<p>Son and I just returned from our journey to Clemson (from NY). He loved it! We went on the general tour on Thursday. Luckily our tour guide was great. She is in the honors college & the marching band (two of son's interests), so she was very helpful answering questions. The campus is beautiful. Not quite as lush and tropical looking as Miami (son's other choice), but beautiful in it's own way. Many new buildings, very clean, lots of flowering bushes & trees, and the size seems quite manageable. </p>
<p>There was alot of activity... kids playing frisbee, sorority girls soliciting people to throw a pie into their faces (some charity thing), a group of boys giving high-fives to everyone who passes. The library was full of people when we were there... seemed to be the center of activity. Everyone seemed happy and glad to be there. </p>
<p>We visited the honors office and spoke to a counselor there. This seems to be a great opportunity. Some of the perks include... priority registration, special honors dorm, free tickets to cultural events, honors sections of certain classes, access to do research, stipends to do enriching activities during the summer. Son was especially interested in the dorm. Apparently, it is one of the nicest on campus. And being surrounded by other students who take their studies seriously would be a really good thing!</p>
<p>Another thing he liked was the fact that the engineering program seems to be very good and a significant major on campus. At Miami this was not the case. We went on the engineering tour on Friday. It was not the best planned activity. Tour guides were OK, not great. It did give us a chance to see some of the classrooms & labs - they were nice. Clemson engineering seems to have alot of sponsorship from major companies, which is good.</p>
<p>Other things we did... ate dinner in a dining hall. Food was good, good selection - healthy & not. We drove around the area. Town is not much to speak of, but there are a few shops & restaurants. Basically it is a college town. Apparently Greenville and Andersson are pretty close for shopping and such. Transportation to campus will be an issue for us. Couldn't get any flights to Greenville, so we flew into Atlanta. Drive was about 2 and a half hours. Not sure how he will get from airport to campus when he is on his own. The amtrack station is about a mile from campus. The train from NY arrives at 5:30am. Again, not sure how he would get to campus from station.
I guess these are things we can work out when the time comes.</p>
<p>All in all it seems like a great school. Son said he could picture himself being happy there. He is not giving us his "official decision" until later today, but I'm crossing my fingers for Clemson!</p>
<p>hey I'm a NY-er too! Transportation...what are our options?</p>
<p>I'm researching that now. I'll let you know when I figure it out!</p>
<p>My daughter will be attending Clemson (engineering) in the fall also. We live in Northeast Pennsylvania, so we had the same transportation concerns. We are allowing my daughter to keep her car on campus, but we were told at an information session that the school does run shuttles to the surrounding airports. There is a fee, but the student leaves from campus and is delivered safe and sound to the correct gate at the airport. Sounds like a viable option.</p>
<p>Another northeastern family with transportation concerns here. I have heard, but not sure if it is true, that there is an airport shuttle which runs on school breaks. I wish we had thought to ask when we did the tour last fall.</p>
<p>weeziemeow, is the shuttle for the Greenville airport only?</p>
<p>The shuttle to Greenville was specifically discussed, but I'm not absolutely certain this is the only airport shuttle offered. Perhaps a quick call to the Office of Student Life can clarify this. Since my daughter will have a car, I'm thinking that even if she doesn't want to drive all the way home, she can at least get herself to an airport and fly the rest of the way.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. At least there is one option available to us. Hopefully at some point my daughter would be able to arrange transportation to Charlotte where there are more direct flights available.</p>
<p>My son (from Illinois) is a freshman at Clemson this year. Lots of Clemson students are from Atlanta. It is not too difficult to get a ride to Atlanta on weekends and holidays. He is usually dropped off at a MARTA station and takes the train straight to the airport. He works out the same kind of arrangements on the trip back to campus. I imagine that there are similar possibilities for flying out of Greenville and Charlotte.</p>
<p>By the way, my son loves Clemson!</p>
<p>There is a shuttle to & from the Atlanta Airport. My son planned to use that for the trip home (to Dallas) at Christmas, but found a friend who was willing to drop him at the airport on his way to Tennessee. Transportation to the Atlanta Airport should not be a big issue.</p>
<p>I'm excited to see all my fellow parents of out-of-state students. We should start a support group! Son gave us the final decision & Clemson is it! We're all very happy! Wildwoodscott, glad to hear your son loves Clemson. Have any more advice for us newbies?
Looks like the kids can find a shuttle to airport pretty easily. I will try calling the school to get more specifics. Guess there are quite a few details to work out.</p>
<p>OP- Could you elaborate more on the engineering department, your impressions etc.? I'm trying to decide between Clemson and VTech and didn't get to see much of hte engineering department when i visited Clemson.</p>
<p>About engineering... didn't get to see as much of the engineering department as we would have liked. The tour was not of the whole department, but just a few classrooms/laboratories. You had to pick which specialty you wanted to see. We went on the Computer engineering/science, Electrical engineering & Math tour. Since son does not really know which engineering he wants, it probably would have been better if we could have focused more on general engineering (1st year program). But I have to say that the feeling we got from everyone we spoke with on campus was that engineering is a very strong program. There seemed to be at least 5 or more buildings that were strictly engineering buildings (Engineering Row - they called it) and most of them were new. I know they have quite a few affiliations/donations from private industry. I really like that the students don't have to pick which engineering they want until 2nd year. Sorry, I don't know much more than that and I don't know anything about VTech and how it compares. Being a Tech school, it might have a slightly better engineering program, but I think you have to look at the whole picture. My son made it very clear that he did not want a Tech school. He wanted a decent M/F ratio and the whole "college experience". Clemson just seems to fit him perfectly!</p>
<p>i am a freshman at clemson right now majoring in polymer and textile/fiber chemistry and my younger brother is a senior in high school and will be attending vt in the fall in construction science. virginia tech and clemson are very similar school, clemson has the better national ranking of 34. the engineering programs are very comparable, each with its pros. when two schools are so similar go to the one that you feel most at home and comfortable.</p>
<p>thanks...that same message has been echoed by a few other people...Hopefully my decision will be made easier by visiting VT (obviously) this weekend. I know their both great schools.</p>