If you have visited any of these campuses, I would love to hear what you liked/disliked. I searched the Thread about schools moving up/down the list after visits but minimal info on these schools. So far, he has visited:
Elon- Felt too small and too remote
NC State- LOVED everything about it
USC Columbia- LOVED everything about it
Coastal Carolina- Strongly DISLIKED everything about it
UNC Chapel Hill- DISLIKED (I am guessing almost entirely due to 50 degrees and pouring rain).
Auburn nice. Middle of nowhere but as a flagship has lots in the immediate area. . Most think bama is nice. Big sorority houses. Tuscaloosa kind of dumpy.
UTK in downtown Knoxville. Always on Princeton review ugliest campuses but it has lots of construction. It’s fine.
Clemson middle of nowhere but a flagship like Auburn. Big lake. . UGA is HUGE but very nice. The town - ehh
Based on your other experiences will like UTK, Bama, and UGA best.
Take virtual tours and honestly they aren’t far apart…maybe you can visit. Clemson and UGA are close…for example.
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We toured all of those, except UGA. Hands down, the campus tour at UT Knoxville was the best, most impressive tour we took…out of the 12 schools we went to. Campus was pretty-we thought, football stadium overlooking the river, basketball shrine to Coach Pat, seriously loved it all! Great dorms being built, liked their cafeterias, too. Daughter will most likely revisit UT for law school.
We also liked Auburn, a lot! Toured it twice, in fact! Such a quaint town, darling campus, great tour also. Style of building architecture matched, loved that.
Thought we’d love Clemson…we didn’t. Campus was a hodge podge-some of the buildings were like a 70s time capsule, super dated. There’s literally NOTHING to the actual town.
Alabama is beautiful, epitome of southern charm. My daughter wasn’t interested in Bama, at all, but we were in town for a wedding, so we toured. The Bear Bryant Museum was worth the trip alone.
Hidden gem we fell in love with, when touring southern states, was Mississippi State! Laid back, tons of room on campus, SEC Athletics, everything all the other SEC schools offer, but smaller student enrollment and more land. Rich in tradition, lots of new buildings & dorms.
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UNC Chapel Hill is way better than NC State! Go Heels!
I don’t know anything about Auburn, etc, but maybe check out Appalachian State and ECU and WCU if you are interested in NC schools. Maybe UNC-Charlotte if he likes a big city school.
VA Tech is worth a visit, too.
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Are you an NC resident? If so, try to visit UNC under better conditions. Maybe a football game?
What’s he thinking for a major?
NC State has always been one of my favorites. My oldest son also liked it better than UNC. I went to grad school at South Carolina.
So far, pretty fair assessments of the schools.
If he liked NC State and USC he might like FSU. S21 attends and loves it.
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FSU is a big ‘cross shop’ with u of SC.
Glad to see someone like UTK campus. Few in TN like and it’s always on most ugly.
I agree - look at Va Tech. Nicest large campus in America - IMHO.
Don’t love UNC. Don’t love the cemetery. Haven’t been to App State. Neighbor told me it’s dated.
Comment on Miss State spot on…really nice.
Interesting UTK and NC State are on this list. To each his own.
I agree with your impression of UTK. We toured on a bright, sunny day and thought the campus was very pretty (we remarked how it was cleaner than Disney World - not a spec of garbage anywhere!) Tour guides were the best we had on all our visits. It is smack dab in the city of Knoxville and not walled off from the city at all, which is good and bad. D21’s boyfriend goes there, and while he loves it, both he, and my D comment on the number of homeless on the fringes of campus - city life, I guess. He also says (and D agrees) that the dining hall food is terrible. He lived mostly off the fast-food options, which isn’t good - and is happy to be in an apartment this year, so he can cook.
Anyone who says UTK is one of the ugliest campuses, clearly hasn’t been to some of the SUNY campuses!
Both my kids disliked Clemson immediately - I agree with the assessment above of the odd collection of outdated building styles. Excellent school though! They both loved UGA and the surrounding town.
Neither liked the spread-out campus at NC State, but again, great school - many of their friends go there (we live in NC). Older daughter went to UNC-CH, pretty campus but in the many times I was there in her four years, the layout always confused me. She had to take a bus or drive to her classes at the business school. Conversely, my younger daughter goes to Virginia Tech, and even though it is also a big school, the campus makes complete sense, with an academic side and residential side, separated by a massive greenspace. Everything is walkable and it is a gorgeous campus, great town.
Toured UofSC with both kids and was pleasantly surprised both times at how pretty the campus is - especially since it’s in the middle of a city. Many of their friends go there and love it.
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Both my kids loved Auburn when we visited. It was dd’s 2nd choice, and ds has it as a top contender. As a parent, I loved the academic support and great campus feel. We thought the area around Clemson was great, but the campus is a mix of styles.
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We have toured Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, and Clemson.
Clemson was nice, but the town was incredibly small, too small for my kids. The campus was nice, but nothing to remember. On that tour, we were more impressed by Virginia Tech and the number of window A/C units at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Georgia was great. If it had better STEM facilities, it would have been an option for my son. The town is great and the interaction between the university and the town is incredible. The music scene is, and has since I was in college, been incredible. The issue with Georgia is that it is not known for STEM and it is becoming a reach, admissions-wise and financially for OOS.
Auburn was my son’s first choice for a long time (until the engineering and admissions department blew it). He ended up not applying. He spent many summers on campus. Comparatively, it is a small campus. I would also argue that it is more conservative (if that is a concern). Just read about the Auburn creed. That was an issue for my son. We were sure he would find his people, though. What soured him was the uncomplicated presentations of the computer science department to potential engineering students taking the time to live on campus during the summer (I mean, come on, these students are paying to be on your campus, don’t blow off your presentation). Plus, our recruiter NEVER returned our phone calls.
