Furman University
Greenville, South Carolina
We talk a lot both here at WAHS and in the Charlottesville community about the need for diversity and why it makes a difference in understanding the world we live in and our roles in it. But sometimes it takes more than talk to really make diversity more than just a buzz word or a catch phrase. It takes vision, plans, practice, and principles. It takes a university that openly embraces diversity not just as a term, but as an application, a resource, a mission, and a series of projects. At Furman University they take this mission seriously. It’s not just something that they give lip service to. It’s part of what makes their community unique and special. And it’s one of the reasons that, if you’re looking for a more diverse educational experience, Furman should be on your list.
Furman split from the Southern Baptist Convention in 1992, but that does not mean they threw the faith out with the bathwater, to mix my metaphors. What they kept ahold of was pretty simple: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. You needn’t be Christian, Baptist, or any ian or ist to agree that’s pretty solid advice. Furman sees it this way: “Furman is a person-centered community, emphasizing the prime worth of persons and encouraging concern for others. Development of the proper regard for the rights and feelings of others is one of our primary values. The imperative to love our neighbors is expressed in the Furman community through:
At Furman they create an integrated system for their undergrads that aims to provide their graduates with the tools they will need to pursue a meaningful life and career in their future. To that end they create a focus for each year of study meant to help students discover who they are, what they want, and how to get it. It works like this. You first year is a year to center in on your education, to explore and discover. You needn’t know precisely what you want to do, in fact you should take classes of interest, explore fields you don’t know, experiment with your education and learn new things, expose yourself to new ideas. At Furman there is a team approach to advising which is uncommon but results in a really unique experience in that you get a lot of great feedback to your questions about what your interests are. In your second year, you begin to examine and decide what you want to do, what your main interests are, and how you want to focus them. With the help of your advisors, this is the year you’ll begin your engaged learning at Furman. It’s an opportunity for research, professional projects, study abroad, internships, and other opportunities to begin a more formal investigation into your interests which begins your second year but doesn’t end there. This is the year you begin to figure out what your future might start looking like. In your third year, you continue this by connecting and refining the work you’ve chosen in your second year. Your advisors will help you as you begin to think about the kind of internships, or research projects might be best for you, or what sorts of programming might be right for you for the business you’re trying to start. Maybe you should be doing your study away in Ghana, or maybe you should be looking at working in the local community through their Collaborative for Community-Engaged Learning. Both are excellent ways to work on grass-roots initiatives. Your senior year is when it all comes together. That’s the year you synthesize everything you’ve learned and initiate you plans as your career goals become realities. And maybe that’s becoming a part of the Richard W. Riley Institute and becoming a thought leader, a politician, or a visionary, or maybe it’s getting down to solving issues like opioid addiction in the community with the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health, or maybe it’s writing poetry (they have a killer writing program), or coding, education, or applied math (data science is big these days folks), but whatever it is, when you leave, you will leave knowing you are ready to enter the world of adulting.
One of the things that makes Furman unique other than their integrated learning model, is their May Experience. This is an optional three week term that allows students to explore academic interests outside their regular disciplines. They include a chance at study away and tuition is included in the spring tuition payment. Courses vary from Introduction to Biomaterials, to Introduction to Research Methods, from Technical Writing in Chemistry, to Techniques in Neuroscience. Some are less practical and more exploratory like Interpersonal Leadership Skills, Digital Storytelling Tools, Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Applied Sport Science, or Beginner Medical Spanish. Others are just plain fun like the Evolution of Tennis, Philosophy and Hip Hop, You Sunk My Battleship! Board Game Analysis and Design, Sociology of Harry Potter, Writing with Writers, or Computers in Science Fiction. The May Experience is a chance to do the fun stuff you thought you’d get to study in college even though you decided to major in economics because it was “a good major for getting a good job.”
Furman also has won awards for its undergraduate research program. As an undergrad you will be engaged in real research in a lab, in the library, with faculty, using primary and secondary resources. As a researcher your work is valued and every year you will be expected to present your findings at Furman Engaged in the spring. This is a chance for you to share what you have accomplished, celebrate your peers’ work, and share in the excitement of living in a vibrant learning community.
