In March 2015, the board of trustees at Sweet Briar College, a liberal arts educational institution for women in Virginia, announced that the college would close. But alumnae stepped in and raised $12 million to keep the college open.
At the time the board voted to close the college in 2015, there were 641 full-time undergraduate students at Sweet Briar. In the fall of 2016, there were 134 women among its first-time, first-year class. In the fall of 2017, there were 81 first-year women on campus and 14 transfer students.
In recent months Sweet Briar has announced a new curriculum, a new schedule that includes 12 weeks of class and three weeks of experiential learning each semester, and a substantial reduction in tuition.
Now, President Meredith Woo has announced that the number of students who have made deposits for the class that will enter this fall are up 40 percent from a year ago.