<p>D was accepted to Auburn and we are planning a visit next month. She really likes the other 3 schools. How would you say Auburn compares to the other 3? I think USC is the most “city”, Clemson the one with the least around campus but perhaps the most spirit, Va Tech seems like the surrounding town is all related to the school, but still not much around. </p>
<p>She is interested in business and thinking about a sorority. She is OOS at all 4. A vibrant community with lots of spirit is really important to her. She has grown up in very small schools so being able to make things a little more personal will be important. </p>
<p>She has not been accepted to the other 3 yet, just trying to get a feel for what to expect, the positives and negatives.</p>
<p>Congrats on so many wonderful options. My son is at Auburn and we know several kids at Clemson. Both are respected schools and very similiar. In fact Clemson was designed with Auburn as a model. Each is located in very small towns, although Auburn is bigger than Clemson. These two schools have tons of school spirit, have strong Greek communities and offer an extensive list of student clubs and intramurals. My son loved his visit to Auburn and their belief in the Auburn family.Two years later we still feel it was a great choice. Auburn has challenged him academically and helped him get a great engineering coop. He has many wonderful Auburn friends. </p>
<p>AND Football Saturdays are so much fun here in the south…</p>
<p>Congrats on all the acceptances! I’m a student at Clemson so I’d be glad to answer any questions/share any of my experiences. I can’t speak for Auburn/USC or Virginia Tech but our business program is very solid. We have the 34th ranked business college among public universities according to US News. Approximately 20-30% of girls join a sorority so that is definitely a strong option if you choose to go that route. Clemson may not be in a city but people definitely stay busy and happy here. 91% of students say they would choose Clemson again if they had to and we were recently listed as one of the friendliest colleges by Huffington Post. We are always on the list of happiest students and best college-town relations according to the Princeton Review (the town of Clemson pretty much revolves around the university, it’s sort of cool). We’re 5th overall nationally when it comes to the percent of alumni who give back to the university which shows how much people value the Clemson experience. Academically, I have had large classes my first 2 years at Clemson but it gets a lot smaller when you get into your academic major. I’d heard horror stories about bad professors/TA’s but the emphasis at Clemson is on undergraduate education unlike other public universities (graduate school is really small) so professors take teaching seriously and want to make sure you succeed in your classes. If you have any specific questions about academics, let me know! Clemson is a relatively large school but it really doesn’t feel like it does at most major universities. In addition, our career services office is excellent and was ranked 11th recently in the Princeton Review rankings. Let me know if you have any questions about Clemson! (sorry for hijacking the Auburn forum, just came across this post haha)</p>
<p>I’m an Auburn graduate (1994). Wow, it’s hard to believe I’m on here helping my son select a college, I feel like I just left Auburn yesterday! Maybe it’s because I have a real Auburn family - I’ve been able to keep up with so many of my Auburn friends via Facebook. We’ve been back to Auburn for my husband to accept an Alumni award - we love Auburn. Auburn has Hey Day - where you wear a nametag and say “hey” to folks on campus. People and Auburn are very friendly and school spirit rules! I was in a sorority and what is nice about sorority life at Auburn is that the chapters have halls in dorms and a chapter room in the dorms, which keeps the costs very affordable in comparison to places that have houses. I have such fond memories of socials, formals, football games, house parties, etc. I now have AU friends all over the country and the world (lots of military friends went to AU). I’m a successful interior designer now (worked my butt off in architecture school). Auburn has certainly grown since my time there, but it still has that comfortable, homey feel and the City of Auburn is extremely supportive of the campus and has more ammenities than it did in my day (shopping, dining, hotels, etc.). You aren’t far from Atlanta and there are airport shuttles to get you to the airport there. I have been to Clemson, I chose Auburn. Clemson has a very similar architectural style as Auburn - there is some shared history between the two. I recall Clemson being a very small town, much smaller than Auburn. And Clemson’s dorms were not nearly as nice as Auburn’s - though I’ll say this was quite some time ago. Personally, I just never felt at home there, Auburn was it for me. War Eagle!</p>
