<p>Argghh-typo in above post -I meant to say empathize but for some reason typed emphasize. I do know the difference!</p>
<p>I have one other factor to throw in the mix here as parents absorb that not all top stat kids made it to the final formal interviews for the merit scholarships. My sense at Vanderbilt where applications were over 25 thousand plus this year…I think a lot over…anyway…is that if you turn down the signature merit scholarships offered to less than 1-2% of their applicants and go to a different college instead, they don’t then award that to someone else. They have a huge burden annually just meeting their “no loans” policy for financial need aid. The top quartile admitted there made a 35 or a 36 on the ACT so it is obvious that few top stat kids get merit scholarships but all are offered the generous need aid with no loans. Students whose parents can’t really afford their Estimated Cost of Attendance are the losers here and many are going to their flagship honors colleges in this recession or to great public schools elsewhere. Parents with low EFCs are going to be thrilled.</p>
<p>At Furman, there are 10 allotted Townes and 20 Hollingsworths. At least a handful of these students will have a hard time making their final decisions and may wait till the end of April to choose after doing accepted student days. I have no knowledge of what Furman does with the students who decline the named scholarships this season but if your son or daughter truly prefers a Furman education given financial viability, I recommend that you continue to stay in touch, stay reasonable, and continue to state your interest. Also, any review of your final financial package if there is a valid reason, should be explored. Give them time. Stay in touch and in play. Have this attitude for your student’s top colleges. You just never know.</p>
<p><quote>
Read the link given above. Furman is no longer after the high stat kids unless they can afford the school (supposedly with a few exceptions, but evidently, not any who post on here)
</quote></p>
<p>I agree that Furman is no longer after the hi-stat kids. But if I am going to even consider going hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole, I’d rather do it with a college that has national prestige behind it (aka Ivy League – Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Yale) than a school that is still considered LAC. While Furman ranks #2 in the nation in academic rigor, they do not have the name or reputation weight of Harvard to be requesting the the level of tuition they are charging, and if they are “dumbing” down the entry pool considering financial capability over proven merit, then they will never get to the same level as Harvard. </p>
<p>According to Furman, selecting students based on high academic merit and community service is “unsustainable” (quoted from R. Smolla, Furman Spring alumni magazine). I completely disagree. While scholastics alone do not measure success in college, it shows a great deal of commitment on the student’s part to work hard and step up to the challenge of college. </p>
<p>As a teenager, family wealth is not a good indicator of a particular student’s success potential. It is only an indicator of someone else’s success.</p>
<p>I have found that eliminating test scores as a consideration to be troublesome. Add to that misleading scholarship opportunity claims and the whole marketing package begins to smell. By misleading scholarship opportunities, an example would be Furman’s statement that they “match Palmetto Fellow scholarships up to $7000”. Sure they do, but the fine print is that they consider it as part of the total package offered, not in addition. So if your student was named a Furman scholar ($5K commitment), and then a Palmetto, Furman doesn’t come up with $5K+$7K, they consider the Furman Scholar money to be part of their “Palmetto match”. Or if your student gets the “leadership” scholarship of $11k, Furman considered the Palmetto match to be a part of that $11K. </p>
<p>This is misleading. and more than a bit cheesy. </p>
<p>At the very least, I find it telling that the staff of the university would send out crappy scholarship rejection letters, and then crappy, financial aid letters. If they are so proud of their signature liberal arts curriculum, then by golly, at least PROOFREAD your correspondence. For a college eduction that will be $250K-$300K, I believe I am reasonable to expect correspondence from the school to be as top notch as the education I should be paying for.</p>
<p>DGMom, I think you summed it up quite well. ;)</p>
<p>I’m sure Furman grads love their school (most grads of any college love their schools), and it is a nice school I’d have been happy having my offspring attend (stated after a visit), but… realistically? They don’t even make college confidential’s list of top LACs despite a national ranking from one source for rigor. People in our area of the northeast generally don’t even recognize the name. Some on here are comparing them to schools with far more prestige. They aren’t really comparable if noted prestige is the supposed common factor.</p>
<p>One ought to keep cost vs benefit in mind. </p>
<p>To those who can afford the school and love it, fine. It should be the right school for a good number of people if they are in the right demographics - they want wealthy or upper middle class. Every college is the right choice for multiple someones each year. There’s nothing wrong with their self-selecting a demographic anymore than it is wrong for any other school to choose their own.</p>
