Hi! I’m currently a high school junior who has been dreaming of Furman since the end of the eighth grade. I did a Summer Scholars program last summer, and it really solidified my decision. However, I will be crushed if the only thing standing in my way is the almighty dollar. My goal is to get under 40k, preferably 35k, as military aid will also be added. I’ll be graduating with 13 or 14 AP credits, tons of leadership and involvement at school and ECs that I love. I’m an A student, with the occasional B.
This isn’t a “chance me” post, but more so of a general question of: How hard is it to get substantial merit aid? I know I am not competitive for the big name scholarships, so I’m really hoping that a general Bell Tower scholarship will match my needs. Also, if I apply Early Action, will I have to wait til the spring to receive my financial package? Any info is greatly appreciated!
@pineapple1203 I see from another post that you are from NC. You say that you are an A student with tons of leadership, so you may be competitive for the Townes Scholarship. The selection criteria given on Furman’s website states:
“they look for scholars from outside of South Carolina who have demonstrated a passion for helping others and making an impact in their communities. Candidates have demonstrated strong leadership skills and hope to continue a high level of civic engagement while attending Furman.”
Townes and Hollingsworth (for SC residents) scholars get $35,000/ year, a $2000 study away stipend, and $3000 stipend for research or internship. D2 was a Hollingsworth scholar. Demonstrated leadership and community service are definitely important to get these scholarships, and there are only 10 selected for Townes, but it’s worth a shot.
My daughter applied to Furman EA this year and was accepted with a Bell Tower Scholarship of $19k. I believe you find out the scholarship amount with your acceptance letter in December. Like you, her heart was set on Furman before 9th grade, and she attended the Summer Scholars program last summer. My suggestion to you if you want to pursue the big name scholarships at Furman would be to keep working on your ACT score (if it is not already at least a 32). I also suggest you find some alternative schools where you would be happy just in case the finances at Furman do not work for your family. Unfortunately the school was cost prohibitive for our family as we received no financial aid (other than loans). The good news is my daughter fell in love with another school that offered her a very generous scholarship and will end up costing half of what it would have cost for her to attend Furman. Good luck!!!
My son is going to Furman this fall. His accomplishments are very similar to yours (GPA, AP credits, ECs). In addition, he scored ~2000 on his SAT’s (math,verbal,writing). With all of that, he received a $25000 per year Bell Tower scholarship. I believe that is on the high end for Bell Tower. He also received another $12000 per year scholarship from the department that he will major in. He applied for the top scholarships too, but if you look at some of the previous threads, there were students with incredible grades, AP credits, EC’s, and test scores (above 2200) and they didn’t even get an interview. So don’t count on those.
We did Early Action (don’t do Early Admission!!), and that was when we found out about the Bell Tower (right around Christmas). We didn’t hear about the department scholarship until mid-March.
I would recommend you apply to several schools, and if you get a better financial offer from another school, you can use this as a bargaining chip. Private schools can be more flexible with their scholarship money, so don’t be afraid to barter with Furman (or any other school). The worst they can do is say no. We were prepared to do this, but in the end, Furman’s offer was as good as any of the other offers my son received - and Furman was his first choice.
Furman is a great academic school - the people there are very friendly (including the Admissions people) - the professors actually care that you learn. I know, I graduated from Furman in the early 90’s.
My high school senior applied EA to Furman with a 34 ACT and 4.3W GPA. Notification of acceptance from Furman arrived December 20, and with this acceptance was notification of a $25,000 Bell Tower Scholarship. Although timely application was made in January for the competitive Duke and Lay Scholarships, we received notification in late January that no invitation for an interview was forthcoming. No departmental scholarships were awarded, either.
I’d like to weigh in on the competition for the named scholarships at Furman. My son is instate had a 32 ACT, 4.98 WGPA and a 3.99 UWGPA. He is an Eagle Scout, volunteered at our local science center, Captain of Science Club and team, Captain of Academic Team , Beta Club member and NHS member. He received a $ 22,000 Belltower Scholarship in December of last year. While that scholarship is quite generous, the COA at Furman is $ 60,000 a year. He submitted his application for the named scholarships ( Duke, Lay and Hollingsworth ) He was invited to interview for the Hollingsworth Scholarship worth $ 35,000 renewable , plus a study abroad stipend and an additional enhancement totaling $40,000. On interview day, we were told that they received 1200 scholarship applications, that they had invited 78 students to compete for Duke, Hollingsworth and Townes. My son competed against 24 other students for 10 scholarships. He did not receive one and was placed on the alternate list. We declined his acceptance at Furman based on a variety of reasons, one of which was financial to accept admission to his dream school with close to a full ride merit package. @AtlChelle is right. In order to be remotely competitive you need at least a 32 on the ACT or 1400 SAT. Good luck to you, I hope it works out .