Believing that your life outside of classes is just as important as your academic life, Furman is a 100% residential campus. Living on campus is required for all four years. In some ways this is super because it’s easy to know that you have guaranteed housing and never have to worry about finding an apartment or roommates or sublets, or any of that crazy making. Plus there are multiple living options (they’re not going to trap you into something you hate) so you can find the right fit for you as well. Residences range from traditional dorm style to apartment style and include some Learning Communities as well.
Most first years live in South Housing which includes several dorms. As a first year, most students will have a roommate but there are some singles and some triples as well. All the dorms are air conditioned and they all come with a microwave and a fridge (which most schools do not supply for you!). The bad news is that the triple is the same size as the double so that’s not an ideal situation unless you really like your roommates.
As a first year though, you can opt to apply to Engaged Living which is a learning and living community. You will live together in the same dorm and take a class together each semester. In addition you will have a faculty mentor. There are four Engaged Living communities this year (and these are subject to change yearly). The first is the Environmental Community where you will take courses on Envi Sci and Sustainability and live and practice these ideas as well. There is a community dedicated to Finding Your Purpose where you will take a class on the Bible and Ultimate Meaning, and another on Finding Your Life Purpose, while taking hikes in the mountains, listening to visiting professors, examining multiple different perspectives and beliefs. In the Healthcare Today community, you’ll take a class in the fall called Psychic Disorder and the Social Order while in the spring you will visit different healthcare facilities and examine the various roles in the world of healthcare. Finally in the Politics and the Human Soul community you will examine the origin of the western political tradition from Plato’s Republic to de Tocqueville as you take Know Yourself in the fall and Introduction to Political Thought in the spring. These communities live in Townes Hall where for once the triples are larger than the doubles. Just a thought.
Furman has 13 fraternities and sororities which is a pretty dense population for a school with just shy 3,000 students. Furman is DI and has a football team like a good souther school should, so if you’re looking for that Greek Life/Football Life school, Furman’s got you covered. Furman has 20 DI teams and about 70% of students are involved in athletics in some way, intramurals or otherwise. For those interested you can ride club at Furman as well as play pretty much every sport you’d like to. Because of its location, outdoor activities are also pretty popular. There’s a very active outdoor club what with Paris Mountain State Park cozying up to campus. And there are also plenty of whitewater activities as well close by.
As for other things to do? Well pick your poison. Furman has several media options including their paper, literary magazine, and radio and TV stations. There are also plenty of community service options, student government, and academic clubs. Join the Furman Conservatives or the Furman Democrats, get involved with Furman for Animal Rights, Mock Trial, Roers Art Club, Women’s Chorale, Order of Furman Theater, Young Life, Liberty in North Korea, Institute for the Advancement of Community Health, Furman Jazz Ensemble, Guitar and Ukulele, Dance Club, Culinary Club, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, No Lost Generation, or even the Super Smash Bros Club. Seriously, if you can’t find something to do in the nearly 200 clubs they provide, or you can’t start it yourself, then boredom is probably awaiting you anywhere you go, my friend.
Is Furman for you? Furman is a place where you’re going to be asked to reflect on who you are and what you want from your life. You don’t have to be religious to go here, but I would think it’s easier to be spiritual. If you’re not comfortable or mature enough to spend some time with yourself asking questions like why do I think the things I think? What should I think? What do I think is really the right thing, the ethical thing? Furman is probably not for you. You can have a whole lot of fun at Furman. But the folks who go there are the kind who want to get to know you. So if you are afraid of who you are? Skip it.
Pros:
Cons:
Greenville, South Carolina
We talk a lot both here at WAHS and in the Charlottesville community about the need for diversity and why it makes a difference in understanding the world we live in and our roles in it. But sometimes it takes more than talk to really make diversity more than just a buzz word or a catch phrase. It takes vision, plans, practice, and principles. It takes a university that openly embraces diversity not just as a term, but as an application, a resource, a mission, and a series of projects. At Furman University they take this mission seriously. It’s not just something that they give lip service to. It’s part of what makes their community unique and special. And it’s one of the reasons that, if you’re looking for a more diverse educational experience, Furman should be on your list.