<p>But don’t pay oodles for a sales pitch (be certain what you are ‘buying’ is what you want - not just based upon commercials) and definitely don’t go head over heels in loans. I’d advise the latter for pretty much any school.</p>
<p>I concur completely Creekland. </p>
<p>We really had to reconsider the $$$ when our S started batting around medical school ideas a few months ago. That changes the game completely. Best be sure that the career of choice for our students will be manageable or attainable with the pot of money that will need to be spent in both undergraduate and potential graduate school.</p>
<p>My S was quite disappointed until we asked if he’d want us to come live with him when we exhausted our retirement for his college education. His answer was “NO”… so our answer was also “NO”. That and telling him that the $100K we would be financing would equal <em>2</em> brand new BMWs… put into perspective.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I think Furman is a terrific school. It was one of my Ds top picks. I would have been very comfortable sending D to Furman. But there are other terrific schools out there as well for much less cost. For our situation, I have a very hard time understanding how a BS from Furman is worth $152k (our true cost with all loans). </p>
<p>I dont begrudge Furman for taking action that is financial sound and sustainable. After all, that is what Im doing when I tell D, sorry you cant go to Furman. A 21% drop in financial aid is a significant drop. I assume the high profile scholarships remained fully funded which means the need based pool of money was most affected. The Admissions Office should have been more forthright in explaining that Furman was moving away from need based scholarship. If I had known this, we would not have wasted vacation, time, energy, and money on two trips to visit the campus.</p>
<p>Here’s what Smolla said in the article: </p>
<p>“In the past we’ve spent a lot of money to attract students with
the highest scores,” says Rod Smolla, the university’s president.
“We are not doing that any more. The SAT is a predictor of college
success, but not a very good one, for a number of reasons. We think
there are different ways, better ways, to bring in more top-quality
students who can really benefit from all that Furman has to offer.”
Smolla points to a number of studies and to the university’s own…</p>
<p>This link is to a NY times article but it provides SAT data from the College Board:[SAT</a> Scores and Family Income - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/sat-scores-and-family-income/]SAT”>SAT Scores and Family Income - The New York Times)</p>
<p>[The</a> Correlation Between Income and SAT Scores Sociological Images](<a href=“http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/10/12/the-correlation-between-income-and-sat-scores/]The”>The Correlation Between Income and SAT Scores - Sociological Images)</p>
<p>I doubt Furman will see any drop in SAT scores. The SAT correlates quite well with income.</p>
<p>I understand the disappointment of not getting scholarship money that you feel your child deserves to attend Furman. As I posted earlier, we had the same disappointment with Wake Forest and Emory. What I dont understand is the bashing of a college because they did not offer significant scholarship money, which just comes across as sour grapes. To take the experience of the 3 or 4 parents who are posting here and extrapolating that to mean that Furman is wanting mediocre, wealthy students or are “dumbing” down the entry pool considering financial capability over proven merit is just silly. My daughter is not mediocre, and we are most certainly not wealthy just average, middle class people who could never be full pay, and she did get a significant scholarship. </p>
<p>Going test optional doesnt mean the freshman class will be dumber. Wake Forest is ranked # 25 by US News & World report in national LACs, if you consider that important (and by the way, also doesnt even make college confidential’s list of top LACs, so it must be suspect 
), and theyve been test optional for years. When we visited, an admissions officer who was a former student told us that as a student he did a research project with admissions to find out if test scores were a predictor of success in college, and they werent. The strength of a students high school curriculum (IB, AP courses) and whether or not students did well in those courses were the best predictor of success. As we were told at Emory, what you do over 4 years of high school is much more important than what you do taking a test on a Saturday morning. Every year I teach a couple of students who can blow the SAT or ACT out of the water, but who are incredibly lazy. One of those recently was given a full ride because of his great SAT score, and flunked out of college after his first year because he didnt do the work. I dont think going test optional hurt Wake Forest, so I think it can work for Furman.</p>
