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Furman University

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Furman University
File:Furman Wordmark.gif
TypePrivate
Established1826
EndowmentUS$429.8 million [1]
PresidentDavid Shi
Academic staff
272
Undergraduates2,600
Postgraduates500
Location
Greenville
,
South Carolina
,
United States
CampusSuburban
750 acre (3 km²)
Athletics17 varsity teams
NicknamePaladins
Websitewww.furman.edu
The Bell Tower

Furman University is a private, coeducational, non-sectarian, liberal arts university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1826, Furman enrolls approximately 2,600 undergraduate and 500 graduate students on its 750 acre (3 km²) campus. Its current president is David Shi, who graduated from Furman in 1973.

The university is primarily focused on undergraduate education (only two departments, education and chemistry, offer graduate degrees). Furman University emphasizes "engaged" learning. In engaged learning, professors encourage undergraduate students to author articles, participate in internships, and volunteer in their respective fields of study. A program called the Furman Advantage funds research projects between professors and students. Furman receives funds annually from the The Duke Endowment for general operating support and for special projects and programs.

Furman is best known for its chemistry, history, music, political science, and psychology departments. The psychology, computer science, and chemistry departments have earned high marks among professional organizations spanning the sciences (social, applied, and basic), notable for a liberal arts institution of Furman's size.

Furman University students have an unusually high acceptance rate into graduate schools. Approximately 70% of pre-medical students gain entrance to medical school, and 99% of pre-law students gain entrance to law school. Approximately two-thirds of Furman students will earn graduate degrees. More of Furman University’s graduates have gone to earn Ph.D. degrees in recent years than any other private liberal arts college in the South, according to a survey conducted by the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center .[2].


History

Furman was founded in 1826 as a Men's Academy and Theological Institute, in Edgefield, South Carolina. The original school building from that campus resides on the current Greenville campus today. In 1933, students from the Greenville Women's College began attending classes with Furman students. Shortly thereafter, the two schools merged to form the present institution. Furman began construction on its new campus, just five miles north of downtown Greenville in 1956. Classes on this new campus began in 1958. Now non-sectarian, the school was affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention[3] and the Southern Baptist Convention until the 1991-1992 school year.

Rankings

Furman was ranked no. 15 in the Washington Monthly´s Top U.S Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings based on its production of research valuable to society and its commitment to national service.[4]. Furman has one of the largest undergraduate research programs in the country and is ranked no. 4 by U.S. News Best Undergraduate Research Programs along with MIT, Stanford and Michigan [5] The university´s engaged learning academic program, which promotes a problem-solving, project-oriented, experience-based type of education, has received high praise from The Princeton Review, Peterson's Competitive Colleges , The Fiske Guide to Colleges and The College Board College Handbook . In terms of input, meaning the quality of the students the institution attracts, Furman was ranked no. 30 in the SSRN´s U.S Colleges and Universities Preference Rankings (based on the choice to enroll of high-achieving students in US) [6] The Chronicle of Higher Education also ranked Furman no. 32 in the nation for the percentage of National Merit Scholars in its 2005-2006 freshman class .[7]

Campus

A 30-acre (0.1-km²) lake is at the center of the 750-acre (3-km²), wooded campus. Many academic buildings and student residences stand around the lake, including the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower figures highly in school insignias and is a replica (within 1/16th of an inch) of the Bell Tower that once existed on the men's campus in downtown Greenville. Today, the campus is anchored by its newly expanded 128,000 square foot (12,000 m²) James B. Duke Library. The American Society of Landscape Architects has named Furman one of the 362 most beautiful places in America.

Students are required to live on campus all four years. However, during a student's senior year, s/he may be eligible to live off campus through a lottery. There are two residence complexes (called Lakeside and South Housing), as well as four housing cabins which make up Bell Tower Housing. Most juniors and all seniors live in North Village Apartments, located near the Bell Tower.

Athletics

File:Furman.gif

Furman competes in NCAA Division I athletics as the Paladins. The university is a member of the Southern Conference. In 1988 Furman won the NCAA I-AA National Football Championship. Furman also appeared in the 1985 and 2001 NCAA I-AA National Football Championship game, but lost (to Georgia Southern and the University of Montana, respectively). Furman, Colgate and Lehigh remain the only private universities that have appeared in the I-AA Football Championship game, and Furman is the only private school to win it. Over the past few years, Furman´s football team has been consistently ranked in the top 3 spots in the NCAA I-AA polls, and recently climbed to no. 1 in the nation in the latest Sports Network polls [8].

The Men´s Soccer team has been ranked as high as no. 3 in the nation and has produced a share of professional players [9]. Few collegiate woman golf programs have produced more outstanding professionals than Furman, which boasts 11 former Lady Paladins on the LPGA tour, including two Hall-of-Fame inductees. Furman men's tennis coach Paul Scarpa is only the fourth college tennis head coach in history to reach 700 wins. He is currently the third-winningest active coach in the NCAA's and has coached 108 All-Southern Conference players. Furman's Rugby Club team has also proved notable in recent years, winning the East Coast Collegiate Championship three out of the last four years[10].Started in 1985 by John Roberts, the club continues to excel in Division III rugby in the southeast with many accolades. Furman is the only liberal arts college to be ranked in Sports Illustrated Top 100 America´s Best Sports Colleges [11]and has 32 former student-athletes competing at the professional level- the most of any Southern Conference member school.

Notable Alumni

Athletes

Majors and Concentrations

Notable faculty

  • Christopher W. Blackwell - Classics
  • Jay Bocook - Music
  • Charles Brewer - Psychology
  • Gilles Einstein - Psychology
  • David Gross - Music
  • Mark Kilstofte - Music, winner of the American Academy in Rome's Rome Prize for 2002-2003 [18]
  • Hayden Porter - Computer Science
  • Thomas Smythe - Finance
  • Steppen Murphy - Oceanography

Social Organizations

Points of interest

  • Furman University Japanese Garden
  • The amphitheatre, which features concerts and other performances. Site of the annual Black Swan Music Festival, and has been the place of concerts by artists such as Nickel Creek, Howie Day and others.
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