Furman split from the Southern Baptist Convention in 1992, but that does not mean they threw the faith out with the bathwater, to mix my metaphors. What they kept ahold of was pretty simple: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. You needn’t be Christian, Baptist, or any ian or ist to agree that’s pretty solid advice. Furman sees it this way: “Furman is a person-centered community, emphasizing the prime worth of persons and encouraging concern for others. Development of the proper regard for the rights and feelings of others is one of our primary values. The imperative to love our neighbors is expressed in the Furman community through:
- an appreciation for diversity
- a concern for the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs of the individual
- a continuing effort to strengthen community ties through open communication and mutual respect
- the appropriate involvement of all community members in decision making
- the commitment to excellence at every level of our life together, and
- an appreciation for the university’s heritage and the contributions of those who have shaped the institution.”
At Furman they create an integrated system for their undergrads that aims to provide their graduates with the tools they will need to pursue a meaningful life and career in their future. To that end they create a focus for each year of study meant to help students discover who they are, what they want, and how to get it. It works like this. You first year is a year to center in on your education, to explore and discover. You needn’t know precisely what you want to do, in fact you should take classes of interest, explore fields you don’t know, experiment with your education and learn new things, expose yourself to new ideas. At Furman there is a team approach to advising which is uncommon but results in a really unique experience in that you get a lot of great feedback to your questions about what your interests are. In your second year, you begin to examine and decide what you want to do, what your main interests are, and how you want to focus them. With the help of your advisors, this is the year you’ll begin your engaged learning at Furman. It’s an opportunity for research, professional projects, study abroad, internships, and other opportunities to begin a more formal investigation into your interests which begins your second year but doesn’t end there. This is the year you begin to figure out what your future might start looking like. In your third year, you continue this by connecting and refining the work you’ve chosen in your second year. Your advisors will help you as you begin to think about the kind of internships, or research projects might be best for you, or what sorts of programming might be right for you for the business you’re trying to start. Maybe you should be doing your study away in Ghana, or maybe you should be looking at working in the local community through their Collaborative for Community-Engaged Learning. Both are excellent ways to work on grass-roots initiatives. Your senior year is when it all comes together. That’s the year you synthesize everything you’ve learned and initiate you plans as your career goals become realities. And maybe that’s becoming a part of the Richard W. Riley Institute and becoming a thought leader, a politician, or a visionary, or maybe it’s getting down to solving issues like opioid addiction in the community with the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health, or maybe it’s writing poetry (they have a killer writing program), or coding, education, or applied math (data science is big these days folks), but whatever it is, when you leave, you will leave knowing you are ready to enter the world of adulting.
One of the things that makes Furman unique other than their integrated learning model, is their May Experience. This is an optional three week term that allows students to explore academic interests outside their regular disciplines. They include a chance at study away and tuition is included in the spring tuition payment. Courses vary from Introduction to Biomaterials, to Introduction to Research Methods, from Technical Writing in Chemistry, to Techniques in Neuroscience. Some are less practical and more exploratory like Interpersonal Leadership Skills, Digital Storytelling Tools, Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Applied Sport Science, or Beginner Medical Spanish. Others are just plain fun like the Evolution of Tennis, Philosophy and Hip Hop, You Sunk My Battleship! Board Game Analysis and Design, Sociology of Harry Potter, Writing with Writers, or Computers in Science Fiction. The May Experience is a chance to do the fun stuff you thought you’d get to study in college even though you decided to major in economics because it was “a good major for getting a good job.”
Furman also has won awards for its undergraduate research program. As an undergrad you will be engaged in real research in a lab, in the library, with faculty, using primary and secondary resources. As a researcher your work is valued and every year you will be expected to present your findings at Furman Engaged in the spring. This is a chance for you to share what you have accomplished, celebrate your peers’ work, and share in the excitement of living in a vibrant learning community.