<p>People posting here who have gone to Furman or who have children there have tried to give positive advice and suggestions. This is a very stressful time for high school seniors and their parents. Taking things too personally and too negatively isnt helpful. Im sure your children will attend a great college next year that you feel good about.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe the pre-med thread had links showing that SAT/ACT correlated well with STEM majors in published studies, but not otherwise - which makes sense. It also makes sense that a school go score optional to raise their overall scores. Those with good scores will report, those without won’t. Pending their intended major, I see nothing wrong with it personally. Speaking as a math person, someone with an intended art or music major simply doesn’t need SAT/ACT scores - and, of course, other majors would fit in there too. I just don’t have time to go through one by one, so chose the obvious extremes. IMO, scores should be optional at more schools, pending desired major of the student. And yes, scores do not show work ethic. That’s been known forever.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I don’t think people are bashing Furman as a school as much as you think they are. When I go back and re-read posts, I see almost everyone saying they are a good school that they’d have loved to see their son/daughter attend. What people are doing is putting the cost into perspective for those of us where money is an issue. Furman is not a super top notch education as it was sort of implied in other posts making it seem like it was #1 or even in the top 20 - 30 (which it is not), so should someone go into deep debt for it? My opinion is no. Of course, I’m also of the belief that one shouldn’t go into deep debt for #1. Others can choose for themselves. Furman is a solid academic school that provides a good education and potential to go places and do things after graduation, all with small class sizes and on a beautiful campus. That’s what attracted all of us to it in the first place.</p>
<p>Then, the other issue that most of us have is from Furman’s reputation as a school good for aid (need-based as well as merit). They have changed that (fact, not opinion) in the last couple of years without making it well-known. Had many of us known this, we’d have realized we shouldn’t have been considering them in the first place - and thus the ‘anger.’ We cut many schools not well-known for aid due to that since I know we need aid. We picked schools where our kids were above the average for stats knowing that tends to make them good candidates for aid. Like others, we spent money that could have been spent elsewhere on trips, etc, and would have changed that in hindsight if only we had known about their change.</p>
<p>Speaking for myself, there’s no harm done here - other than the time wasted on essays and the cost to send them scores/profile + one part of one trip. At least the application was free. My guy is going to a great college with great aid (combo of merit and need-based). He probably would have picked that school over Furman if finances had been equal, but I’m not certain as we never got to that point.</p>
<p>It IS important to get the info out there that Furman HAS CHANGED their financing. There’s no need to have others in the same boat next year needlessly. Plus, for some of us, we don’t want our kids going to a school with their desired demographics. I want mine going to a school with a mix of socioeconomic classes - hence - we applied to schools who offer both merit and good need based aid to attract both. But, that latter part is just a personal preference. I thought Furman was in that category and I still think they used to be. They just no longer are.</p>
<p>Furman has changed. There’s no better place than a “Furman University Cost” thread to help make that known (and through guidance offices, etc). For many in their desired demographic, this thread will be a positive read. Good school, beautiful campus, and high percentage of similar socioeconomic class peers. ;)</p>
<p>I can’t seem to stay away from this thread. I agree with Creekland on one point: Furman should have been clearer in the shift they are taking. I was certainly blindsided and suggested Furman to my son because it looked like a great school with good aid. I do agree with dHeldreth that there has been a bit of “Furman bashing”. In my world, suggesting that the quality of students will deteriorate at a college constitutes “bashing”. I think a lot of the “bashing” has to do with not understanding the complexity of the financial aid process and is not malicious.</p>
<p>I will throw in some thoughts based on my personal navigation for the past five years. I teach university transfer courses at a community college and have spent a lot of time helping my students figure out realistic financial choices. I am fortunate in that the community college system in my state is one of the best. We have lots of articulation agreements with four year schools (Kudos to Furman for the George Alden Foundation tuition scholarship for select community college transfers). I have noted a big increase in the number of bright middle-class students starting with us and then transferring to our flagship or other good LACs. This may surprise some of you but Duke University routinely takes in a few top CC transfers each year. Here are some facts I hope will assist in navigating this stormy sea called financial aid:</p>
<ol>
<li> The majority of top liberal arts colleges and universities no longer offer merit scholarships. Here are a few you can fact check me on: Harvard, Yale, Williams, Middlebury. These schools offer only need-based monies. These schools also charge MORE than Furman. Yale was 55K last year, Harvard has a 52K amount posted that was dated 2010.</li>
<li><p>CSS is not as generous as FAFSA. THE CSS formula digs deeper into one’s assets than does FAFSA. When folks were posting their EFCs, I assume these were FAFSA based. Unless one has multiple children in college at the same time, it would be unusual for a middle class family to have an EFC below 20-25K (but it does happen in families where there are folks that are retired, on disability, etc). CSS digs deeper than FAFSA. For example, with CSS, our EFC was roughly 13K higher than the FAFSA. I assume it was our almost paid for house that “punished” us on CSS along with other retirement assets (which I consider necessity as opposed to asset!). FAFSA determines eligibility for federal monies (eg: subsidized Stafford, Perkins loans, Pell); nothing more. Colleges use the CSS for your EFC, not the FAFSA when looking at institution-based grant aid.</p></li>
