Day 2-UGA; Clemson/Furman

Our first visit of the day was the University of Georgia. Of course being a Gator I did not have any good feelings toward UGA, but I did give it an open mind and after the information session and tour I was extremely impressed! It was established in 1785 and has 25,000 students. They have a 94% retention rate and 80% of all classes guarantee 40 of less students. It was at UGA that they stressed the importance of a well-rounded student. They stressed three factors for admission. First they look at GPA and grade trends. Secondly they look at rigor of curriculum to see if you took advantage of what your school offered. Lastly and according to UGA, least important, they look at your standardized test grades. They really stress the importance being in the business of trying to admit students.

Furman University

Next our two vans headed to separate colleges. Coach Freas took a group to Clemson and Mrs. Stempel and myself headed to Furman.

I have to say that I have never been as impressed with a university as much as I was impressed with Furman. There are way too many things to list, but they have 2,600 student with a class average size of 18. 97% of their professors hold the highest degree in their field. 85% of students receive financial aid and 50% of students study abroad. Their acceptance rate for med school is 2 times the national average and the rate for law school is 95%. WOW!!! They also require students to live on campus their entire career and with a campus like they have why would you not want to live there. The entire campus is wireless and they have a sushi chef in the cafeteria. Other than Furman being probably the most beautiful campus I have ever been on I was really impressed with their academic plan. Furman only has 2 masters programs, which means all the classes will be taught by professors, not Grad Students. You can really see the attention that they pay to engaging the students.

After that we headed on to Durham for the night, but before we could get out of South Carolina we would have our first great learning experience. While driving I rolled over what looked like a flat piece of steel. Unfortunately it had a small lip on it and within a few seconds I literally heard the air escaping from the tire. I immediately got to the right lane to get ready to exit as the check tire pressure light came on. As I exited what looked like would be a helpful exit the tire pressure kept going down until I could feel that we were completely out of air. After another 1/2 mile we came to a safe stop at what looked like an old gas station/firework stand that of course had closed many months ago. What happened next would even impress NASCAR. Josh Longerbeam, Zach Vinson, Alex Boe, David Luzinski and myself had the spare tire and were back on the road in less than 25 minutes. We finally arrived in Durham after eating Moe's and welcomed a good night's rest.