How long did it take until your Daughter heard about the scholarship? Did she receive a letter, email or phone call. Just wondering. Thanks.
Accepted. International. Aid to be announced in the 1st
I had a question: Does Furman give full aid to internationals? If not, around how much ais do you think they would give?
I’m wondering the same thing? Have others received the named scholarship decisions? Phone, email, or mail? Thought we would know by now.
Sorry, I was checking back here for a while and no one responded, and then I stopped. I don’t know if people are still wondering, but my daughter was informed about the scholarship decision by phone the same week that she interviewed. Then a couple of days later, she got an email and then a letter. If you haven’t heard anything yet, I think you can assume they aren’t being offered anything more. On the other hand…
…it’s possible that there will be a few more offers if anyone refuses their scholarhip offer. I did hear about one person last year whose offer was upgraded after a few weeks, presumably because someone refused their offer. So if you decide for Furman, I suppose there’s a remote chance that they’ll make a few more offers as some people refuse.
I’m actually hoping that someone from the Admissions Office reads this and can assure better treatment of merit scholar finalists in the future. I would contact them directly but do not want to come across as sour grapes as we have other children who may be interested in Furman as well.
First, a description of the merit finalist experience. We live outside of the southeast and had to fly in for the interview day. The night prior, the school had a lovely reception and our hotel room was complementary. Off to a great start!
The merit finalists were divided into two weekends, one for SC residents and another for out-of-state finalists (although we noted a few SC residents on our weekend). So it looks like 1/2 the merit scholarships are remaining in-state.
The actual interview day started out with an announcement that because of the strength of the finalists, everyone was getting a $20K award. Nice applause. The two major components of the day were a group interview and a 1:1 interview with a professor in the student’s intended major. Unfortunately for us, our child’s intended major had changed from when the original application was submitted in the Fall. It would have been good to have an opportunity to update/confirm that information.
Our child indicated that the questions in both evaluation settings were “softballs” and didn’t seem designed to elicit intellectual answers. The bulk of the experience seemed to be marketing of Furman. I have to say that if they reduced the amount of $ spent on collateral materials, maybe they could bring down their price tag? So we left with a feeling that the merit scholarship decisions were really predetermined on the scholarship applications and that the interview day was more a confirmation. The questions just did not have any real depth or meaning.
We were told to expect a decision by April 3. On April 2, we received an email from the Financial Aid Office about our award. It indicated the $20K discount. We thought, is this it? Is this the notification? When we called on April 3, the school was closed for vacation. The admissions officer did not return an email inquiry. Finally several days later, we received what honestly felt like a rejection letter with a computer signature.
Suggestion for Furman: please award the $20K in a manner that does not feel like an after thought! These are real kids with real feelings! Send out an award letter with a real signature. Allow them something to celebrate and show their friends and family. Make them feel proud of their achievements! Treat them as individuals. As we got closer to May 1st decision day, Furman did outreach on a more personal level; however it was too little too late.
As a consumer, I was also suspicious of the awards themselves. While there appeared to be a spattering of award recipients at the interview day; there were not the number I would have anticipated. There are not pictures of a group of scholars nor an announcement of award recipients that I could find anywhere. Are they really awarding all of the scholarships they claim? You would think that there would be some publicity?
Furman says they are trying to become more recognizable on a nationwide basis, but I am not sure their actions support this objective. Most of the finalists appeared to be from the southeast. Personally we felt Furman to be a bit of a risk, given lack of nationwide name recognition.
In the end, our child followed the money with an eye on the bottom line (less than $20K but lower cost overall) and will be attending a college where the department chair of intended major personally outreached. Was accepted to an honors program with an option for upscale honors housing. Much larger university, but a place that our child felt wanted. Hopefully someone from Furman will find these comments useful . . .
I can understand your frustration. I’ve gone through this college application and scholarship process with 2 Ds and it is tough. Both of them were accepted to fairly high ranked LACs but not enough merit aid though I thought they were both deserving. I would suggest though that you send your thoughts to admissions, because it is doubtful posting on CC will elicit changes in the scholarship awarding process.
I can tell you from first hand experience that the scholarships are really awarded, and the applicants are discussed and decisions are made after the scholarship interviews. Townes and Hollingsworth scholars are more than just a financial award. Throughout their 4 years of college they are invited to dinners with speakers as part of the Riley Institute, and Hollingsworth Scholars participate in SC United, a 3 day event in the summer before freshman year where they discuss SC issues.
https://riley.furman.edu/riley/programs/south-carolina-united/south-carolina-united
You can find information on these scholars if you search the Furman site. But the other major awards, Duke and Lay and other special awards, are mainly financial awards, they aren’t a scholars program, so there are no group pictures of them. But if you type in Duke or Lay on the Furman site, bios on some students will come up, since they tend to be pretty successful.
Truthfully, “following the money” is what most of us have to do, and in the end it works out fine and our children thrive. Hope your child has a great college experience.
Hi all, I know this thread is old but hoping someone will be able to answer. My D was accepted EA and was given the Bell Tower Scholarship. She is now applying for the Duke, Townes and Teacher Education scholarships (we are OOS). If she is awarded Townes or Teaching sch., can she add that to the Bell Tower or are they mutually exclusive? Also, if anyone has statistics on how many students are awarded scholarships after they attend the interview weekend, that would be great.
^ I looked at the Furman competitive merit scholarship info here: http://www.furman.edu/admission/EngageFurman/FinancialInformation/Pages/merit-based-scholarships.aspx. According to this, there are up to 5 Townes Scholarships awarded to incoming OOS students, and “Townes scholarships may not be combined with other Furman scholarships.” I can’t find anything about whether the Teacher Education Scholarship can be stacked with other awards.
@atlgal2016 I believe the Teacher’s scholarship can be added to the Bell Tower,but nothing can be stacked with Townes, Hollingsworth, Duke or Lays. I haven’t heard any statistics , but have been told the scholarships are extremely competitive , so I would think not many. I would contact the financial aide office to see what can be stacked.
2 Lay, up to 8 Duke and up to10 Hollingsworth scholarships are awarded. So I’d say very, very competitive.
Does anyone know when the invitations will be distributed via mail or email?
All of the scholarships which require interviews (Lay, Duke, Hollingsworth, Townes) include this information:
“The interviews are held in late February. Candidates will be notified by mail if they are selected to compete.”
I assume we’ll hear soon (next 7-10 days) if invited, since some families will be coming in from out of town and would need to make travel arrangements.