<li><p>Less competitive colleges offer more perks to attract bright students and colleges with bigger endowments can offer more. For example, with my older child, she was bombarded by great lesser known LACs offering full rides and honors programs (I tried to talk her into applying to one of these). All of you with high SATs got the viewbooks from Harvard, Yale, Stanford,Middlebury, Amherst, ect. We had a good laugh but never seriously considered applying. If she had been admitted, we would not have been able to afford it. She was just one of many bright kids in the sea of applicants.</p></li>
<li><p>Top LACs “class build”. If you play an unusual instrument (such as tuba) or can fill an athletic spot (DIII schools nod for this but do not give $$$). It is a given that there will be lots of kids who had high SATs, community service, orchestra, lettered in sports. Although Allstate bands and orchestras are nice, they are not going to be something a top college considers impressive. Winning a concerto competition or a scholarship to a competitive music festival is what will draw attention. For athletics (I only know about swimming), it is a similar story-being on the high school team, lettering and being a captain is a given. They are looking for kids who went to USS state and sectional championships.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think one of the most humbling experiences for me was realizing that my kid, for all of her achievements, was not a super standout in the world of top colleges. She was one of many hardworking kids with an impressive resume who simply met their criteria and was admitted. There would be no money for her at the ivies. we went to the midwest where, at the time (pre-bust of ecomony) many schools were CSS free and had scholarships. That has changed. The applicants at D’s school increased by 52% this year (wow) and, for the first time, Grinnell is now using CSS.</p>
<p>I too understand this is a very emotional time for families. Looking at schools and acceptance letters with great joy then realizing the “how do we pay for this” is the next chapter. I am also aware of this because we too sat in your seat a year ago. Wake, University of Richmond and Boston College were all schools on our list that gave no merit money to our daughter. However we felt very fortunate that Furman did offer merit aid. It also was her first choice. (Lucky for us)</p>
<p>I feel compelled to address the comments from two folks that stated, “Furman is aiming toward mediocre level of ability in their freshman class” and “Furman no longer wants high stats kids unless they can pay full fare”.</p>
<p>The average GPA of the freshman class of 2010 was 4.21 weighted. 50% of the entering freshman class was in the top 10% of their HS graduating class. The class of 2011 is reported as higher. Each class has become more competitive. Furman has a great track record with law school and medical school placement. Many of their students chose Furman for this very reason. Anecdotally speaking, my daughter often remarks about the student body and their accomplishments. She will state that she was special in high school but here everyone was valedictorian, top of their class, star… Furman is full of achieving and driven students. That is great for the school and our society. </p>
<p>Furman also invests so much more than classroom knowledge in their students. Civic responsibility is huge. Heller Service Corps involves more than half the students body. The service group gives back thousands of hours in community service each year. Shucker Leadership teaches them how to be servant leaders in the future. My daughter participates in both and has grown as a thoughtful leader and even more compassionate person. Her professors know her well. She meets with a few regularly. One professor had all the students in her class for dinner with his family. </p>
<p>If you choose to invest in Furman your return will be great. That said, this can be a true statement for hundreds of great universities. May your child bloom where they are planted!</p>
<p>To all that are disapointed about not being able to afford Furman…</p>
<p>Don’t be. We were in the same boat last year, the net cost of Furman was going to be $28k, WCU was going to be about $19k, USC 8k, and Coastal Carolina was going to be free due to more scholarship money than Coastal admits to.</p>
<p>My son is now a freshman at USC and is very happy there. He has enjoyed his classes, learned more than he expected to, made a few stupid mistakes that he learned from, likes the professors there and feels that he is getting a quality education. I am pretty confident that we made the best value (cost/quality) decision. </p>
<p>Now that said, I am not knocking Furman one bit. If we would have been a little more wealthy, my son would be a Furman right now. Other than the cost, there is nothing negative that I can say about Furman atall.</p>
<p>Reading this thread closely, I guess Furman is already out of my financial reach even though I’m yet to get my financial package. I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with my regional adviser and she mentioned about the same thing - 11~13K scholarship named special recognition scholarship. Even though my proven need determined by CSS will be much higher than the scholarship can cover, I can already see myself getting only the scholarship, and maybe some loans.
