@NoogMan Well, good news all around! Soccer team finally won their first game! And he got in! Bell Tower Scholarship $29,000.
Small private (highly academic) HS in San Diego
31 ACT
4.02 GPA (7 APs/1 honors)
Soccer/Baseball player
Yearbook editor for 3 years
normal community service & other ECs (not over the top)
As to those who got deferred, my hunch is that there is little bit of yield protection going on & Furman may be waiting to see if those kids voluntarily pull their apps after ED2 results or results from very competitive flagships (UNC/Clemson/UVA etc) come out at higher/reach schools.
@terrieralum-dad My son is also a Wofford Scholar – $30k/yr there. He really liked Wofford a lot, but unfortunately Furman wasn’t on our radar when we visited back in Fall 2021, so we’ve never been. Looks like we’ll be making a trip to SC!
Hopefully you guys make it out to tour Furman at the Furman Forward event. We did both Furman and Wofford back to back over 2 days. For our kid, it was a no brainer. Make sure you go visit downtown Greenville if your boy loves to eat like mine…lol. Gonna be a rare treat for them, but downtown Greenville is crazy cool compared to how it was 20 years ago. We live in SC and have passed through over the years watching it change.
Furman even offers a trolley that takes students to/from downtown every 30 minutes on weekends until 1:30am…which is pretty cool, especially if they’re of legal age to have a drink.
Think the trolley also makes Wal Mart runs for shopping one or two nights a week for incidentals. Mine will have his car there, but I know some won’t. The little things sold us on it…they seem to have thought out a lot of things, and listened to student concerns. Oh, the dining hall is crazy cool…and freshmen have unlimited swipes in the dining hall. They can eat once, go to a class, then come back and swipe again for more if they’re still hungry. There’s a sushi bar, moes grill, starbucks, etc… it’s just everything WE never had in college…lol.
As parents, we observed the students while we were there…even at a football game. It was quickly obvious that they’re all there for business. They had a good time at the football game, playing Cornhole, and some were drinking, but it was VERY low key and respectful compared to the big schools like Clemson, etc. It was just a different vibe…the kids looked happy…
I agree that the deferrals look like yield protection because the stats are so high (definitely higher than my son’s). That’s so frustrating… we have a sophomore in college, and we believe that happened to her. If your kids are still truly interested, make sure they write a heartfelt letter and let admissions know they would love to attend if admitted. I think that sends a strong message of intent. Good luck.
Thank you for the informative description of your Furman tour! This is our youngest child (of 3) to go through the college search process & one of the main things that our older kids said was to make sure you check out the food situation on campus! Our middle son is a junior at Davidson & while he (& we) love it, the on-campus food has been a huge disappointment, especially when he recalls the fantastic food he experienced on tours at Richmond, Virginia Tech, Baylor & SMU. The unlimited dining hall swipes are a big perk, especially for boys!
We’ll have to see how it all shakes out before planning some visits – in order to consolidate some schools into one trip (like Wofford & Furman), plus he has some schools in PA & NC.
So it isn’t hard to figure out from my handle, but I do have an older son at Wofford. I can answer quite a few questions about it if you are interested. I guess I understand the yield protect, it was just a really odd note with the deferral. Basically, we need to know you better? He wrote an essay, gave every score including APs, provided a resume and of course I filled out my life on a FAFSA and CSS. Just amusing that they don’t really know him yet- As a football player the falls are no gos for visits, and every attempted visit had no slots. I think this is probably the death’s knell- but he does have great options in Wofford and USC so far. I am glad to hear that others had success though honestly, and they do land where they are supposed to!
Thank you for sharing your description of Furman. We found Furman very late in the process. Several people mentioned it matched things my daughter was looking for so she applied. But, we haven’t visited and I think she submitted her application near 10pm the night it was due. I am a little stressed because she seems to be morphing what she wants in a college as the days go by. She’s our 3rd and we go to the US every summer so we have visited a lot of colleges. She was adamant she wanted a small school in the south that was academically focused…now she seems to be starting to be concerned about having a vibrant social scene and ok with a small school but thinking a larger school wouldn’t be that awful. Of course all the big states colleges deadlines have passed. We live in Europe and I hoped we wouldn’t have to fly back but I am afraid we might have to make a trip. She’s waiting on a few state schools from NC and VA…she didn’t want those schools at first, I forced her to apply to a few bigger schools just in case… but those are reaches, especially out of state… We never looked at Wofford and now I am wondering if we should have. She’s been accepted to Trinity U, Rhodes, UDelaware, Loyola (MD), and a few others and she really does like them. Your description has really helped us get excited about Furman, so thank you! She really wants a balance of happy & academic & social.
My son was deferred too. 1520 SAT, 4.0 UW, 5.1 W, decent extracurriculars and excellent personal statement (IMO!) We are from SC and I kind of pushed him to throw that application in- free and no additional essay. I think it seems lovely and thought he could get big $$ and a place he could make really good grades to help with med school admissions. He wants a bigger school with football rah rah spirit. We never toured or did any online event etc. Nothing. I guess they knew he had no interest in going there, happy to see posts of parents whose kids had it as top choice admitted. He’s been admitted so far to Tulane, UGA, and Clemson and many more to hear from. Oh and by the way I only know that he was deferred because I hacked into his portal, I didn’t even tell him. He hasn’t even bothered to look apparently or at least hasn’t told me if he had.
4.0 unweighted gpa
5 APs (with 5s)
35 ACT
SGA President
Rural community with lots of community volunteer work/involvement…church, civic, tutoring
Scouting
Varsity basketball
Attended a campus tour and loved it. Great fit. Also offered Wofford Scholar opportunity and loved it as well. No idea how he will decide. We will be back for admitted student events both places. He’s applied to several other small private schools in the southeast, regular decision and yet to be seen, but Furman and Wofford are favorites.
I had very similar stats to the students who were deferred, but I was accepted. I did show my genuine interest in the school though. I did an interview and attended virtual seminars.
Any idea when the Admitted Students Day is scheduled for? I didn’t see anything online and it wasn’t in the letter. I think it would be helpful for my son to attend.
Got a notification from FAFSA that a “college” had edited my son’s FAFSA. I checked on the Furman portal & sure enough they had yesterday’s date on the FAFSA (as opposed to the date we filed it in Nov). I hope this means FA packages will be released soon!
