Just Toured Furman and We are in Love, Any Other Recent Tour Reviews? Current/Recent Parents/Studen

Colleges and Universities A-Z Furman University
1

We are from the N.E. but my DS added Furman on the list of southern schools to tour along with the honors college at both Clemson and USC. While the latter two are fine schools, they are too large.

Although I have heard of Furman, I did not know much about the school. The grounds seemed amazing, the buildings well kept and new.

We went to the Trone Student Center and just started talking to kids. They all seemed happy and indicated that the school, in their opinion was very rigorous.

Our DS is interested in the sciences and many of the students discussed the excellent relationship they had with their professors. I know office hours and knowing your professors is critical for graduate school. They all seemed to indicate that they were not just a number and that class attendance was important (great!).

I know Furman is not as well known outside of the South, just like some of the smaller N.E. Liberal Arts Schools, Colby, Bates etc are not as well known outside of the N.E.

Can anyone share their recent experiences and whether they are a content parent or student?

2

I have visited as well, and it is a gorgeous campus; and I know some kids who have attended (or are attending), and they seem pleased with their experiences there.

If you are looking at smaller southern colleges, you might want to check out Davidson College as well; also, here are a couple of links on CC that you might find helpful in regard to southern LACs:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1737211-sewanee-rhodes-or-furman-p1.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1671635-southern-lacs-p1.html

3

You can also search this site for all Furman threads. My D is graduating next month and Furman has been a fabulous education and experience for her. She has loved her time at school, traveled far and wide with school, published works and had excellent internships. She has secured a job for after graduation.

The student-professor relationships is one of my favorite aspects of a Furman education. I attended a very large state uni and I am beyond impressed by the relationships created and fostered.

4

We are not from the South but even up here Furman has a positive reputation. In other words, those who know, know about Furman. Most southern schools other than Vandy or Duke are not as well known up here.

We have one who is interested in the sciences and she thinks it is important that she be in a smaller classroom and have an opportunity to interact with her professors. We are wary of the schools that “wash out” a lot of there science students the first year.

Very positive on Furman.

5

We are from NJ and our daughter graduated from Furman (in the sciences) a couple years ago. Our experience was very positive and I particularly liked the relationship she had with her professors and how they helped her with internships, etc. Very different experience than our son who went to a large state school in the South. DD was the first from our high school to go to Furman and now the word is out. 1-2 per year from our very small school have since enrolled there. Class attendance is definitely important as the curriculum is rigorous.

6

Parent of 2 Furman students. One graduated with a degree in Political Science, went to law school, and is now a lawyer. 2nd D will be graduating in May with a BS in Biology. She will be going to Medical School in the fall.

There are quite a few small, great, liberal arts colleges in the South. Here are a few things that my science daughter found to be special about Furman:

  1. As others have mentioned, the great relationships with professors. She had 2 of her professors write letters of recommendations for med school. At one interview, the interviewer commented on how impressed he was with these letters. He said that most of the time, you can find everything in a letter of recommendation in the student's application, but her letters were very personal. These professors really knew her, both in and out of the classroom. Doubtful that would have happened at schools with hundreds of students in classes.
  2. Pre-med advising is great. The pre-med advising office gets to know intended pre-meds early on, they help them find shadowing and volunteer opportunities. They were there for the ups and downs of the MCAT and application process. Again, because they don't have hundreds of pre-meds, they can be more nurturing and get to know students well.
  3. The research opportunities are strong for such a small school. Many students in all subject areas do research with professors, often with a paid stipend. Students can apply for Furman Advantage which pays a stipend to students who get internships that are unpaid. Some examples of off campus research internships that D and some of her friends have done are at the CDC, Greenwood Genetics Center, Johns Hopkins, St. Judes.
  4. The science building and library. Being in them makes me want to go back to school!

As others have said, Furman is rigorous. Everyone has to study, and to make really good grades, you have to work hard. When we went to orientation for our older D, the president told parents that ~%80 of the incoming class graduated from high school with a 4.0 or better. But only 4 students the previous year at Furman (of a class of about 600) graduated with a 4.0. There were times at Furman for both of my Ds that they were discouraged by grades, when they would work really hard and still not be able to get an A in a class. But in the end, they got where they wanted to go, had some wonderful experiences, and got a terrific education.

Good luck with your college visits!

7

Furman is a great school, on a beautiful campus in a terrific climate. As to the sciences, their Chemistry Department, in particular, is very strong.

I posted a detailed review of our visit to Furman last fall in the “Southern LAC’s” thread linked above. That might be of some use to you.