Just like the kids of many posters here, I have full ride, full tuition offers from elsewhere. Just like you, I’d love to attend Furman. But it seems like the decision was made before I even knew. Such a disappointment, and quite not understanding how their financial aid system went backward (in my opinion of course). Because, virtually all high-stats-kids-attracting schools I know of (and applied) employ need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>Grades measure effort, SAT measures ability. The top schools want both. Good grades+weak SAT=hard worker, weak grades+high SAT=lazy, weak grades+low SAT=dropout. Furman has removed the SAT from it’s admission process and HAS seen it’s SAT scores fall. At the same time the public honors colleges are seeing their SAT scores increase and are proud to use this data when recruiting top students. At some point this MUST be a concern for Furman in order to maintain its quality and reputation. A math class can be taught at a higer level with a class full of math SAT 650 students then a class with math SAT 500 students. If Wafford, Clemson and USC students have better SAT scores it will limit Furmans it’s ability to recruit top students. When the economy recovers I suspect Furman will go back to using the SAT’s again. Like it or not the US News uses SAT scores as part of their ranking process and to ignore this will result in lower rankings.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but it is gets a little tiring when people have 1 or 2 posts on CC and seem to be here to bash. Where are you getting your information? This is the FIRST year Furman is a test optional school. The national deadline to deposit is May 1st, so there is no way for anyone to know that the incoming freshmen scores have fallen, as you claim. From what other test optional schools have seen, the SAT rises because those that report them have high SATs. Wofford may be similar to Furman, but Clemson and Carolina are very different schools. They all have their positives and negatives, and meet the needs of different students. My D was one of those highly recruited and accepted by both Clemson & USC honors colleges. She was offered the highest scholarship USC gives. She declined it because she wanted what a small liberal arts college could offer her. Her best friend at USC sits in a Bio class with 400 students, and is only known by her clicker (used to take attendance). This did not appeal to my D. But the large schools do have many pluses, and that is what people should focus on - there is no one perfect school. There is no one perfect way to recruit students. There is no one perfect way to measure students. Finding a good college fit is about finding what works for the student’s academic interests and financially for the family.</p>
<p>Here’s the link below…President Smolla reported their scores went down 25 points…
I’m sure the new policy is based on some marketing strategy, however there is risk involved with this policy. If word gets out to the high schools that Furman doesn’t value high test scores those students may feel Furman is not interested in students like them. High test score kids also tend to be highly ranked in their class, take many AP classes, participate in leadership positions, are involved in community, and tend to be well funded students. Other schools are aggressively recuiting these students with scholarships, new dorms, oversea opportunities, early registration and even IPad 3’s. My hope is Furman will use it’s resources to recruit these top students to Furman. I do believe Furman and Davidson are the best LAC in the southeast. Below is link:</p>
<p>[One</a> University Plays Down SAT Scores in Awarding Merit Aid](<a href=“http://www.scicu.org/Newsroom/member-college-news/343-one-university-plays-down-sat-scores-in-awarding-merit-aid]One”>http://www.scicu.org/Newsroom/member-college-news/343-one-university-plays-down-sat-scores-in-awarding-merit-aid)</p>
<p>Bud, I notice you have only three posts. Do you have another identity on this thread as well? It is hard to take someone seriously when they create a new ID, especially since there are a couple of “new”, low number of posts folks on this page. The most vitriolic posts here are from folks with only a couple of posts…</p>
<p>Here is a list of well-regarded, top colleges that are SAT optional to get you started:
Bowdoin, Middlebury,Wake Forest University, Bennington, Sewanee (University of the South), Lawrence, U of Texas-Austin (flagship), Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg, Denison, New York University, Hamilton, Bard, Bates, Mt. Holyoke,American University, Connecticut College, Colorado College.</p>
