My daughter did a Wofford Scholars interview and took a campus tour today. She has been focused on our state schools where she will get plenty of automatic merit aid as our SAI is much higher than we would ever consider paying. She did decide to apply to Wofford and just take a shot at the scholarships because it fit other criteria she likes and her stats are good for there.
She has a 4.0 uw/34 ACT, 10 APs, 650+ service hours and the usual laundry list of activities. She is planning a chemistry major on a pre-med track.
I don’t have a specific question just asking for general thoughts and experiences I guess. Any guesses on merit aid range or opinions on campus life or experience are welcome. I know we just have to wait for money at this point to see if it is even an option.
I don’t have anything other than the anecdote that my college friend’s daughter is a senior there. My friend, who is usually quiet on social media, recently did a long post (with tons of pictures) about how sad they were that it was her last “Family Weekend” at Wofford, how much her daughter loved it and how much they would miss it once she graduated. I’ve known others who have attended over the years and have never heard a negative comment.
This was my original post (reposted here!) Happy to answer any questions I can. Our D25 is in her 1st semester at Wofford and loving it. We just attended Parents/Family Weekend. She went in knowing absolutely no one and has found an amazing group of friends.
Thank you! I’m not even sure what exactly my questions are at this point
It’s definitely a nice school and I have no concerns about it serving her academically. I think I’m mostly unsure about culture/fit socially. She is coming from a small Catholic school and while she has benefited from the smallness of that at times she has also been burned by the small/private school cliques/nepotism/etc and she is really ready to get out of there. So while we see the benefits of small schools and love them in theory, also some concerns about how small is too small and what the culture is exactly.
She is social and doesn’t want a suitcase school at all. But she is also a pretty straight arrow and doesn’t want a nonstop party either.
She is very strong stats wise for them so I expect a reasonable bottom line when the offers come in. We will definitely return and spend more time on campus if it is a serious contender. Our state schools will be very inexpensive so we need to see what the numbers come out to be and if they are even close. She’s up for a variety of scholarships we are waiting to hear on.
Princeton Review publishes a few dozen lists which, based on student surveys, rank colleges a wide variety of school characteristics. Because the rankings are based on student surveys, a high ranking does not mean that a particular characteristic is objectively true about the college; rather it means that the students who responded to the survey that way. For example, the fact that University of the South is rated #1 on the list of most beautiful campuses doesn’t mean that it is in fact more beautiful than #2 Mount Holyoke or any of the other 23 colleges which made this list. It means that a lot of students who were surveyed feel really good about their physical surroundings and are proud of the look of their campus. In other words, it says more about the students than it does about the characteristic of the campus being surveyed.
Wofford appeared on a handful of the rankings lists from those surveys. There are 25 schools on each lust, drawn from the approximately 400 colleges in The Princeton Review college guide. With my comments above in mind, here are the lists on which Wofford appeared:
#1 - Lots of Greek Life #22 - Best College Newspaper #22 - Most Religious Students #24 - Most Active Student Government #24 - Most Politically Conservative Students
Also, Wofford made PR’s list of Best Value Colleges, based on a combination of rigor, affordability, and career outcomes. (About half the colleges in the guide receive this designation. They do after all purport to be reporting on the 391 “best” colleges.)