Sadly, since 2011, they have made an institutional decision to reduce merit aid offers, which ultimately took Furman out of running for our S. It was about $9K more expensive (per year) than every other LAC he was accepted to, after merit scholarships were applied. He was offered their top “non-named” scholarship, and was applying out of state.

But if the money works, great school. And make sure you spend some time in Greenville–awesome small city.

Good luck!

8

ColdinMinny,

I reprinted your review at the bottom for the benefit of others. We have done a lot of Furman research over the past week and are very impressed. Too often seniors miss that they need to choose the school that “fits” them academically. Not every senior can survive in a large Intro to Psychology class of 350 people.

My impression of Furman is that the professors really work with the students and are there to help them with internships and graduate or professional school. Our student is interested in either medical or graduate school and I would appreciate hearing from anyone with that experience. For graduate school, they want to see how you did in your undergraduate program, not where you attended.

At about 3000, the school is a great size. Once you get over that, the school becomes a little more mechanical. We went on Rate My Professor and the ratings are generally very good.

Review from Cold in Min:

Day 2: Furman University, Greenville, SC

I will stick to a similar format as our visit to Davidson, with Pro’s, Con’s and Neutral items.

Pro’s:

I thought Davidson was beautiful. Well, Furman is even more gorgeous. The best word I would use is to describe the campus is “sprawling”. They have almost 800 acres, so the buildings are generously spaced, with plenty of green space between, all filled with water features, fountains, and some of the most beautiful landscaping I have ever seen. My S described that “it looks like a resort”. There is a primary lake in the center of campus, with a large bell tower perched on a peninsula thrust into the lake.

The people, from the students themselves to faculty to staff were some of the happiest, friendliest people you could choose to meet. I picked up a distinct “laid back” vibe from the students, potentially aided that they had a short week and this was a Friday. Asked for directions, help, etc., and everyone was extraordinarily polite and helpful. Just a pleasure to be on campus.

Super organized visit process. They give a half hour information session with plenty of data, and then split the groups into walking tours of the academic, interior portion of the campus, and then golf cart tours to the extended areas of the campus. For our visit, they also added a lunch with a freshman student who shared similar interests as our S (a tremendous resource, and more schools would be well-advised to have Freshman talk to students, instead of upper classmen, since they just went through this process last year.) Then S attended a class in his intended major, then they had set up an interview with the head of that department. Simply put, THIS is what a visit should be.

Well-established “CLP”, which I believe stands for Cultural Living Program. Basically, it is a graduation requirement that each Furman student must attend 32 of these CLP programs during their years at Furman. These opportunities run the gamut, from musical performances, to incoming speakers, to seminars, etc. I thought this is a very sound idea, as it forces students to stay engaged outside their majors and the college bubble. I have not heard of a similar program at other schools, but perhaps this is not unique. Still a good idea, in my book.

4-4-1 structure, or the “MayX”. Furman has two “normal” semesters, and then has the option of taking a 3 week program in May. This can be in virtually anything, including study abroad. This would be helpful for students in majors/programs that make it hard to be absent for a full semester, giving them an opportunity to take advantage during the May semester outside of the framework of their “normal” classes.

Greenville itself was a revelation. Had never visited this city before, and it is an absolute gem. They have done an extensive, decade-long renovation of the downtown area, and now it reminds me a bit of San Antonio’s Riverwalk, on a smaller scale. We were downtown both Thursday and Friday nights, and had dinner and walked around quite a bit. Tons of great restaurants, people are all over the place enjoying the Fall weather, and it was simply lovely. S’s comment: “I didn’t know a City could be like this”.

Con’s

Cost. Furman’s COA is now over $57K. I am sure it will hit $60K by the time current seniors in HS graduate from college. However, they do give some merit aid, with a variety of options. Admissions stressed to get all scholarship applications in on a timely basis. Poor transparency on scholarship prospects, and amounts. Some schools will give either a clear idea, or strong projections on what merit aid could be expected. Not Furman. Totally in the dark for now.

Drinking/Partying/Frats: The freshman student we had lunch with candidly indicated the obvious, and that students at Furman are drinking and partying. No surprise, but I definitely did pick up that vibe on campus. Greek presence is roughly 50%. In fairness, the freshman we met did not drink, nor did several of his immediate friends, and he said there was no pressure to drink. Nonetheless, it is there, and the frats/sororities are certainly a part of this.

OOS access to the airport is decent, but Greenville is not a major airline hub, so I suspect most air travelers are going to have to make connecting flights to come into Greenville. The other option might be Charlotte, but that is roughly 2 hours away by car, depending on traffic.