<p>Top schools generally don’t offer Honors programs as they feel all of their students are Honors students (Duke, HPY, Hopkins). For example, at UNC, the “honors” courses are open to everyone. They do put more effort into inviting the high SAT/GPA kids to take the courses. In UNC’s literature, they stress that all of their students are exceptional, thus no need for an exclusive honors program. UNC is also SAT optional for transfer students. In NC, the lower tier colleges offer the separate housing, special faculty mentoring and small classes for their honors programs. At first glance, it would seem as if they are trying to “protect” the honors students from the general population.</p>
<p>The SAT has been compared to IQ scores. However, there is one big difference, the SAT can be prepped for extensively while access to an individually administered IQ test might be more difficult to come by. Most folks do not have an individually administered Weschler IQ score that they can access. The same cannot be said for the SAT. Many colleges have dumped the SAT because of the fact that one can prepare and get great results. In my community (college town) taking the Kaplan or Princeton Review are part and parcel of the junior year. A large percentage of kids taking the prep are bright students aiming for the 2200+ score.</p>
<p>IQ correlates well genetically and holds up well across time. SAT scores, taken during adolescence can be impacted by many factors other than intelligence. I routinely see my community college students jump several 100 points from their high school score simply because they now care about what they are doing. My soon-to-be Furman student (son) scored 300 points lower on the SAT than his NMSF sister. She took the test seriously, he was annoyed and rebellious about it (forgot to bring a calculator to the test and refused to ask a proctor for one). Both scored within a few points of each other throughout elementary and middle school on various achievement tests and were within 50 points of each other on the SAT when they took it for the Duke TIP program as 7th graders. </p>
<p>Maybe Furman’s 25 point SAT drop is because they are willing to take on a few innovative, bright kids who don’t “play the game” well. </p>
<p>I really should stop responding to the bear by feeding it with my comments. I wish folks could simply move past the colleges that did not give them what they wanted and focus on what they did get.</p>
<p>Your point is well taken…the students that prepare for a test tend to do better on that test. The same with a lawyer who prepares for his case does better with his case or a businessman who prepares for his presentation.</p>
<p>The SAT is not the result of 1 afternoon, it is the result of 12 years of education and should be prepared for to showcase your knowledge. High SAT scorers who are lazy at school will not accomplish as much as average SAT scorers who accomplished a lot at school, BUT those who score high and achieve a lot in school will no doubt have the most potential. That’s all I’m saying. </p>
<p>I am a new poster. I have never posted before under any name. In fact, I am a Furman alumnus.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thought out post Hornet! If you read the article that Bud linked he combats his own argument. The article is a great read and the move Furman is making is much more in line with what many parents want in a university experience for their children, a more well rounded class of students with talents in many areas. The education will not suffer. The school will be better off because new types of students with many talents are on campus. I expect the innovation to be deep and extensive. I for one am glad to see a university put emphasis on interviews and personal attributes of students. While I love high achieving students, I have a couple myself, we always put more value on what our children did with their gifts. They are expected to give back and contribute to the society at large. This seems to be what Furman would like to see also.</p>
<p>If Furman is after diversity, they have got it with my son. He did not join 10 clubs or scramble after community service hours in order to get the star next to his name. I don’t know how many community service hours he completed but I do know he spent hours working with the homeless writing project, tutoring ESL and making music all over the community. </p>
<p>My son reads because he loves to read. Throughout high school, he chose to independently read rather simply grunt through work. It cost him in grades but not vocabulary or overall “g”. He hated elementary school incentive projects such as the Pizza Hut reading program and refused to complete the forms. He gave away his swim medals as a little guy because his friends liked wearing “bling” for fun. If Furman took on a few more like him this year, they may have big dividends down the road. I do find it insulting that he might be considered “less worthy” by some of the Furman-bashing parents here because he is not a “game player”. He is kind, committed, writes well and is a strong musician. I don’t think Furman is “going downhill” by taking on a few kids of his caliber. I also do not think they will regret giving him the scholarship they gave.</p>