By: Katherine Waters, Staff Writer

Ask any Wofford student who the school’s biggest rival is, and they might think about the last football or basketball game against Furman. But the rivalry runs deeper than sports teams.

Wofford Director of Admissions Brand Stille explains that because Wofford and Furman have similar profiles- both have a strong academic reputation, are small liberal arts schools and have Division I athletics- many of the students that apply to one school are also considering or applying to the other, making the admissions processes fairly competitive.

However, Wofford does have multiple traits that set it apart from any other school in South Carolina, which help to attract students in different ways. According to a report by the U.S. News & World Report, Wofford is ranked among the best schools in the country on the National Survey of Student Engagement and has been ranked in the top 10 schools in the nation for study abroad participation for the past 20 years.

Although there are more in-state students at Wofford, the marketing department reaches out to students all over the country and the number of out-of-state students continues to climb. Wofford has advertisements in Charleston and the Greenville-Spartanburg and Charlotte airports to attract the people that visit the area.

A report on Wofford’s media reach and advertising value shows that during the two weeks of the Carolina Panthers training camp, Wofford-only advertisements (not including Panthers advertisements) reached nearly 4 billion people. Annie Mitchell, vice president for marketing and communications, says that adding the Panthers advertisements brings in a much bigger audience from all over the country- even abroad.

“When we add in the Carolina Panthers, because that’s a nationally-known brand- just this year, the 2016 camp- we’re talking an advertising value of almost 11 million dollars with a reach of over a billion people,” she says. “That’s not even mentioning the 130,000 + people we had to campus for the camp that came from all across the country.”

This means Wofford would’ve had to spend almost 11 million dollars in advertising in order to garner the media attention gained through public relations.

Other than trying to attract students to apply, Wofford’s reputation is marketed across the country to increase the value of the brand. Mitchell describes the way that the school and students benefit from Wofford being more nationally recognizable.

“At the end of the day, we want to grow what we believe is already a strong brand,” she says. “It’s good for the college, it’s good for our students to have a strong brand associated with their diplomas, it’s good for giving- people want to give, and we want to inspire people to give to the college financially. There’s really no downside to having more people know about Wofford, and it’s what we’re committed to doing every single day.”

Furman’s admissions office was contacted for information but did not respond.