<p>At this point these are my top 4 schools.(There are other schools that I was accepted at but I think these are the best fit) I believe that they are all good intellectual matches but I'm more concerned about the social end of things. I'm a quiet guy (it takes me a while to make friends) who isn't into wild parties and I don't imagine that changing.</p>
<p>The issue is that Furman has a nonbinding ED agreement so I have to decide whether to just committ to them or move on and wait for the other schools. I think that F&M is fabulous and would be my first choice but it appears that it is a big frat school. I don't want to spend my college years hanging out alone in the dorm. Also, it appears that they take most of their class ED so I would probably have to do that since it is my first choice.
My mom thinks that Hendrix is the perfect school for me, but I'm not sure I want to be that far away. Lastly, Rhodes appears to a fabulous place, but again the whole Greek scene appears to be very strong.</p>
<p>So what would you do... (I know it's my decision, but it helps to hear others opinions)</p>
<p>Go with Furman, great school, great aid/merit package. I would have been thrilled to go there if I had never been to F&M.</p>
<p>Risk a sure thing and go with F&M and apply ED II (I can easily list all the fabulous things this school has to offer and just assume that I can find my group and be happy)</p>
<p>Wait to see how things work out with RD with F&M and Rhodes and my other schools. (although very few students accepted RD at F&M compared to ED)</p>
<p>Your thoughts would be helpful (not concerned about $$$ in this decsion)</p>
<p>Secondly the binding agreement just means that if you change your mind you lose the deposit. Since $$ is not a concern you can accept ED at FU, make the deposit and continue applying to other schools. If you get something better you just lose the $400.</p>
<p>The frats at FU are not as fratty as other places. All students still must live on campus. Frats and non-frats get along very well. Your social life will not depend on whether you are in a frat or not. More than likely it will be linked to your activities/clubs more than anything else</p>
<p>ED is more then that. Your high school counselor signs the ED form saying he/she will not let you apply to other schools. Now if your counselor breaks that and you end up going else where, a lot of schools will hold that against the school and sometimes not admit anyone from that school anymore. Also, since they are small LACs, the admissions officers are probably pretty familiar with eachother and let whatever school you go to know that you broke the ED agreement which could have a lot of consequences.</p>
Franklin & Marshall. It’s a reasonably large LAC in the middle of Amish country, Pennsylvania. It’s superb in English and the sciences and has excellent pre-med and pre-law placement. The campus is quite nice, but unfortunately Lancaster is not.</p>
<p>
Eh, not really. In 2008, only 410 of the 2021 admits were admitted through ED.</p>
<p>Your impression about the Greek scene at F&M is mostly correct, I think, though you give it more emphasis at Rhodes than it has there (though numbers imply otherwise).</p>
<p>I’d apply RD everywhere and see where you get in.</p>
<p>Thanks for the additional info. The ED at Furman is non binding, so I can say no. I’ll have to check if we can get out of it if I change my mind.</p>
<p>Also, last year Franklin and Marshall accepted 70% of their early decision applicants. So that seems to increaser the odds a lot since their admiitance rate is 35%… Again thanks!</p>
<p>I’m a student at Rhodes, and I chose not to join a fraternity but I love the Greek system here. Though the campus is about a 50/50 split Greek and non-Greek, you’d be hard-pressed to tell. The fraternity and sorority houses are non-residential so even the Greek students live in the dorms with everyone else. You don’t see a lot of division between Greeks and non-Greeks and the Greek events normally open to the entire campus by about eleven. So our Greek system is there if you’re interested in it but it doesn’t overwhelm to social scene by any means. And we’re definitely not a wild party school. It’s actually kind of funny to think about us like that.</p>
<p>As for pre-med, many of our students are interested in going to med-school and focus on that in their studies. Rhodes has a great agreement with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where Rhodes students can get internships and do research with researchers at the hospital. It’s a great opportunity for students interested in medicine. I can put you in touch with friends of mine who have done work with St. Jude if you’re interested. Many pre-med focused students also volunteer at one of Memphis’ public hospitals, The Med, spending time with doctors and patients in many areas of the hospital.</p>
<p>I’d love to talk to you some more about Rhodes if you’re interested. Shoot me a PM or reply.</p>
<p>My son is also considering 2 of these at this point. The nonbinding ED agreement at Furman becomes binding when the student accepts. The student agrees to withdraw all other applications. My son has decided to revist Furman and spend a day or two on campus. If he doesn’t see it as a great match then he’ll wait and see how his regular apps turn out.</p>
<p>Franklin & Marshall’s greek scene is not particularly worse than any other college, as a general rule. I live in Lancaster and took an Arabic class there last semester. None of the people in my class were in fraternities/sororities, but they all talked about having a great time on the weekends. Some of them partied, which you said you were against, but I know a lot that didn’t and found lots of fun things to do on and off campus. </p>
<p>Lancaster is not a bad city. It’s small, but it’s got enough activities to last for four years. It has the first farmer’s market, which boasts Thai food, smoothies, and pastries along with the traditional fruits and vegetables. Lancaster’s food is excellent; that is one thing they’re known for. There is a large variety in restaurants and cafes, and you can most likely find whatever you’re looking for. There’s greek, vietnamese, thai, indian, mexican, french, and many other types of food in the city itself. Of course, there’s also movie theaters and local concerts and such.</p>
<p>Hi! I work at Rhodes and think that the best advice to give you is to encourage you to visit these schools. Your questions are good ones, and the answers that will be most convincing to you are the ones you arrive at yourself when you make the visits. Perhaps you’ve already visited some of these schools, perhaps all of them. If you’re serious about attending one, please visit again. When you visit, make sure that you have a chance to see how easy it is to be an independent student, to see how well you fit not only with the school but the town or city surrounding it, and to learn how well alumni from each school are doing in the career or schooling you plan to pursue after college. You’ve picked four good schools, and they’re different from each other. In some respects very different. Go visit them, and the best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Furman. Its a no brainer. Fabulous school (tough and rigorous academics), great social life…there are parties, but a LOT of kids don’t party…no pressure to do so. Great connections for jobs and internships.</p>