselves together, but we won’t forget the college that might have been our home, if life had been a little kinder

Rhiannon Matthews is a senior at Mat-Su Central School.