<p>lovemykids, I ditto the suggestion to search for posts by Faline2 about Furman. <em>She</em> would also welcome a PM, I'm sure. Most particularly, while she wasn't from the NE she was a somewhat atypical Furman student back in the day when Furman was much more Southern than it is now -- and she still speaks glowingly of how much she enjoyed her time there. I've lived in both the North and the South, and I think you'd be surprised that in the South's larger cities (Atlanta, Richmond, Birmingham, etc.) Furman probably has more name recognition than Lehigh. That's not a comment on relative merits of either school, just a comment that they are both very well known in their geographical locales.</p>
<p>Lovemykids,</p>
<p>Yes, there are lots of unique and interesting students at Furman. My D's boyfriend is almost a clone of your son (loves music, majoring in science and math, non-practicing Catholic, very independent, from the upper mid-West and is funding his Furman education from loans and scholarships because he liked the school so much), so not all the studetns there are "cookie-cutter," especially true by the tie they are upper classmen.</p>
<p>As for the town, we also visited Lehigh (D didn't want to apply there), and I believe that Greenville offers a much more of a suburban experience than does Bethlehem. No a knock on Bethlehem, mind you, just a comment on the modern suburban nature of development in Greenville.</p>
<p>You also mentioned Emory. D was accepted there, too, but came to sincerely NOt like the school by the time decisions needed to be made (and after 4 visits, an overnight and attending classes). It is a school physically located in the south, but without any "southern" character, an opinion that may appeal to some and repel others.</p>
<p>Just a quick comment on th nature of school reputation. My D thought very hard about attending Furman because so many people were schocked that she would reject what they perceived as "far more pretigious schools" for "an unknown like Furman." She had the competitive stats (1550+ SAT on the old scale, 4.75+ GPA on a 5.0 scale, valedictorian, blah, blah,blah) and great credentials. Turns out that Furman was the absolutely perfect place to grow as both as an intellect and as a person. She has 2 professors who are serving as her mentors (she can stop in and visit with them anytime... and they give wonderful advice, both academically and personally to her). She is activley engaged in research and will remain on campus this summer under an undergraduate research grant. She will be traveling abroad to Chnia and Russia in the next 2 years, as well as spending a semester in an internship in Washington DC. Moreover, all but a couple of recent graduates from her department/major have ALL gone on to very strong graduate schools: Harvard (specifically, the Keendy School of Government), Stanford, Princeton, Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, and UC-Berkeley, to name a few. So, don't think for one second that the Furman does not carry the clout to get a student where they want to go. At Furman, it's about the student's quality, not the school's "Name" that counts. </p>
<p>If you or your son would like to ask any questions directly of current Furman studetns (and these would be honest, candid studetn replies), just let me know in a PM with an email address and I'll ask my D and/or her boyfriend to respond.</p>
<p>Good luck to your son in his search.</p>
<p>Ok, everybody....whoa...forgive the numerous typos in my last post!! Been working the night shift and my mind is still asleep in the mornings:) Sorry!</p>
<p>Lovemykids..good luck as you wait for the final news on your fine S's options. Good for them for recruiting your son. They are working to close the gap on strong females by seeking strong male students to return to the fifty fifty gender balance of old.
I met my New Jersey spouse at Furman. He was from a not long off the boat strongly German Catholic family, although he was non practicing and very liberal..but this was the year of Watergate, OK? Furman gave him a Duke scholarship and he was always treated with great affection on campus, although you might have to "forgedabout" meeting a "nice Catholic girl" there. He was elected Pres of the Student Body and received many awards in his time there and was accepted to Duke, Univ of Virginia and Vanderbilt Law Schools. Although Furman is a long way from diverse, they are seeking diversity and the faculty in particular loves getting kids with new outlooks. The only other people I know who had comparable access to friendships with teachers..adults who graduated from Davidson or Washington and Lee. Furman teachers are accessible. I recently looked at Furman facts and noticed that though the student body is intensely Protestant, many denominations are there. Academic freedom is completely supported and classrooms are rigorous although students tend to be hard working kids who expect to be going to grad school and taking on responsibilities as adults and few are "wild." The campus I think is still dry, so there is now a frat/sorority culture off campus. Furman graduate school admissions are outstanding. As Lderochi says, if you live in Florida, the Carolinas, Nashville or Atlanta, Furman is a known name and no one had heard of Lehigh. The economy is very good in Greenville, by the way and there are contingents of both French speaking and German speaking people there building cars and downtown has a lively square now.<br>
Congrats on your excellent offer.</p>
<p>Iderochi, iflyjets, and Faline2 - I can't thank you all enough. You have confirmed what I was really hoping to hear. I'm now in a funny spot - I really want him to choose Furman and as we wait for the mail from Wake Forest and Emory I find myself wondering what I should hope for. (Still today - no mail!) I know he wants to see acceptances from one of those but I wonder then where that will leave Furman. I have asked him to promise me that regardless of what comes in, he will visit each of his choices one more time in April. Luckily for me, he is pretty level-headed and also very budget-wise so he knows he cannot just turn his back on the Furman offer should Wake come in. As far as Emory, it's strange - I have heard more than once - actually several times - that Emory is a "little strange/different" - nobody can really put their finger on it; just that it's not always what you'd expect. I think Wake would be a huge draw (free laptop!) but still more expensive. And as far as Lehigh, that's a funny one - I am a Lehigh grad, so I know Bethlehem... and even though I've never been to Greenville (we had no time for the city when we visited) I instinctively know it's a better town. Lehigh was "work hard party hard" when I was there 25 years ago, and seems like it hasn't changed... and now as a mother, that's just not appealing. :-)
And the more I learn about Furman, the more I love it... uh, oh, back to square one again... I really don't know how everyone else functions through this. I am sick. Maybe I really need to get a life, as my kid might say...</p>
<p>lovemykids- it sounds like your son and I have a few colleges that overlap on our list. i go down to furman tomorrow for the lay scholarship day and am still waiting to hear from wake and washington & lee. i got waitlisted at vanderbilt earlier this week. best of luck to you and your son! i know this is a hard in trying process (to say the least)...</p>
<p>wdlan88 - good luck to you in your wait (I have no idea when W & L comes, but I'm pretty sure Wake should be tomorrow... how long can the trip be from NC to CT for one little envelope? - hoepfully, one BIG envelope...)