Our son just moved into Bama and our daughter spent part of the summer there. We have toured many campuses. The only campus where we felt as welcomed was Iowa State. Alabama rolled out the crimson carpet. Now, admittedly, my son is a NMF and we booked a tour with our recruiter, but we attended the Bama-Ole Miss President’s Tailgate. Met President Bell. Met several professors. Talked with several students. Met every engineering team (to the point where the Cubesat team came out and recruited my son because we almost walked past them). It was awesome. Moving him it this weekend…wow, never seen organization like that.
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We are OOS (Massachusetts) and he definitely wants nothing to do with the northeast or anywhere where there is. snow involved- he has had his fill 
Large school with sports culture is important to him as well.
Right now he is thinking business for a major. Was initially interested in sport management but thinks business will give more flexibility.
Maybe you can double. Business will be more flexible but sport may give him better access to internships. U of SC might be best for the major. U might add FSU although a harder admit. I know nc state is solid too.
You might check the curriculum and outcomes…make sure their sport management matches your needs.
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Next questions would be budget and what are his stats. We went through similar process with S20.
Some other things to consider. Ease of travel. We have one in Atlanta and one in Tallahassee. Having direct flights to Atlanta is fantastic. Having multiple stops not so much. Some of these schools would have multiple flights AND a car/shuttle/bus ride to campus. Holidays also have to revolve around flight schedules. Tally isn’t too bad. Two flights with several daily and the airport is close to campus. Clemson and Auburn could be rougher. Some people don’t mind but after doing the move-in drive once we’re over it.
If your son didn’t like 50 degrees and rain at UNC then he might want to venture further south. Even Tally gets some cold weather (nothing like Boston). Also, UNC business school is not direct admit and the admission is holistic. No guarantees at all for getting into KF.
South Carolina has an excellent business school and fits the criteria. NC State would work and direct flights to Raleigh would be a bonus.
Other schools to look at would be FSU, Wake Forest, SMU, TCU and Miami Florida. SMU, TCU and Miami are expensive but they do offer merit to top students. Probably direct flights to Dallas and Miami. Georgia Tech has an excellent business school and tons to do in Atlanta but mediocre sports scene. ACC football and basketball.
Good luck.
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FSU is not SEC if that matters to your son. Nothing like SEC football!
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Do not understand your comment about UNC and the cemetery. You mean the tiny little old cemetery that takes up 1/100th of the space at UNC? The one that most people barely know is there?
App State is not dated. That’s bad info. They are building like crazy there and just opened new dorms. Please don’t post bad info if you don’t know for sure.
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My daughter and friend are 4 hours into their drive back to Clemson from NJ, my daughter is a business major (finance) and there is an awesome new business school. We live in a suburban area near NYC and she’s a city girl, she’s always busy at Clemson, it’s pretty social. She’s also in honors.
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SEC football is a different level but FSU is close.
I lived in Alabama for a short while. I still consider the Alabama/Auburn rivalry the most intense and heated. Those fans are passionate.
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Yea. I’ve been to UNC four times. When my daughter and I walked, she noted the cemetery without my hint. She still applied. My son applied to NC State…with better success although didnt choose it. .he’s engineering and didn’t love the split campus.
I should note that we also did not buy a house presented to us bcuz there was a cemetery in the backyard. So perhaps that’s a family thing. In our civil war town, they said that’s just history. To me - it’s not something I want to be around.
I said I was told it was dated. I went skiing near Boone, stayed in Boone, and don’t remember the town…just that we ate at a good Italian place. Reading the email now. Says - “ town of Boone was beautiful and the people were nice. However, he thought the school was old and rundown, especially compared to Wake, and being so far from an airport.”
Again I did not attribute to myself but something that was sent to me. And anyone today can find virtual tours on the school website or even better on YouTube to get an advanced glimpse.
If you’d like to read it all (the entire note) can pm it to u. Also includes observations on wake and Elon.
It’s just not accurate to say App State is dated and I think it’s unhelpful to include inaccurate hearsay. If you don’t know about it, don’t talk about it.
My mother-in-law has a home in Boone so I see App State all the time which we go to multiple times a year. App is growing leaps and bounds and has a huge football culture. They just built a bunch of new dorms and have a nice football stadium. Tons of new apartments for off campus living too. I’ve done the tour there, too. D22 decided not to apply because Boone was too familiar to her and she felt like she knew too many people from her high school that were going there. She could also not care less about sports and football is a big huge hairy deal at App State.
I’m happy to give accurate info on UNC too since it is literally in my backyard. I live in Chapel Hill. Any questions from anyone on the town or campus I’m happy to answer to the best of my ability. Spouse works for UNC.
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Boone is a great area and they love football. However, it’s off the beaten path and they do get cold and snowy weather.
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In that case I would also seriously consider a business program where he can be a direct admit. At some non-direct admit programs like UNC-CH, it is very difficult to gain admission (although a very few, very high stat freshmen are offered direct admit to Kenan Flagler as a part of their admissions package). UGA and Clemson (I believe) are also not direct admit business programs (I hear that Terry at UGA is not hard to get into as long as they have the pre-req’s & GPA).
Sorry for the multiple edits, my internet is going in and out.
UTK, VT, NC State & U of SC have direct admit business programs (NC State & U of SC require applicants to choose a first and second choice major, so they may not get their first choice).
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