<p>I’m a new Auburn parent - I really can’t add anything to what has been said but I can agree with the family feeling of Auburn and that it just clicked with my son. He didn’t apply to Clemson because he was there his senior year for a foreign language event and just didn’t like the campus and didn’t get the same feeling walking around with students as he did at Auburn. He did apply to VaTech and NC State and was accepted into both engineering programs. We had to cancel a VaTech road trip to visit the campus due to something, I don’t recall what now, but he was not disappointed and I think he had already made up his mind he would be going to Auburn so he never did see the campus. He had heard good and bad but also much different environment than the open friendly family environment of Auburn.</p>
<p>I think most people would agree that you have to visit these schools to get a good feel of where you want to go. All 4 schools are fantastic schools but there are people at each school for different reasons and you have to figure out what that is for yourself. Obviously I had a different experience with my Clemson visit then threeofthree’s son did at Clemson and that “feeling” is something you can only get from a campus visit.</p>
<p>D decided to drop Va Tech after thinking about it for awhile. She realized it felt too impersonal for her.</p>
<p>We’re going to visit Auburn next weekend. I’m crossing my fingers that she gets the sense of the “family” atmosphere because she’s grown up in a teeny tiny school, but really wants that big school spirit, tons of activities place, but she’s still a small town girl and needs to not feel like one of a zillion.</p>
<p>Now if they could get that housing glitch fixed! She applied early so we could get first on the list for housing, each day it doesn’t work just puts more kids in there. </p>
<p>I’ve yet to ever hear of anyone who went there who didn’t absolutely love it! </p>
<p>(vamom) - if she chooses Auburn, may we pm you if we need a LOR for a sorority? I’m already lining up friends who were in sororities but I don’t think I know someone in all 17!</p>
<p>Next weekend is an away game - really wish you could see (feel) the spirit during home games - it’s incredible… Of cousrse it’s probably that way at all SEC schools. I hope you enjoy your visit!</p>
<p>My d is in the same situation, same list, accepted Auburn, oos, paid deposit, also from small school/town. Not sure when housing comes up if you need to request specific housing then. Not sure what’s best for d. She’ll probably rush a sorority, be in honors, and won’t know anyone at AU. Any idea what living area to request? I suggest that you stay at hotel across from campus. I think it’s called Inn at Auburn or something like that. It’s really nice, had a terrific b-fast buffet prior to walking across the street to info session/tour. While you’ll be at AU we are heading to vt & usc, d didn’t like clemson when we visited.</p>
<p>We called and they say the housing site will be up next week. She’s going to pick Quad sight unseen if she has to choose at the sign up. Just a little bummer that we applied so early because of the housing issue and now we’re lumped in with many more accepted students than if we could have done it the first day. Oh well…</p>
<p>yeegogirl - let me know what you all think of usc and va tech!</p>
<p>My dd is a freshman at USC. She loves it there and is in the honors program and dorm. She also loved the feel of Auburn. At USC the honors classes are very small / max of 30 students and 14 of my dd’s 17 hours are honors so it makes a large university feel smaller. </p>
<p>It really came down to scholarship money in the end. Dd got the Presidential at Auburn and it still didn’t compare to what USC offered. We are OOS. DD did not care for Clemson (and of course now really “hates” it ha!). We did not visit Va Tech so can’t compare. </p>
<p>SEC spirit is tons of fun. My Dd also joined a sorority. Let me know if I can answer questions about USC. Good luck.</p>
<p>My D applied and was accepted to both Auburn and USC, honors at both of them, OOS. She much preferred the campus setting at Auburn, USC is definitely more urban and she didn’t like the feel of it. I do believe both have lots of school spirit and strong Greek systems - I loved the Greek Village at USC. You didn’t mention what kind of business yours is thinking of, but USC does have the best International Business program and I was very impressed with their presentation. If money is an issue for you, Auburn didn’t have much to offer her for merit or need, I think about $5k was all, while USC gave her in-state tuition plus some money.</p>
<p>The sororities usually take care of getting recs for rushees that they are interested in when those rushees do not have a rec specifically for that sorority. You’d be surprised what happens behind the scenes during rush week! And now that there is email and texting getting those recs from a local alum in your area are even easier. The sororities will take care of getting those recs even in the middle of rush week. I prefer to only write recs for people I personally know.</p>
