<p>My d visited Clemson and USC and loves them both.....what would make Clemson the better choice? </p>
<p>I felt Clemson was the perfect college town!</p>
<p>Birdie, Asking which is better Clemson/USC is a loaded question. It's like which is better Auburn/Alabama, USC/UCLA, Washington/Washington State, etc you get the drift. The Tiger and Gamecock fans should come out of the woodwork. I personally like Clemson better. I like the campus better. I think Clemson has just about one of the prettiest campus' in the country. It is also a fantastic fall football environment. It is getting more difficult each year for high school seniors to get admitted. Avg SAT is above 1200 now. Obviously more oriented toward engineering than USC. My S applied to Clemson. USC has a great rep for it's Intl Business program. I didn't like the city campus location, however there is probably more to do at/around USC than Clemson. Some complain about Clemson being to far out in the cow pastures. I agree with you, Clemson IS the perfect college town.</p>
<p>I certainly don't want to cause an emotional breakdown (haha), but I thought this might be the best way start a Clemson thread! My objective was to obtain as much information about Clemson from a current students, alums, etc. My d and I have read. We have visited. Now, we want to hear from those who actually have experienced Clemson.</p>
<p>My S is a Freshman in the National Scholar's program at Clemson this year and he absolutely loves it. He is finding the work challenging, the students friendly, the spirit tremendous, and, the campus beautiful. We visited him for parent's weekend and came away feeling that Clemson is indeed a very special place and was the right choice for him</p>
<p>I attended Clemson for 5 years, and loved it! My best friend from high school went to USC, so I had the chance to visit a lot. Clemson makes you feel like you are in college. There are no townies, even the profs live in the neighboring towns. Greek life is big at Clemson, and there are a lot of activities relating to that. Also, the school spirit is tremendous. Greenville is not far away, so you do have a larger city to go to for things, such as concerts, etc., but they also have those types of events at school. The work is challenging, but I have been told by employers that having Clemson on my resume is impressive. I would highly recommend it! On another note, everytime I visited USC I never felt as if I was around college students or in a college area.</p>
<p>My D will graduate in the spring. She worked hard for her grades but was very well prepared by her large Atlanta High School. She went to Clemson with three other girls from her HS and all will graduate in 4 years and all with 3.5+ gpa's. </p>
<p>Like the eariler post indicated there is a very strong greek system and she was in the thick of it. It has its good and bad points. She drank a little to much but the greek system does not want you unless you have a 3.2 gpa min and for freshman girl pledges there is madatory supervised library time...for her it was 2 hours a night 4 days a week. Community work also is required. </p>
<p>The m/f ratio is 60/40 which is good if you are a girl and better than UGA and a lot of other LAC's and LAU's which are the other way around. And its not like GaTech where the odds are good but the goods are odd. LOL </p>
<p>On a down note it is a technical school. Not many liberal arts people and very few undecided majors unlike UGA which is 30 minutes away. So if your kid knows what she wants Clemson is a very safe, very traditional, and reasonably rigorous college experience. It is a somewhat conservative campus, a fair number of the students are from small South Carolina towns with a sprinkling of fairly wealthy kids from the coast and North Carolina. </p>
<p>It is also a very accepting place, the school president helped us move in when my D was a freshman. He just came up and started carrying bags. He introduced himself to us later.</p>
<p>Another down note is merit aid. My d got 1k her soph year and 1k her senior year while pulling a 3.77. She managed to win a couple of national competitions to bring in some more $ but the FA office was very unresponsive. </p>
<p>The honors program is very good and you get priority registration. Get in it and you can get the classes you need to graduate in 4.</p>
<p>All in all my D would choose Clemson again. She wanted to get away from the kids in her HS so she turned down UGA. She has made great friends, earned a great GPA and now has great memories. Other kids she knows have done just as well. Her roommate was just accepted to med school. One of her HS friends just got into an upper tier law school. The other is headed to grad school at UGA as is my D.</p>
<p>Lastly it is expensive for out of state. The costs have gone up a lot over the last 4 years. Her former bfriend's dad bought a condo and was able to get instate that way. </p>
<p>My son applied to C for 2006 as a safety. His sister has told us he would not be really happy there since a lot of the social activities for boys revolve around the Greek org's and that is not his style. This is the same reason we encourged him to bypass Vandy. </p>
<p>So as a Dad would I send my D to C again?....probably. She got a very good education, made some wonderful friends, was able to grow up and test her limits in a place where fatal mistakes are rarely fatal, and we slept well at night at knowing the area was very safe and the kids tended to look out for each other. The cost was about 50K more than our instate U but if she lives to 79 that 1k a year over a life time.. not too bad a cost for a lifetime of good memories. </p>
<p>Good luck on your choice.</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I have attended the undergraduate programs of both school, since I transferred from USC to Clemson. After seeing the chemical engineering departments of both Universities, I must say that USC has a better research/graduate program, whereas Clemson has a better undergraduate program. Academically, this is as far as my experiential opinion goes...</p>
<p>As a preface, I started out a USC fan, I would mock Clemsonites for being rednecks, out in the cow pastures, etc... actually attending these schools has changed my perspective incredibly!</p>
<p>As far as the general University, Clemson is soo much more united and has that school "spirit" everyone wants. USC is simply incapable of producing this zeitgist because of it has no real campus, most upperclassmen are commuters, and most activities are unaffiliated with the school (go drink in 5 points...). </p>
<p>The football season is exciting for both schools, and both have a sense of unity as far as athletics. However, going to a football game does not HAVE to be an all day affair for the Clemson student, since the stadium is in EASY walking distance, very much unlike USC (Williams-Brice is 1 1/4 miles from "campus"). Tailgating is very good at USC, ONLY IF you have rich friends that can pay for a spot on the fairgrounds (which I did, so it was pretty fun there).</p>
<p>During the Weekends, entertainment preferences really come down to what you're interested in. At USC, you can go fishing on the broad R., or take a trip to Lake Murray, but the majority of entertainment is in the "city" (bars, concerts, movies, etc...).
