Clemson

[Anonymous]

We live in metro DC but I grew up and went to school in the south; wondering how a nice, open minded, friendly liberal northern kids fit in socially at Clemson? My DC wants a college with traditional “college life”. I have heard it can be a challenge socially sometimes for kids from the north to attend southern schools like Clemson.

[Anonymous]

MD and DC is the south. NY and New England is the north.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD and DC is the south. NY and New England is the north.

Not to a southerner.

[Anonymous]

Gonna need 4.2 and 1400 to get in from Montgomery County. (Well unless you are the top football team recruit in nation ala Kid from Damascus) but seriously it it certainly not for “dumb Southerners”

[Anonymous]

DD didn't get in this past year with 3.8 and 1410.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in metro DC but I grew up and went to school in the south; wondering how a nice, open minded, friendly liberal northern kids fit in socially at Clemson? My DC wants a college with traditional “college life”. I have heard it can be a challenge socially sometimes for kids from the north to attend southern schools like Clemson.

I’m a northerner (more north than DC) that attended U of SC and loved it. Anyone can have fun and enjoy it. Don’t box your child into being a “liberal northern kid.” S/he can grow into whatever s/he wants to be whether it’s liberal or more conservative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD and DC is the south. NY and New England is the north.

Mid-Atlantic is different culturally than New England or South, and South is different than Deep South.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in metro DC but I grew up and went to school in the south; wondering how a nice, open minded, friendly liberal northern kids fit in socially at Clemson? My DC wants a college with traditional “college life”. I have heard it can be a challenge socially sometimes for kids from the north to attend southern schools like Clemson.

I’m a northerner (more north than DC) that attended U of SC and loved it. Anyone can have fun and enjoy it. Don’t box your child into being a “liberal northern kid.” S/he can grow into whatever s/he wants to be whether it’s liberal or more conservative.

Thank you! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to box my child in, in any way. It’s been 30+years since I was in college in the south and I am interested what it would be like for her, coming there with a different upbringing that I had. My recollection of college was that there was a lot of uniformity. Very glad to hear your experience was very different, and that there was a mix of different opinions and beliefs.

[Anonymous]

It’s SC’s tech university (see also VT, NC State, Georgia Tech, etc)

It’s ACC. And before you insult the ACC as dumb hicks, so are Duke, UNC, UVA, VT, Notre Dame and WFU. Also Pitt, Georgia Tech and BC. The ACC is not a dumb jock conference, although some schools are stronger than others (ahhmmmm Syracuse and Florida).

I would only send a kid there for engineering or a related degree OOS. It’s like going to to VT for English. Easy to get in for humanities, but why?

Their median ENGINEERING SAT (not full college, which will be lower) is 1360. Which is low. I would send a kid to VT, UVA, GMU or maybe VCU long before I would send a kid to Clemson OOS. I would send a kid OOS to Michigan, UICU, Georgia Tech, several of the UCs, Purdue, UT Austin, Texas AM, Wisconsin, Lenn State, UMC-CP, etc— and even NC State before I would pay for Clemson OOS.

That said, Clemson engineering is solid. Not spectacular. But solid. Likely on par with GMU/VCU in

[Anonymous]

Hit send too soon. Clemson is ranked higher (55th in Undergrad engineering) than GMU and VCU, but not enough higher than I would pay for OOS.

I lived in SC for 3 years. It will be culture shock for a kid who has grown up in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hit send too soon. Clemson is ranked higher (55th in Undergrad engineering) than GMU and VCU, but not enough higher than I would pay for OOS.

I lived in SC for 3 years. It will be culture shock for a kid who has grown up in the DMV.

NP: Now that I've been through a college admission cycle, the posts about "I would pay for" and "I wouldn't pay for" are funny.

Some people can pay for literally anything they darn well please - so to each their own.

Clemson is a fantastic school. In engineering, prestige matters very little compared to other majors. Its accredited and a solid program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hit send too soon. Clemson is ranked higher (55th in Undergrad engineering) than GMU and VCU, but not enough higher than I would pay for OOS.

I lived in SC for 3 years. It will be culture shock for a kid who has grown up in the DMV.

NP: Now that I've been through a college admission cycle, the posts about "I would pay for" and "I wouldn't pay for" are funny.

Some people can pay for literally anything they darn well please - so to each their own.

Clemson is a fantastic school. In engineering, prestige matters very little compared to other majors. Its accredited and a solid program.

Okay. Let’s put “I would pay for” into context.

We can comfortably pay for in state schools.

We could probably pay for OOS publics, but they would be a reach. My kid might need to take out the $5000 a year student loan each year to make it work.

We can not afford elite private schools, full pay.

Given this, I would not pay for OOS over instate unless significantly better. Clemson is not better than UVA/ VT and is not enough better than GMU/VCU that I would stretch.

I would be comfortable stretching for Michigan, UICU, many UCs, UT Austin, etc. We would have to sacrifice other things, but it Would be worth the sacrifice.
I’m not sacrificing for Clemson.

MIT, Cal Tech and CMU May be amazing, but they are financially out of reach unless we do something like cash in retirement accounts. So they aren’t in this discussion.

That’s what “I would pay” means for me. I would give up vacations and eating out and drive a beater car so my kid could attend.

[Anonymous]

And BTW. I agree— Clemson is a solid, respectable engineering school. But not fantastic. There are at least 50 better engineering programs. 2 are instate VA (VT, UVA) and one is instate MD (UMDCP).

It also depends on what area of engineering your kid wants. Different programs excel at different subspecialities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hit send too soon. Clemson is ranked higher (55th in Undergrad engineering) than GMU and VCU, but not enough higher than I would pay for OOS.

I lived in SC for 3 years. It will be culture shock for a kid who has grown up in the DMV.

Not anymore. It’s full of rich kids now. Even their student housing has private bathrooms, granite and lazy rivers.

[Anonymous]

Florida is not in the ACC. Florida State is. And Syracuse is actually a pretty good school. The only truly bad school in the ACC is Louisville.