Thank you for all of your responses! My parents have decided to give me an additional year of military aid, so I think this might make Furman a bit more tangible. I’m crossing my fingers! I got a 31 on the ACT with no studying or prep, so I’m taking it again in June to raise my score. I know that I will be a long shot for one of the big name scholarships, so it is promising to hear of some substantial Bell Tower scholarships.
@AtlChelle Congrats to your daughter! I wonder if I met her last summer! I met some amazing people at Scholars last year! I’m also considering Elon and Rhodes College, although Furman is still number one. I’ll also be applying to some state schools in NC, although I have my heart set on a liberal arts education.
@NavyNole So happy to hear that your son will be a Din! Is the departmental scholarship in music or the arts? I’m interested in political science on a pre-law track, and I only see a $5000 mock trial scholarship available. Thank you for the tip about bartering. I’ve already expressed a lot of interest to my admissions counselor, so hopefully this hasn’t gone unnoticed.
@carolinamom2boys Wow. This really put things into perspective for me. Your son sounds like an amazing student. Best of luck to him in his future endeavors. Also, GO COUGS! My mom is a CoC alum.
@dheldreth I’ve seen from your past comments that your daughter was involved in mock trial. I’ve been debating through the National Speech and Debate Association since the 7th grade, qualifying to the National tournament twice. I’m also the district champion in policy debate and I’ve had decent success on the national circuit in Lincoln Douglas debate. Debate has been such an amazing experience, but very time consuming. I feel like it has prevented me from doing other activities that I’m interested in. Did your daughter have a similar experience at Furman with mock trial? I know that I want to rush and be in many student organizations. I’m concerned that mock trial will devour my college experience, much like debate has during my high school career. Any information you have is greatly appreciated!
Good luck to you. One thing that helped my son raise his ACT score was taking timed practice tests so he could get used to pacing to complete each section with time left to check his answers .
The very best of luck to you, @pineapple1203! My daughter’s friend raised her ACT score over four sittings from a 28 to a 35 by working diligently with practice books and doing practice tests multiple times until she got every question right. If you have some time over the summer, it would be worth it to continue to work on your score and take the first ACT offered in September (unless you knock it out of the ballpark in June!). Sounds like your qualifications are impressive! My daughter also applied and was accepted at both Rhodes and Elon. Rhodes is very generous with merit aid - Elon is not, but your credentials may qualify you for more than what my daughter received. Be sure you show interest in both schools prior to applying as there were kids with strong credentials who did not demonstrate interest and who were not accepted.
@pineapple1203, D1 was able to do other things besides mock trial; she was in a sorority, worked a little at the radio station, wrote some for the newspaper, did several internships, volunteered at a several organizations in Greenville, and studied abroad for a semester. I will say that mock trial was her love and priority. It is a big deal at Furman. They have sent at least one team to nationals for the last 10+ years, and the national tournament was held at Furman this year. Students get to travel around the country to compete in tournaments. She feels that mock trial helped her in law school, and even now as a lawyer. She still loves it, and now coaches mock trial and judges at tournaments.
But yes, you can participate in other activities along with mock trial. The student body at Furman is very involved; I didn’t meet too many students who only participated in one extracurricular activity.
@pineapple1203 I was reviewing my info from interview day, and I misspoke . They only invited 48 to interview , not 78. Sorry, I didn’t mean to give false info. Good luck .
This may be a dumb question , but I thought Furman was a test OPTIONAL University but I guess as far as Merit Scholarships they do require your test scores? Will they give any scholarships without test scores and for GPA only?
I know that for the math department scholarship (The Wylie Scholarship) test scores are required. I’m not sure about the big named ones, but I think the answer is that they are required for that as well.
For the big scholarships and most of the department scholarships, test scores are needed. Not as sure about the Bell Tower Scholarships (which is a generic merit based scholarship) but I bet test scores would help.