Let us know how your visit to Furman is - I heard the campus should look very beautiful right about now. Good luck with the schoalrship. And congrats on the Vanderbilt waitlist - that's a very good accomplishment. (They give out very few waitlists.)
And you're right, it is trying - although now I worry that it's going to get even more trying while we try to figure out where he should ultimately end up!</p>
<p>thanks- i'm hoping for wake tomorrow too. w&l was sent out yesterday...so maybe tomorrow or friday. </p>
<p>believe it or not, when we were visiting family in maryland/delaware this summer, a lot of people up there actually had heard of furman and thought pretty highly of it. that surprised us, b/c we thought too that it's recognition might be somewhat limited to the southeast.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of the input. We others are reading it too. I am still awaiting my financial aid decision/ scholarship decision from Furman but sure happy to have this school in the mix. I laugh when I read lovemy kids about "getting a life" because the thought has crossed my mind about my Mom. Secretly though I am glad she keeps up with this stufft and finds out the scoop on my colleges because it will help with my decision. Yea, I have the ultimate say but hey the more you know the better you are. I particularly had the question initially about diverse students because I am international and really want to have interesting kids but friendly. Just for the record, I tell my Mom sometimes chill as it will all come out right in the end and we stress less than you guys. But then it helps when you have choices so a shout out to all the parents and students who are still waiting on things and making decisions like me and more important to the parents. In the meantime excedrin works on those stress headaches as per my Mom</p>
<p>Oh yea, wdlan88 post your impressions when you get back.</p>
<p>i think all our moms are like that right about now froshtobe, you aren't the only one (trust me). i'll be sure to put any impressions i have as soon as i arrive back home friday evening.</p>
<p>Hi everyone -
Well, Wake and W & L are both acceptances, so now we are going to be making one BIG trip down south in in a few weeks. Tough (but exciting) choices. I just wanted to say that if the students on this thread are representative of the kind of students Furman attracts, then that's another HUGE plus in my book for Furman. </p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for putting up with my neuroses. You know, I was just reading another thread about CC being "addicting" in a bad way, e.g. adding to all the college frenzy, etc., and lots of people posted positively and negatively on that subject (I am too busy running through my own interest college threads to have time to reply there... haha) - I didn't post but what I would have said was that one of the great things about CC is that kids and parents communicate. I know that we are nameless, faceless, strangers, but we bond on these threads, and what's more important, we listen to and respect each other. And in this day and age when all the parenting experts stress communication yet we often find it hard to do, this site has found a way to accomplish that. And that can only be a good thing.</p>
<p>Froshtobe, tears practically came to my eyes when I read your post about my "getting a life" comment and realized that not only did you understand me, but you forgave me, and even had advice for me! It was nice to read your support of me, your mom, and all of the loving and caring, albeit neurotic moms out there. And I promise you (and my son) that come May, I'll start working on getting a life ... I have a three year break until all this starts up again with son #2...