9

@ColdinMinny you might be glad to hear with the arrival of President Davis merit money has gone back up this year. President Davis is well regarded among both staff and students. My student has remarked on several occasions how visible she is and how impressed she is to see her eating in the DH.

10

We visited Furman with our son and could not have been more impressed. Son sat in a class and really enjoyed the interaction with the professor.

A boy a year older than my son from his high school attends Furman and had nothing but praised for the social and academic experience.

11

@mommamocha No evidence in that for Class of 2019 Admissions. He received the “top” $16K Scholarship offer from Furman. His other offers were all in the low to mid $20’s, and that is before Furman’s very expensive COA is factored into the calculation.

They are priced at 15-20% higher than their competitors, such as Rhodes, Denison, Wooster, St. Olaf, Trinity, etc. As you can see above, S really liked the school, but it was not worth that price differential to our family. Had Furman come in at a competitive price, this would have been a very tough decision for him.

I told my S he could always choose to work in Greenville later!

Good Luck!

12

@ColdinMinny oh I’m really sorry to hear that. The students who competed for named scholarships did have a bump in overall monies. ( if they did not win the named scholarships they were given a generous merit package that is more the past years) You are correct, the sum you named is slightly more than in the past but not in comparison to the rise in cost.

We have been over joyed at the education our child has received, I hope merit monies will grow to allow more choices for students in the future.

Our kids received named scholarships and that has made all the difference, so I really understand the financial component.

13

@ColdinMinny
Your claim that Furman is 15 to 20 percent more than the others isn’t true. Maybe you weren’t comparing apples to apples. Here are the latest figures from their websites, using tuition +fees+room+board for an incoming residential student. I have included the schools’ US News ranking:
Denison (Tied for 51) $58860 1.3 percent MORE than Furman
Furman (Tied for 51) $58092
St. Olaf (Tied for 54) $52730 Furman is 10.2 percent more
Rhodes (Tied for 54) $53970 Furman is 7.6 percent more
Wooster (Tied for 69) $55600 Furman is 4.5 percent more
Trinity (Considered in a different category in US News) $50218 Furman is 15.6 percent more

So you can see that it isn’t true that Furman is 15-20 percent more than all their peers.

14

@masu ColdinMinny was talking about price after merit aid, not sticker price.

The College Data site indicates that Furman enrolled 799 freshmen in 2013-14. Just over half of these had financial need and were awarded $27,940 on average. So the $59,051 sticker price was reduced by that much for those students.

Another 292 freshmen, according to CD, demonstrated no need, but received $20,251 in merit awards on average. So their discounted price was an average of $39,000 or so.

It looks like approximately 100 students paid full price to attend Furman.

At a peer school, Sewanee, the sticker price was about 10K less: $49,900. Again, roughly half of the 488 enrolled freshmen demonstrated need. The avg award was $30,235, slightly higher than Furman. But for this group on average, Sewanee was about $11K less than Furman, due to the lower sticker price to begin with.

Another 91 freshmen had no need, but received $9,123 on average in merit. For this group, the cost was roughly the same as what Furman would cost.

Approximately 163 Sewanee freshmen appeared to have received no aid. This was more than twice the amount of Furman students, by percentage, but the cost was $9,000 less than Furman.

Hope my math is correct on this.

15

@masu, as @MidwestDad3 has outlined, I was talking net price, after merit aid. I read a long article that indicated that starting in 2011, Furman had decided on an institutional level to reduce “discounting” of their tuition via merit scholarships and FA. I can’t comment on the latter, but they are simply not competitive with many other similarly ranked LAC’s for merit aid, with this change.

The very nice Admissions counsellor admitted his disappointment at this reality, as it makes it harder for Furman to attract talented students who are “donut holes”, not economically challenged enough for FA, but can’t afford full sticker price.

Furman’s merit offer, for our S, was many thousands lower than 9 other similarly ranked schools, including higher ranked LAC’s, and they also had the highest tuition. That combination made them way more expensive, and removed them from our consideration, despite really, really liking the school.

I should also add that your figures above are LOW for Furman. Cost of Attendance for 2015-6, according to Furman’s own website, is $61,272, and it jumped over $2000 during a period of non-existent inflation. I am pretty confident COA for the next four years will clear $250K. That is a lot of money.

To make this specific, our S could attend Furman for $45,272 per year, or Trinity University for $29,260. That is a huge difference, at over 53% more expensive. Assuming no increases (dreaming), that is $181K v. $117K for four years, a difference of $64K.

