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Furman University

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Date: Apr 20 2005
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I visited Furman on a whim while doing a tour of other schools in the region (Davidson, Duke, Wake Forest, UNC Chapel Hill) and fell for the school very quickly. Like many high school students, I had taken AP science courses and believed that I wanted to be a physician. During our visit, we dropped in on the main pre-med adviser at the time, Dr. Fairbanks. Even though he was not expecting us, Dr. Fairbanks spent more than an hour with us answering our questions. This experience ended up being a very good preview of my time at Furman.

If you are looking for a party school with huge sports programs and a campus that is dominated by jocks, you aren't doing a very good job of reading the college guides. Clearly, Furman is not such a place. It is, however, a very strong liberal arts college with an emphasis on building good student-faculty relationships and providing students with an excellent set of skills. These skills are not job training, strictly defined. If you become Microsoft certified, etc, you will be doing it on your own outside of your demanding classes. You will, however, learn how to read, write, and speak with conviction and clarity. You will find yourself able to persuade others better than many of your coworkers, and when it is time to write up a report, you will often be the savior of the team. When people ask about a word, literary reference, historical event, or foreign culture, you will be the one who knows the answer.

Don't be afraid of anti-Yankee sentiments. I grew up outside of Baltimore and attended high school in Pennsylvania, but I felt very comfortable at Furman after a short adjustment period (trying sweet tea, discovering grits, and learning Mississippian to better understand my friends). Those who bemoan Furman's treatment of northerners are most likely dissatisfied for many reasons and are failing to adjust to college life. Also, as a general rule, the women at Furman outclass the men by a tremendous amount. The women are so far out of the men's league that, if the men's entire league exploded, the women wouldn't hear it for three days. Nevertheless, I met my wife at Furman, and she has yet to discover her error.

Beware the foreign language requirement. No hablo Espanol, no quiero hablar Espanol, y no me gusta el C-.

I could go on for a while, but I'll conclude with my experience since graduation. While Furman is a regionally known school, its reputation is good. Compare this to nationally known schools like FSU that are nationally known… for being abysmal. Over the years, more and more people seem to know the name and more importantly, react very favorably. In several instances, the fact that I went to Furman was enough to qualify me as an overall good (and smart) guy with new acquaintances. Sometimes, it also meant that I was assumed to be from a relatively wealthy background, but that's not always a bad thing in the real world. Since graduation, I have attended a top ten public university for a Ph.D., which I am completing this year. I received multiple offers for Assistant Professor positions that I am deciding between now (I signed on to this site to read StudentsReviews of my potential employers), and I only hope that I can do for my students what my Furman professors did for me.

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commentVery good review.
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