College Confidential - View Single Post - Reflections and insight from first year at Furman

Georgiatwins · 05-08-2009, 06:06 PM

Our tired and weary family returned home Wednesday evening after a full day of packing, loading and then driving our S and D back home for summer break. Yeah- I cannot believe that DH and I made it through their first year away at school. Like many of the other parents have written in previous posts-the first time you drive away can be tough and the first several days and weeks were hard in our home----but we made it. Our kids are happy and much more confident and independent than I could have imagined.

Now for the Furman kuddos: both of our kids have thoroughly enjoyed the professors and the academic environment at Furman. While I will say some of the professors have been extremely tough and they have studied very long hours-their intellectual abilities and knowledge base is amazing. Their writing ( which we thought was excellent when they entered Furman) has improved tremendously-thanks to First Year seminars and course rigor + tons of rewrites and professors who make themselves available. Both S and D have formed excellent relationships with at least one professor each semester this year. D's advisor was delighted to write letter of recommendation for D who was applying for 1 of 9 internships at major art museum this summer. When D received internship, professor made special announcement to Art History Class. Son's religion professor invited him to lunch with a visiting professor since S had a special interest in topic of guest lecturer. Religion professor is talking with S about serving as his TA next year. I do not believe either of these opportunities would have taken place for our children as freshmen at a large state school.

As we were packing one year of accumulated "stuff" I was thinking of so many of the moms that have posted on this board. I chuckled to myself watching several mothers in Pulitzer skirts, sweater sets, pearls, and kitten-heel shoes walking back and forth to the car in rain and high humidity. Most of the parents were dressed like their own kids-in shorts, t-shirts and sandals or tennis shoes. So remember, your child will be fine in just about anything unless they are involved in Rush where there is a prescribed dress code of sorts. One final thing" unless you child is very organized with plentry of time at the end of the year in 2010, plan to get to Greenville a day or so in advance and prepare to help sort/ throw things away, pack and possibly store things which do not need to go home. DO NOT underestimate the amount of STUFF your S/D will accumulate in 9 short months and the containers best suited to transport them in. Don't forget someone will need to clean the entire room before the keys are turned in. Failure to do a good job will result in a 75.00 fine per person.

Good luck to everyone!!

05-08-2009, 06:06 PM	#1
Georgiatwins Junior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Marietta, Georgia Posts: 246	Reflections and insight from first year at Furman Our tired and weary family returned home Wednesday evening after a full day of packing, loading and then driving our S and D back home for summer break. Yeah- I cannot believe that DH and I made it through their first year away at school. Like many of the other parents have written in previous posts-the first time you drive away can be tough and the first several days and weeks were hard in our home----but we made it. Our kids are happy and much more confident and independent than I could have imagined. Now for the Furman kuddos: both of our kids have thoroughly enjoyed the professors and the academic environment at Furman. While I will say some of the professors have been extremely tough and they have studied very long hours-their intellectual abilities and knowledge base is amazing. Their writing ( which we thought was excellent when they entered Furman) has improved tremendously-thanks to First Year seminars and course rigor + tons of rewrites and professors who make themselves available. Both S and D have formed excellent relationships with at least one professor each semester this year. D's advisor was delighted to write letter of recommendation for D who was applying for 1 of 9 internships at major art museum this summer. When D received internship, professor made special announcement to Art History Class. Son's religion professor invited him to lunch with a visiting professor since S had a special interest in topic of guest lecturer. Religion professor is talking with S about serving as his TA next year. I do not believe either of these opportunities would have taken place for our children as freshmen at a large state school. As we were packing one year of accumulated "stuff" I was thinking of so many of the moms that have posted on this board. I chuckled to myself watching several mothers in Pulitzer skirts, sweater sets, pearls, and kitten-heel shoes walking back and forth to the car in rain and high humidity. Most of the parents were dressed like their own kids-in shorts, t-shirts and sandals or tennis shoes. So remember, your child will be fine in just about anything unless they are involved in Rush where there is a prescribed dress code of sorts. One final thing" unless you child is very organized with plentry of time at the end of the year in 2010, plan to get to Greenville a day or so in advance and prepare to help sort/ throw things away, pack and possibly store things which do not need to go home. DO NOT underestimate the amount of STUFF your S/D will accumulate in 9 short months and the containers best suited to transport them in. Don't forget someone will need to clean the entire room before the keys are turned in. Failure to do a good job will result in a 75.00 fine per person. Good luck to everyone!!
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