Hi guys,
I am a prospective international student from India looking to pursue a 3+2 program , hence an interest in liberal arts. I dream to go to Furman, but would just like to know my chances of merit aid because its most important for my selection of this school. My scores are as follows :
ACT : 32 (Sc 32, M 35 , E 33 , R 29 )
SAT Subject - Math II - 750
Rank : top 5 %
Objective
IB (predictive in bracket) : Math HL - 6 (6)
Physics HL- 6 (6)
Chem HL - 6 (6)
Eco SL - 7 (7)
Hindi - 5 (6)
Eng lit - 5 (6)
Total - 35 (39)
Subjective
Headboy of the school
-Extracurriculars : National Tennis players, have come second all over India twice and third one. Captain of the State tennis team . State football player and city captain. Organised MUNs, executive committee member. Chair of MUN (DISEC & SPECPOL) and have received best position paper. Track and field 400m gold medalist x3 , 1500m gold x3, was torch bearer for the year 2014-15
- Volunteer - built 40 toilets for the underprivileged by raising $4000 through miscellaneous event organisations and public awareness. IAYP silver medalist , in which, as service, I taught underprivileged children various skill such as using the computer, playing football, cricket, as well as reading.
- scholarship - received an annual scholarship of $1500 for a year from an NGO for excellence in tennis. Have been receiving an annual $1000 from the state govt. for excellence in tennis.
Job/work experience : Intern at a multinational company in HRD department. Also completed a CSR activity with the HRD department, collaborating with an NGO to organise eye camp for underprivileged women.
Essays : I think I have a pretty convincing essay.
Recommendation : Great recommendation from both physics and english teacher who have known me or 8 years.
Strength - extracurriculars maybe I’m from India and it’ll add to the diversity.
weakness - my secondary year report/ grades
The Furman website has the following language regarding the full tuition/full ride scholarships (Duke, Lay) that it offers:
"Academic record: In past years, finalists have taken the most challenging curriculum available to them, including honors and AP classes, IB or other advanced curriculum choices. A’s dominate the transcripts of finalists. Standardized test scores of finalists are typically above 32 on the ACT or above 1400 on the SAT I.
"Extracurricular involvement: Finalists typically are involved in many activities outside the classroom. They hold significant leadership positions in their school or community and display exceptional creativity, commitment and enthusiasm in all they do. Often, they have been involved in activities on the county, state or national level.
“Personal achievement: In all they do, finalists seek challenges and make the most of opportunities presented to them.”
Because your ACT score is not “above 32,” you are at a disadvantage. Also, Furman has become more tight with its scholarship money in the past couple of years. Further, if you are considering the Alden Pre-Engineering Scholarship, that full tuition scholarship is awarded to only one (1) student.
Why are you interested in a 3+2 program? If you wish to get an engineering degree, it might behoove you to go to a 4-year school for a B.S. in engineering, rather than a 3+2 program. (Typically the 2 engineering years on the 3+2 involve tuition paid to the engineering school, and I don’t think that Furman’s full tuition award would cover that.)
Thanks for the info @gandalf78 . However, I never intended to do just engineering, as I am not sure as to what I really want to specifically do in engineering. 3-2 offers me a chance to complete 2 bachelor degrees in 1 extra year. And maybe, even if I realise I dont really want to end up in engineering because school doesnt expose you in an atmosphere where you can actually decide what you want to do, hence I can alway opt out. With engineering schools, that’s not the case.
Most good engineering programs are offered at large public universities, so you have the option of studying something else that is completely unrelated to engineering; and there are a decent number of colleges with good engineering programs that also offer good liberal arts programs: Lafayette and Bucknell are two that come quickly to mind.