Wofford College is a small, private,
liberal arts college in the
upstate South Carolina (USA) town of
Spartanburg. At 1150 students, its one of the smallest (currently
the smallest) of the
NCAA Division 1/AA schools, and is notable for having a higher average
SAT score than admission.
Being a fairly elite school in the South, its a pretty conservative place, although the liberal elite will send their kids there as happily as the conservative elite. Still, its fairly inexpensive by private school standards, so it serves well as a stepping stone for first generation college attendees, especially those on scholarship.
The football team for 2001 made for a great underdog story. In addition to being the smallest Div 1AA school, their star reciever was legally blind (a rare disorder that couldn't even be corrected with glasses) and their place-kicker was missing an arm from birth. Still they managed to score two touchdowns against Clemson and USC each. All this at a college for which the Frat Boys still wore a coat-and-tie to the football games as late as the early 1990s (and possibly still do).
Social life on campus does unfortunately revolve around the fraternity system. However, with almost all the student body living on-campus in the dorms, its easy for the independent-minded to have fun without greek association. I did, anyway (Class of '94).
The campus is beautiful in typical southern fashion. Grand old oaks tower over flowering dogwoods with brick buildings suggesting ivey-covered walls, although I can't remember if any acutally are. The campus is just north of downtown Spartanburg, separated by railroad tracks. There's not much retail around the school, so you need a car or a friend with a car if you want anything other than Krispy Kreme (which open 24 hours, and fed many a late-nite study session). Anything else requires a car or a walk through some questionable neighborhoods. Alcohol is nominally prohibited, but Wofford's in-house cops are mostly there to keep it from getting out of hand, and won't interfere with even moderately discrete drinking or other hijinks.
Our mascot is the Terrier (Boston Terrier, to be precise). Our big rivals are Furman University and The Citadel, although we're much smaller, and they may not notice that we're rivals. Wofford is nominally associated with the Methodist church. Wofford was founded in 1851 by Benjamin Wofford. It was one of the earliest private southern colleges to voluntarily de-segregate, admitting its first black student in 1964.