I have a Senior. We visit Furman her Sophomore year and she loved it. She would like to apply ED. We were scheduled to fly back for a second visit early this coming week, however, Helene has forced us to cancel. We are going to try to get there before the ED deadline but at this time I do not know if we will. Working through EA vs ED at this point - I am aware of the ED pros and cons.
My questions are - anyone with a current (or recent grad) student at Furman. Can you comment on quality of professors, accessibility of professors and advising support? Also, how helpful was the school in helping secure internships? My daughter wants to study neuroscience and was interested in research opportunities. Anyone have experience with research (and bonus if you know anything about the neuroscience dept)? Lastly, social life - she is not a partier but she is social. Our impression when we visit a year and a half ago was the student body felt friendly, lots of talking going on in the food hall, students appeared to engage a lot with each other. She is looking for a school with nice people. Is this fairly accurate?
Any other pros and cons based on personal experience? I am hopeful we will be able to arrange a quick second visit as that would make me feel better about ED but my work schedule and her sports schedule make this a challenge.
You might reach out to admissions and ask to speak to a student ambassador or contact the neuro department and ask to speak to a student.
If your students stats are well above the norm, you’d probably be safe RD - the admission rate is reasonably high. And you’d potentially have a better chance at merit.
Thank you. This was same as I was thinking. Her odds are very good BUT like many SE schools their applicant pool is increasing very fast so I do not think anything in the SE is a sure thing unless you meet clearly defined parameters. We are very lucky that her school college counselor is so good. She text my daughter today (Saturday) to say that the visit may be cancelled (and has now been cancelled) and to come to see her Monday to regroup. Really the purpose of the second visit was to confirm our early thoughts. We did get an email from Furman a few hours ago offering all they could within their constraints. We have been on the receiving end of Mother Nature’s wrath so we are very sympathetic. My daughter was scheduled to sit in on a class and meet with prof in her interested major. I feel confident we can do that online. They have been really great with communication. But we can’t get the vibe online. My daughter wants to see if kids are on their phones while eating or are they talking, saying hi in passing or engrossed in tic tok…Thank you! All will be fine just was hoping to get “insider” info.
If you’re a full pay family, that also will help.
I would reach out to Furman. Explain the situation and visit / do ED2. If you don’t, then you probably jumped off the train anyway.
Online is great too.
And if you want to compare offers, definitely don’t ED. If you’d potentially like to save $30k plus over Furman, don’t ED.
When you say the SE schools, I wouldn’t include Furman. The publics - yes - are far more competitive than before in many cases.
2nd level LACs will need to continue to buy kids in…ie merit aid …but that could go away if you ED.
Furman admitted 4419 last year and 618 enrolled. That’s less than 1/7 in yield.
They don’t give ED data (only EA data in the CDS) but my guess is and my guess means nothing - you need comfort in the decision - but they are starving for kids.
A tad over half submitted a test - so if you have one and it’s strong - a 32 act or above or 1410 SAT, and you’re in the top 10% of your class and have the requisite rigor, I think you have good odds. Full pay family even better.
But definitely do what makes you and your daughter comfy.
You might do a chance me to ensure she’s in life with Furman and others but it’s not Clemson, U of SC, UTK in regards to increasing difficulty of admissions, etc. …at least IMHO.
They need you more than you need them - especially if full pay and above their stat averages.
Umm … Furman had a 30 percent increase in applications last year and an acceptance rate of around 43 percent. (4845 accepted out of an applicant pool of 10,823) Without knowing anything about the academic profile of @Mdzw’s daughter, I don’t know how you can possibly make statements such as “they need you more than you need them”. They do in fact reject a lot of students - even full pay ones. My S22 had a full pay friend with around a 3.5 unweighted GPA and 33 ACT who was waitlisted regular decision. Hopefully someone with a current student at Furman will chime in and answer OPs questions. FWIW, I know several kids from our high school who applied early decision and received merit scholarships from Furman.
I appreciate the comments. She is not submitting test scores. Dyslexics and meaningful SAT/ACT scores aren’t a great match most of the time. Hence my asking about the professors - she is super diligent and often goes to extra help. Furman says it does this but I want to hear from experience. She has GPA 3.7 unweighted but her HS only offers honors and AP so she has the rigor. While stats are in her favor (slightly) I also know kids that were waitlisted so I am not counting on anything. Just hoping to learn more about the school from those who have recently attended.
Again was just noting opinion based on the #s - giving comfort to EA if they chose to go that way. Based on an earlier comment, I assumed the stats were stronger than they are.
The reality is that we don’t know the applicant pool. Of course RD will typically not do as well.
As I noted OP will have to make the best decision for them and I wish them luck.
And yes, any school with a sub 14% yield needs the student more than the student needs them.
If Furman knows you’re coming, you have better odds I believe. That’s why it might make sense to explain the EA to the counselor or get back to campus and change to EA2.
Again good luck to OP.
Ps - why did apps go up ? The article says changed marketing strategies. I don’t know. They don’t share ED #s in CDS but pull out ED and the yield is extremely low.
So my guess is the more love you show, the more they’ll show back. It’s a business and they need revenue. Someone applying RD is already not showing live, hence a wait list. Helps to keep the admit rate down when they don’t get in.
I’m not much help but my S25 loves Furman too, he has a few reaches but it is his favorite match school. He sat in on a Business class when we visited and the professor had him come back to his office with him and chat and they were in there so long we started to worry he got lost somewhere
Also, if it helps, my daughter got in with great merit with a 3.6-3.7 UW two years ago.
Thank you - did she apply ED? When I run the NPC it consistently gives merit. BUT I know not to count on it and we are prepared for no merit. We are bummed because she was really excited to sit in on a class, etc. She is going to contact admissions to connect with a student. However, I think they are in tough shape and may not reply to her email for a week or more due to no power. My daughter is not a last min person so she is eager to get the application in well in advance of the deadline. I feel bad for the admissions teams at all the schools in the path of this storm. Really tough time of year to be knocked down.
Nope, EA. I looked back at her excel sheet, she received 28K in merit. Great kid but did have a 3.6-3.7 UW GPA and was test optional. She was Cheer Captain and had some other leadership stuff but nothing extraordinary. We are also on the west coast which may have helped as well.
It does sound like Furman has been hit hard by Helene, we’ve been following on Instagram and I’ve been impressed by how they’re handling it. Even so far as to bring in generator trucks so the kids can charge their phones.
Nearly half of Furman undergrads get merit. But the # getting aid is likely more. That excludes athletes and some likely get need aid instead of merit.
Truth is, they need to give merit to compete. They are up against publics but also trying to steal from the Wakes and Emory’s of the world. And other similar LACs -whether the higher ranked Davidson or schools like Sewanee and Rhodes, who itself has discounted heavily and has a student shortfall.
Obviously nothing shows love like ED. It sounds like some get merit. Maybe they want to be sure these kids don’t break. Some say if the offer doesn’t match the NPC you can.
What would change today from two years ago in her opinion. The good news is you may not be able to get there but you have another month to do research from afar -with students and a prof over zoom and maybe that will help cement your previous thoughts.
