Quick Overview

Quick Overview
In these challenging economic times, the value of a superior education is especially critical.

For 155 years, Wofford has been a consensus choice as one of America’s Best Colleges.
  • Phi Beta Kappa — There are only 276 chapters of this prestigious honor society on the 3,500 college campuses across the United States. Wofford received its charter in 1941.
  • Wofford is one of 122 colleges and universities related to the United Methodist Church. Consistent with that tradition, the college welcomes faculty and students of all faiths, as well as those of no faith.
  • Forbes (www.forbes.com) ranked Wofford among “America’s Best Colleges,” August 2008.
  • U.S. News & World Report (2008) included Wofford on its list of 10 “schools to watch,” recognizing “promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus, and facilities.
  • Profiled in these selective college guides:
        U.S. News & World Report: America’s Best Colleges
        The Princeton Review’s The Best 368 Colleges
        The Fiske Guide to Colleges
        The (Yale) Insider’s Guide to the Colleges
  • Alumni Profile  —  Of 15,320 alumni,
    1,132 are presidents or owners of corporations or organizations;
    923 practice medicine, dentistry or other health-care professions;
    780 are attorneys or judges;
    725 are members of the clergy or serve in churches and related fields
  • About 40 percent of graduates participate in loan programs, but their level of debt is among the lowest compared to peer institutions. The default rate for the last four years has remained below 1.0, and for 2007, it was 0.0.
  • Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, “Best Values in Private Colleges,”(February 2009).
  • U.S. News & World Report, “Great Schools, Great Prices”section (2008). Wofford was included as one of 40 liberal arts colleges.
  • Princeton Review, “America’s Best Value Colleges”(2009).

Faculty

Religion Mentors
  • The faculty to student ratio is 1:11. A majority of class sections (64 percent) enrolled fewer than 20 students.
  • 94 percent of the faculty has earned a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree.
  • Graduate schools at 59 different universities are represented on the faculty.
  • There are no graduate‐student teaching assistants at Wofford; all sections are taught by faculty members or qualified adjuncts.
  • Dr. Philip Swicegood (Finance) will spend the spring 2010 semester at the University of Split in Croatia as a U.S. Fulbright Fellow. Swicegood has played a key role in the development of a seminar for majors in finance teaching real-world investment management with funds provided by the C. Michael James Endowed Fund.

Student Outcomes

Student Outcomes
  • First‐year to sophomore retention (Class of 2011), 90.9 percent. National average: 74.5 percent
  • First‐year to graduation rate (Class of 2006), 83 percent; National average: 56.4 percent
  • Pre‐professional Studies — About 30 members of each graduating class attend medical school or the equivalent. Of those meeting Wofford’s minimum standards for recommendation (3.3 GPA, 24 MCAT score), 80 percent are accepted for admission.
  • Wofford consistently scores in the top ten percent of all five indices of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). As a result of NSSE’s Project DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practices) study, Wofford was featured as one of 20 benchmark campuses for engaged learning in Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter (American Association for Higher Education, 2005). A second edition of the text is in progress, highlighting Wofford’s continued excellence in outcomes assessment.  Visit Wofford's NSSE page for more information. 
  • Community of Scholars — Funded by the Fullerton Foundation, this innovative program is designed to foster collegiality through a 10-week summer research program and to create cross-disciplinary dialogue among students and faculty.

Service Learning

Service Learning
  • Wofford made the 2008-2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, published by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Of the 635 colleges on the Honor roll, Wofford was one of only 83 to receive “distinction.”
  • ONE is a global advocacy and campaigning organization dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. In 2008, Wofford was judged the outstanding participant in the national ONE Campus Challenge, just ahead of the University of Michigan and the University of Florida. Tomas Moreno, a sophomore from Modesto, Calif., and the student chair of “ONE at Wofford,” will spend a week in Kenya this summer as part of a five-person study team sponsored by ONE.

Living Green

Village
  • A self‐contained environment (96 percent of the students live on campus) reflecting the principles of technology, talent, tolerance, sustainability and safety.
  • The Village — This new apartment‐style housing (currently, 348 beds) for the senior class is a 2008 “Dorm of Distinction” as chosen by University Business magazine. It also won a Builder’s Choice Design and Planning Award.
  • The entire Wofford campus has been designated The Roger Milliken Arboretum. More than 5,000 trees have been planted and catalogued in the past 15 years under the vision of internationally acclaimed arborist Michael Dirr and landscape architect Rick Webel.
  • The new Environmental Studies major integrates and builds upon strong foundations in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Grants from the Department of Energy, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, and the Santee Cooper Foundation will help support the program in its first year. The Environmental Studies Center at Glendale Shoals is a LEED certified off-campus facility located in an historic and ecologically significant site.

Study Abroad

Study Abroad(2)
  • During the 2008‐2009 academic year, Wofford students earned credit through study on all seven continents, including an independent study Interim in Antarctica. 103 students completed semester‐abroad programs in 25 countries.
  • Elise Boos, a 2008 graduate, recently won a Rotary Scholarship. She will spend a year in Kampala at Makerere University. She will be affiliated with the Women and Gender Studies Graduate program, focusing on Women and HIV.
  • In the classes of 2008 and 2009, three graduates received Fulbright Teaching assistantships to teach English in German secondary schools.
  • Wofford ranks fifth in participation in studies abroad among the nation’s liberal arts colleges and seventh among institutions of all types (2008 Open Doors report, Institute of International Education).

Athletics

Athletics
  • Wofford led all of the NCAA Division I football teams (FBS and FCS) with a 2008 Graduation Success Rate score of 97. Eight Wofford teams posted GSR scores of 100, the highest available. All 13 Terrier intercollegiate teams achieved scores above the national average of 79.
  • The Terriers compete successfully in the Southern Conference, NCAA Division I, and the football team made the FCS playoffs in three of the last six years.
  • For the past 15 years, the Carolina Panthers have made their summer training camp home at Wofford, resulting in athletic facilities built to NFL standards, available for the use of all.