hmmm... what do you think I can do to fill the time?</p>
<p>:-) Thanks and good luck to all... and Furman is definitely not out of the running yet!</p>
<p>love my kids-"lovemykids" says it all I think. We really do get that you do all this stressing for us but heck teen bravado you know!!! Quite happy that I could bridge the gap for you. By the way, nuerotic didn't enter my mind. I have found CC to be more helpful than frenzied. I have gotten lots of good insight into schools through this till I can see them. As an international I have to wait till fin aid etc comes in to make it worth my while for expensive airplane tickets. I take CC as an information point and a way of asking grass roots questions. I shake my head when I read these posts where they spend 4 paragraphs with their glowing stats because I don't have that time and seems a little "bragadocious". (Our way of saying braggy or bosty) I think it may be helpful in future searches for kids but representative of the student body - doubtful- (I hope not anyway.) Those posts add to the frenzy I think and sometimes the stress. I don't hold it against them though because pride is good. I like the posts that actually tell us about the school, students etc. </p>
<p>I told my Mom that she should join a gym when this is all finished. She says between all the chocolate she's eaten in stress and the researching on colleges too sitting on her bumm on the computer that might be nice. I am very happy that your son has choices- isn't that great!!! </p>
<p>This is such a big decision and my parents feel that this is the biggest and best semi-final input they can make towards my road to independence so information is good. I know that my parents and I think about different things when we think about colleges so put it all together and it makes a bigger picture. I like location, decent school, friendly students and my major. Oh yea - dorm- important. She thinks school, quality, class choices, SAFETY, SAFETY (yes I wrote that twice), party school? etc etc. </p>
<p>Keep the faith all. This has been a hard week/ month etc with all this waiting. This also is the longest post yet for me. More time and more focus this far into the process.</p>
<p>i've been addicted to this site since the beginning of my senior year, yet i've just gotten an account! </p>
<p>i've been interested in furman (visited several times, participated in the furman summer scholars program, etc.) for several years, and i was accepted. but i got my financial package today and wasn't too happy! i got some scholarship money but not as much as i need/want/was expecting. i just wonder if any other people are having that same experience...</p>
<p>the college admissions process is so strange! for example, wdlan88, you were invited to the lay/duke scholarship weekend (scholarships that i applied for) but were waitlisted at vandy. i barely got any merit-based money at furman but got accepted to vandy. i know there's no point in trying to reason these things out... but i can't help trying :)... seems like either 1) i should have gotten more money from FU or 2) wdlan88 should have gotten into vandy... i know schools have different admissions policy, etc. etc. but still vandy and the lay scholarship programs are equally selective. i've been reading threads from vandy, furman, rhodes, emory, etc. and there seems to be other "contradictions" in individuals' acceptances/scholarships. i know that's normal... i'm just experiencing it for myself for the first time, and i feel the need to vent my frustrations/lack of understandings! </p>
<p>congrats to all potential furmanites! may i say that i TOTALLY recommend the china experience program! if i'd gotten more money from furman, i'd probably end up going there just for that opportunity. i've been to china once before and it's amazing. you don't have to be into china or the language in order to enjoy the country. and really, a full-financed trip to china is well worth three semesters of chinese... especially seeing how china is quickly becoming a major, major world power. so for all y'all enrolling in furman... apply to the china program!</p>
<p>mbgrits- yea I feel your pain. I haven't gotten my fin/aid from Furman yet and your post may be ditto for me. I am sorry that you got disappointed.I agree that this is too wierd this process. I got way more merit aid at other schools I applied to and then one of the ones top on my list came in $3000 lower in merit. That way my blow yesterday. In fact still on my mind today. Then another accepted me to the honors program with 1/2 tuition and still waiting for the restof the aid from tht school. So figure this out!!!!!!!!!! I was like you and didn't post for a long while and then figured out that I would never get my questions answered if I didn't ask.</p>
<p>Anybody know if you can question the merit aid portion. I know you can question the EFC and financial aid but what about the up front money unrelated to need? That question may help mbgrits above too. By the way, you have grounds to show you have expressed interest in Furman as you were in their summer program.</p>
<p>Sorry for the typos above - rushing off to school</p>
<p>My trip to Furman for the Lay Scholarship weekend was AMAZING. I will post my thoughts later. But to echo mbgrits...I think it is Vandy's loss (especially after my acceptance to Washington & Lee today) and Furman's loss for not offering you more merit aid...and it also just proves how strange the college admissions/scholarship process is. I encourage you to still consider Furman though, it is an awesome school with alot to offer the right person. That being said, wherever any of us ends up will prove to be the right school in the end and none of these "snubs" from other schools will matter.</p>
<p>wdlan, I really hope you get it and look forward to your post. Congrats so far on the process</p>
<p>Well...as expected, the campus was beautiful. The staff and students were both warm and helpful. They stated from the start that there woud be no "shoving Furman down our throats" and that they wanted us to make our own decision to where our hearts led us. I really respected this, because I've experienced weekends of "hard-sell" techniques at other schools for scholarship interviews that have turned me off. President Shi took the time to meet everyone of us personally and have a conversation with us and our parents. At the class I attended, the teacher knew all 15 kids in it by their first name. The teacher even decided to teach the US History class outside b/c it was so nice outside. I don't think you can put a value on that personal attention. My opinion of Furman continues to climb higher and higher. Feel free to let me, Lukester (his S was there for the Lay event as well), or any of the other Furman alum. or Furman parents on this board know if you have any questions at all. I know I will do my best to answer any questions you may have about Furman.</p>
<p>my decision gets harder by the day...i was accepted to washington & lee yesterday, still waiting on my wake letter (if i don't get it today, i'll call on monday...ahh The US Postal Service), and i was awarded close to a full ride at my safety school...and to top all that...my scholarship letter from Furman will be at my door on Thursday... (now i know the application process was the easy part of this whole college process)</p>
<p>Hope all your news is good news this week wdlan...and thanks for sharing details of your Furman Lay weekend. Hope all your financial aide packages are generous--froshtobe, lovemykids and others.</p>