Believing that your life outside of classes is just as important as your academic life, Furman is a 100% residential campus. Living on campus is required for all four years. In some ways this is super because it’s easy to know that you have guaranteed housing and never have to worry about finding an apartment or roommates or sublets, or any of that crazy making. Plus there are multiple living options (they’re not going to trap you into something you hate) so you can find the right fit for you as well. Residences range from traditional dorm style to apartment style and include some Learning Communities as well.
Most first years live in South Housing which includes several dorms. As a first year, most students will have a roommate but there are some singles and some triples as well. All the dorms are air conditioned and they all come with a microwave and a fridge (which most schools do not supply for you!). The bad news is that the triple is the same size as the double so that’s not an ideal situation unless you really like your roommates.
As a first year though, you can opt to apply to Engaged Living which is a learning and living community. You will live together in the same dorm and take a class together each semester. In addition you will have a faculty mentor. There are four Engaged Living communities this year (and these are subject to change yearly). The first is the Environmental Community where you will take courses on Envi Sci and Sustainability and live and practice these ideas as well. There is a community dedicated to Finding Your Purpose where you will take a class on the Bible and Ultimate Meaning, and another on Finding Your Life Purpose, while taking hikes in the mountains, listening to visiting professors, examining multiple different perspectives and beliefs. In the Healthcare Today community, you’ll take a class in the fall called Psychic Disorder and the Social Order while in the spring you will visit different healthcare facilities and examine the various roles in the world of healthcare. Finally in the Politics and the Human Soul community you will examine the origin of the western political tradition from Plato’s Republic to de Tocqueville as you take Know Yourself in the fall and Introduction to Political Thought in the spring. These communities live in Townes Hall where for once the triples are larger than the doubles. Just a thought.
Furman has 13 fraternities and sororities which is a pretty dense population for a school with just shy 3,000 students. Furman is DI and has a football team like a good souther school should, so if you’re looking for that Greek Life/Football Life school, Furman’s got you covered. Furman has 20 DI teams and about 70% of students are involved in athletics in some way, intramurals or otherwise. For those interested you can ride club at Furman as well as play pretty much every sport you’d like to. Because of its location, outdoor activities are also pretty popular. There’s a very active outdoor club what with Paris Mountain State Park cozying up to campus. And there are also plenty of whitewater activities as well close by.
As for other things to do? Well pick your poison. Furman has several media options including their paper, literary magazine, and radio and TV stations. There are also plenty of community service options, student government, and academic clubs. Join the Furman Conservatives or the Furman Democrats, get involved with Furman for Animal Rights, Mock Trial, Roers Art Club, Women’s Chorale, Order of Furman Theater, Young Life, Liberty in North Korea, Institute for the Advancement of Community Health, Furman Jazz Ensemble, Guitar and Ukulele, Dance Club, Culinary Club, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, No Lost Generation, or even the Super Smash Bros Club. Seriously, if you can’t find something to do in the nearly 200 clubs they provide, or you can’t start it yourself, then boredom is probably awaiting you anywhere you go, my friend.
Is Furman for you? Furman is a place where you’re going to be asked to reflect on who you are and what you want from your life. You don’t have to be religious to go here, but I would think it’s easier to be spiritual. If you’re not comfortable or mature enough to spend some time with yourself asking questions like why do I think the things I think? What should I think? What do I think is really the right thing, the ethical thing? Furman is probably not for you. You can have a whole lot of fun at Furman. But the folks who go there are the kind who want to get to know you. So if you are afraid of who you are? Skip it.
Pros:
- Diversity is a value
- Reflective curriculum
- Undergraduate Research
- Living/Learning Communities
- May Experience
- Their initials
Cons:
- Private so $ is an issue
- Religious/Spiritual focus can be a turn off
- The self-examination can be hard for students who are not mature
- You can’t hide here. This is not a small fish in a big pond place.