Furman or Elon?

ColdinMinny
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 13:04:33 +0000

And here was our review of Furman visit, the preceding day:

Day 2: Furman University, Greenville, SC

I will stick to a similar format as our visit to Davidson, with Pro’s, Con’s and Neutral items.

Pro’s:

I thought Davidson was beautiful. Well, Furman is even more gorgeous. The best word I would use is to describe the campus is “sprawling”. They have almost 800 acres, so the buildings are generously spaced, with plenty of green space between, all filled with water features, fountains, and some of the most beautiful landscaping I have ever seen. My S described that “it looks like a resort”. There is a primary lake in the center of campus, with a large bell tower perched on a peninsula thrust into the lake.

The people, from the students themselves to faculty to staff were some of the happiest, friendliest people you could choose to meet. I picked up a distinct “laid back” vibe from the students, potentially aided that they had a short week and this was a Friday. Asked for directions, help, etc., and everyone was extraordinarily polite and helpful. Just a pleasure to be on campus.

Super organized visit process. They give a half hour information session with plenty of data, and then split the groups into walking tours of the academic, interior portion of the campus, and then golf cart tours to the extended areas of the campus. For our visit, they also added a lunch with a freshman student who shared similar interests as our S (a tremendous resource, and more schools would be well-advised to have Freshman talk to students, instead of upper classmen, since they just went through this process last year.) Then S attended a class in his intended major, then they had set up an interview with the head of that department. Simply put, THIS is what a visit should be.

Well-established “CLP”, which I believe stands for Cultural Living Program. Basically, it is a graduation requirement that each Furman student must attend 32 of these CLP programs during their years at Furman. These opportunities run the gamut, from musical performances, to incoming speakers, to seminars, etc. I thought this is a very sound idea, as it forces students to stay engaged outside their majors and the college bubble. I have not heard of a similar program at other schools, but perhaps this is not unique. Still a good idea, in my book.

4-4-1 structure, or the “MayX”. Furman has two “normal” semesters, and then has the option of taking a 3 week program in May. This can be in virtually anything, including study abroad. This would be helpful for students in majors/programs that make it hard to be absent for a full semester, giving them an opportunity to take advantage during the May semester outside of the framework of their “normal” classes.

Greenville itself was a revelation. Had never visited this city before, and it is an absolute gem. They have done an extensive, decade-long renovation of the downtown area, and now it reminds me a bit of San Antonio’s Riverwalk, on a smaller scale. We were downtown both Thursday and Friday nights, and had dinner and walked around quite a bit. Tons of great restaurants, people are all over the place enjoying the Fall weather, and it was simply lovely. S’s comment: “I didn’t know a City could be like this”.

Con’s

Cost. Furman’s COA is now over $57K. I am sure it will hit $60K by the time current seniors in HS graduate from college. However, they do give some merit aid, with a variety of options. Admissions stressed to get all scholarship applications in on a timely basis. Poor transparency on scholarship prospects, and amounts. Some schools will give either a clear idea, or strong projections on what merit aid could be expected. Not Furman. Totally in the dark for now.

Drinking/Partying/Frats: The freshman student we had lunch with candidly indicated the obvious, and that students at Furman are drinking and partying. No surprise, but I definitely did pick up that vibe on campus. Greek presence is roughly 50%. In fairness, the freshman we met did not drink, nor did several of his immediate friends, and he said there was no pressure to drink. Nonetheless, it is there, and the frats/sororities are certainly a part of this.

OOS access to the airport is decent, but Greenville is not a major airline hub, so I suspect most air travelers are going to have to make connecting flights to come into Greenville. The other option might be Charlotte, but that is roughly 2 hours away by car, depending on traffic.

Neutral/Observations

I had a sense that most kids had cars here, one estimate was 90%. I had the strong impression that people hop in cars and go home, or get away from campus frequently. Many overheard conversations about “going to the beach” and “going to the Mountains”, etc. This cuts both ways. On the one hand, it is a blessing that the school is located in an area with so much to offer. On the other hand, that takes people off campus, especially on weekends, and I am not certain based on our very brief visit how that would effect weekend campus social life.

This is an entirely visceral observation, but I think this school is a bit in transition, and not clearly set on where it wants to go. They have increased enrollment, reduced admission selectivity slightly, and-rumor has it-have decreased merit aid. So I am not sure what they are trying to do there exactly. Attract more high achievers, or increase their overall size, or become more diverse, or all of the above? Apparently they had a new president in the last couple years, so perhaps they are still sorting this out themselves.

Good luck!