Sewanee News

Established in 2025, the First Year Experience (FYE) program this year welcomed all 474 new first-year students to participate in its activities, marking the first time in decades that all members of Sewanee’s newest class would share a common entry experience. The program kicked off with exploration of the Domain and surrounding communities, a pre-semester immersion experience tied to an academic course, and an introduction to all things Sewanee.

Sewanee has been named the No. 1 college in the nation for getting outdoors in The Princeton Review’s inaugural “Great Outdoors: Students Get Outside” ranking. The recognition highlights the extraordinary ways students engage with the University’s 13,000-acre Domain, through one of the nation’s most active collegiate outdoor programs, the Sewanee Outing Program, as well as hands-on environmental research, sustainability initiatives, and more. The ranking is part of The Princeton Review’s  2027 edition of its “The Best 392 Colleges” guidebook, which again recognizes Sewanee among the nation’s best colleges.

Sewanee welcomes the Class of 2030—474 first-year students selected from 5,631 applications—to the Mountain. They join 26 transfer students, bringing the University’s total number of new students to 500. The incoming class represents 38 states and jurisdictions and 11 countries—and, perhaps most notably, a growing number of students who knew early that Sewanee was where they wanted to be.

The University Choir is currently traveling through Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as part of its 2026 Canadian summer tour, continuing the ensemble’s longstanding tradition of international performance and sacred music ministry.

Sewanee student Louise Block, C'28, won third place in the national finals of the National Student Auditions (NSA) at the 2026 National Conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the premier professional organization of American voice teachers. The conference and Auditions took place in San Antonio from July 3 to 7. Block was one of only 16 national semifinalists for her category, Classical 1st- & 2nd-year Collegiate Treble, and advanced as one of just three national finalists.