<p>For housing freshman year at Auburn, I would definitely recommend the Quad. You will be in the middle of a lot of action and close to Haley Center, where many freshman level classes are located.</p>
<p>eyemamom - how was your visit at auburn? what did your d think? was campus quiet because of an away game? </p>
<p>VT was beautiful but pretty rural. We liked their town. I think it’s bigger than Auburn, but not sure as we didn’t tour around the Auburn area except for right across from campus. D loved usc. Classes were in session and the vibe was nice.</p>
<p>Well d loved it. In fact she hasn’t taken off the sweatshirt yet. I’m hoping it’s made it through the wash a few times but I make no promises.</p>
<p>She told us of the big southern U’s, all the rest are off the list and Auburn is the one. </p>
<p>She liked that the campus seemed compact even though it was a big school. This was like the baby bear of environments, USC was too city, Clemson too rural, this felt just right. Not to mention the cupcake shop right down the street - lol</p>
<p>She toured the business department and liked the classroom set up, the schedule of classes, all the help available and internships, etc. </p>
<p>We toured the dorms after we put in the deposit, and she liked my line of thinking once we saw it and the quad is her top choice for housing. I’m thinking living on campus shrinks your world a lot since so many don’t live on campus, as a freshman she won’t be overwhelmed with so many people right there. Oh - and we just don’t have signs about checking your gun before you enter a building, nor had she ever seen tornado signs before. So that added some amusement.</p>
<p>What we still need to get a handle on is the sorority situation. I was not in one and this sec sorority thing is a bit different than the way we live up further north. My suggestion, let’s just ask my women friends, and her teachers if they were in sororities and they can write those recs. She doesn’t know enough to make an informed opinion but I could see her liking being with a group of girls, as long as it isn’t some soap opera backstabbing social climbing thing. </p>
<p>Having never been to Alabama myself I didn’t really know what to expect. It is a lot nicer than reputation would lead you to believe. Should she attend, I will be golfing some of those courses!</p>
<p>I have yet to hear of anyone who attended who didn’t say how much they loved it. </p>
<p>We’re waiting to hear back from some more schools, but this for sure is a contender.</p>
<p>I’m so glad you had such a wonderful visit! I never noticed the gun signs but did see the tornado ones. </p>
<p>I was wondering if you ate in one of their dining halls and how that was? I saw all the ala carte places but was wondering about the traditional ones. Also, do you know when scholarship information will be sent out.</p>
<p>The dining is the one thing after we left we asked each other if there was only fast food on campus. While who doesn’t love chic-fil-a or starbucks, d certainly can’t survive on fast food alone. The meal plan is all declining and I never heard about dining halls and never saw one.</p>
<p>No idea about the timing of scholarships though the info session lined out what you would get if you were in state or out of state based on stats.</p>
<p>If your D decides to go to Auburn, you really need to try and get a rec for all of the groups there is possible. Back in the day, sororities did work to get recs for that special girl that they fell in love with during rush, but frankly rush has gotten so big at Auburn that is no longer the case (and I a blood sister that is a rush advisor that has told me this). No matter where she ends up going, if she wants to go through rush, work on the recs. Ask your friends at work and church - you will be amazed at who is in the different groups. And not knowing where you live, your city may have a Panhellenic alumni group which are good resources.</p>
<p>Glad to hear she had such a great time at Auburn! I lived in the Quad my freshman year - it’s the heart of campus and a great location. There are three dining halls at Auburn that I know of, one is just a few years old and very nice - so not just the fast food places. As for rush, I’d suggest if you are on Facebook or similar - just put a message out to your friends regarding getting recommendations. In my day rush was a bit more difficult for out of state girls because they just weren’t known very well in advance of rush - because they didn’t go to a high school in Alabama or Atlanta, etc. This can be overcome by being fun, personable, outgoing, and smart. There are hundreds of girls that go through rush, so be sure to make yourself memorable - did you lead a organization? Climb a mountain? Win a special award? Graduate #1 in your class? Vacation in Tahiti? let your host know these things, it makes it so much easier for them to remember you and your personality.</p>