<p>What about the University of Nebraska? The school is relatively small, 17,000 students, has a pretty good academic reputation (think Warren Buffett? haha), and the school spirit there is amazing.</p>
<p>claudette,</p>
<p>I think your son saw a great example of how tight-knit the VT community is when he saw that game! The good news is that the school’s spirit and pride are also very evident away from the athletic fields. To us, the school feels much smaller than the size of its enrollment. My son had about the same academic stats as yours and fortunately has felt very challenged academically. He has loved his whole experience there and is a Hokie now through and through. Every time we visit I am impressed with just how friendly and kind the kids are that we have met.</p>
<p>Has your guy looked into the University of Georgia? Still a bit big (25,000+/-) but a solid school academically with great school spirit. Or Notre Dame? About 12,000 (ug and grad).
We liked Clemson, too, but VT won out in the end.</p>
<p>I don’t want to upset Pierre 0913 because he does a great job trumpeting Clemson, but within the state of South Carolina, USC is just as well respected, if not more so, than Clemson, even when accounting for the severe rivalry between the schools. I’m not sure what Claudette means by “they let anyone in” because both schools have very similar stats. </p>
<p>USC is larger (which may be a minus for the OP), more diverse in the majors offered, attracts a wider variety of students, and has terrific “school spirit.” Students we know who chose Clemson were “generally” math and science oriented, more conventional and more conservative. Students we know who go to USC tend to be more creative in nature, interested in a variety of majors from international business to sports management to art/film making to philosophy to political science. USC also has a law school. As a fairly neutral bystander (s attends College of Charleston), I can see the appeal of both schools, for different students. </p>
<p>Another major difference is the location: USC is in Columbia, the state capital and has a urban setting. Clemson is very isolated, which can be a plus for some amd a minus for others. But these schools foster amazing loyalty and big time football spirit.</p>
<p>I would definitely agree, I tend to not recommend Clemson to students looking at non-science, education, nursing, engineering majors because it would not be a good fit for people. Also it depends what you are looking for, an urban school or a small town feel.</p>
<p>Claudette,</p>
<p>I disagree that Rice does not have school spirit. Rice has TONS of school spirit… there’s always people wearing Rice T-shirts, instead of t-shirts from other colleges, which means people are spirited about Rice. Since Rice is a residential college school as well, there is a lot of spirit for the individual residential colleges as well.</p>
<p>However, besides baseball, there isn’t much sports spirit except for maybe football… but then again Rice really only excels in baseball, so that makes sense. Since Rice is also a fairly small school, you are not going to get the sense of sports spirit that you have at schools like Ohio State, UT, Illinois, Northwestern, Duke, and Georgetown because they are all bigger than us. But who cares? People love being at Rice-- we’re ranked #1 for Best Quality of Life and #8 for happiest students for a reason.</p>
<p>Anyway, for baseball, all the games are pretty much packed, from what I heard.</p>