Part of what is going on here for TU is that they have a $1.2B endowment (Ranked 25th in the country for endowment per student), and they have made an institutional decision that they want to challenge Rice as the best school in Texas, and are willing to offer generous merit aid to attract the best students possible. Furman has an endowment of $650M, and also has 30% more students, and FU also needs to support D1 sports teams, with D1 scholarships, etc. Simply not as much money available for merit aid.

If you can swing it financially, Furman is a great school. It just made no sense for our situation.

Good luck to all.

16

S graduated from Furman last year. He was a music major and got a significant strings scholarship along with another academic/community service scholarship. S was also accepted to UNC Chapel Hill instate and we came out a little cheaper with Furman (after scholarships). The fact that he was a musician may have contributed to the large scholarship. S loved the contact with his professors. They spent a lot of time with him and were very helpful with his grad school reference letters. He thought the academics were solid and has complained that some of his grad school classes have not been as good as what he had at Furman. There were a lot of neat side benefits from the close faculty contact-sub jobs in regional orchestras, help with choosing summer festivals and the periodic lunch or dinner with a professor. We loved going to Greenville to visit him-lots to do.

17

ColdinMinny, I certainly understand. Both of my Ds had acceptances to highly ranked (top 25) national universities with a liberal arts curriculum. Even with what they considered generous merit aid they were unaffordable because we are in that “donut hole”. We got a lot of scholarship money from Furman and SC (we are in state) which made it very affordable and so was the school of choice for both Ds.

I think the benefits of a liberal arts education that my Ds found at Furman can be found at many of the LACs around the country. I do wish they weren’t so expensive. They are out of reach for many students.

18

@ColdinMinny we are exactly the donut family you are speaking of in regards to Furman. My husband graduated from there and we have always loved the school. D was named a Furman scholar and spent a week there last summer. She was admitted and awarded a $16,000 merit scholarship. This does not stack with the alumni discount. As a matter if fact none of the scholarships stack ( except maybe music). D was awarded similar aid to other LAC however when they start a full. $10,000 less it makes a difference. Furman only offers 4 full rides and 5-6 full tuitions. The next level of scholarship is $25,000. The it drops to 16,000 and down from there. We do not qualify for any FA. Sewanee made it more affordable by the merit aid stacking with the Tennessee Hope scholarship ( we are from TN ) she was also recently admitted into a leadership program at Sewanee that added more scholarship. Sewanee also caps the tuition so the price you start with stays the same for 4 years. Furman has increased tuition so much over the last few years, we were afraid if they kept the same pace it would become unmanageable,.
In the end Furman had been our top choice for a while, but when D saw the aid packages she was getting from similar LAC she could not figure out why Furman costs so much more. Honestly, I can’t either. You are right in most cases it is a full $10,000 more per year. We had told D she could go there ( it was going to be painful ) but in the end she chose Sewanee. I think Furman was a little surprised. I will say this, when a family like us is questioning the value ( it’s a great school for sure, but honestly no school should cost $61,000 ), has a parent who is an alum ( actually pioneered the music major to pre med program that many kids do now ) and have means to go there choosing another school it makes me think they have out priced themselves. There may be plenty of families willing to pay that much, we were not one of them. I’ll be curious to see what the new president does. The former one did not last long there and the faculty was not happy at all about the test optional and lowering the merit aid to get more full priced students in there. One of DH friends is a professor there and we spoke of this at our visit. The new president is very nice, we met her when she came to Memphis. Maybe with her doctorate in accounting she can improve the tuition situation there.

19

@mommamegan Thanks for you comments. Makes me feel better, that we were no alone not seeing the value.

It does not surprise me that the faculty would be unhappy with going test-optional and dropping merit aid levels; they want to teach the best and the brightest, not the wealthiest students.

Well, time will tell, but that ship has sailed for our S.

I can tell you this: we will be back in Greenville to visit. Loved that small city!

20

Sad to hear Furman doesn’t take care of its legacy well. My son did comment that it seemed like the athletes (Furman is D1 and can offer scholarships) and musicians made up the bulk of middle class kids. He is now at Carnegie Mellon for grad school and enjoys having more middle class peers that spend spring break at school or home and drive 15 year old cars (like he does). That said, the school was a friendly place and a good education. Schools do change however. D turned down Vassar many years ago and went to Grinnell. At that time, Vassar did not give out the aid they do now. A new president at Vassar changed things dramatically Maybe Furman will shift with the new president.

I agree about the price issue. Had Furman come with the price tag you are talking about, my son would not have gone there. The LACs mentioned here are all very similar in what they have to offer. An excellent experience can be had at any of them. We had no regrets when D turned down Vassar, Oberlin and a few others. Seversal years later, it has made no difference in her grad school acceptances. Although no one in our community knew of Grinnell, the grad schools did.