At Clemson, most of the entertainment is in the "country," where kayaking (free rentals at the university gym), fishing, sailing (join the sailing club!), backpacking (Blue Ridge Mountains are awesome), mountain Biking (Isaqueena trails are <4 mi's away) and camping (oconee state park) are just a few of the outdoor things we can enjoy so easily! City entertainment is not too far away, and is easily manageable for a Friday night/saturday trip (as long as you keep it sober, or designate a driver!! taxi's aren't the best option here) in Greenville or Spartanburg.</p>
<p>So in my educated (thanks to Clemson's higher educational standards) opinion, I say that Clemson is the most logical, enjoyable and statistically favorable University to attend when considering USC or Clemson....except for USC's international business program...</p>
<p>I hope this response helps those struggling with the choice (as I was) to learn from my mistake and not choose a University based on up-bringing or fear of inter-family rivalries (my parents raised me USC, and both my older brothers go there).</p>
<p>i am transferring after my sophomore year to USC… not that Clemson isnt a good school… its just not a good place for me</p>
<p>the school spirit is really cheesy and lame and also the Greek life is a little over the top</p>
<p>USC is perfect for me… lots of nice people</p>
<p>There is a lot of debate in-state about which school is better, Clemson or USC because of the intense rivalry in-state. From an academic standpoint, Clemson is strong in the fields of science, business, engineering, and architecture. USC is stronger in business; mathematics; nursing; education; technology; library service; journalism; psychology; and hotel, restaurant, and tourism management. It really comes down to which college is a better fit for you and which one you like the best. That should be the basis for your college choice, not just which one is academically better.</p>
<p>Now to answer some concerns from above. USC appears to be more graduate focused and Clemson appears to be more undergraduate focused. Some people may find the school spirit at Clemson to be really cheesy and lame but in my opinion, we have some of the best school spirit in the country, some people may find it over the top though. We do have rednecks here but most of them are in the agriculture program, there are increasingly more students from the north and other parts of the country. As for Greek Life, about 20% of students participate in a fraternity/sorority at Clemson compared to about 15% at USC. I think that this is due to the fact that Clemson is in a more rural area but as you can tell 20% is not the majority of the campus. The campus seems to be dominated by Greek Life (and it certainly feels so since the popular kids/party-ers/more social people on campus). However, I am not in Greek Life and I find plenty to do. I am involved in Residence Hall Association, Fellowship Of Christian Athletes, Central Spirit, Outdoors Club, Habitat For Humanity etc… and I have made friends through these organizations. So while some may feel Greek Life is suffocating on campus, if you join other organizations and get involved in something else on campus, you will find your own group of friends. The political climate on campus is on the conservative side. The male/female ratio is about 55/45 but it hasn’t been too much of a concern for me since the difference isn’t too great. A major downside though of Clemson is financial aid, USC seems to be handing out money to everyone while you would be lucky if Clemson even gave you a dollar. Also a major difference between Clemson and USC is that USC is in a city and Clemson is in a rural area and activities are more outdoor-based and the downtown of Clemson is not that big.</p>
<p>All in all, it comes down to which is the better fit for you! If you do decide to pick USC, good luck!</p>
<p>but from a rivalry stand-point, Clemson > USC hahahaha</p>
<p>I’m sort of in the same boat with the whole Clemson vs. Carolina thing. My entire family went to USC but i visited Clemson a few times during football season and fell in love. Being a Charleston native I understand the rivalry. I love the Clemson campus but I’m a Gamecock at heart. </p>
<p>I’m thinking about joining a sorority this fall (my freshman year) in whichever college i choose. </p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone knows about any good sororities at Clemson or USC.
Also, is the Greek life a good choice for freshmen?</p>
<p>If anyone has any tips about rushing or you’re a sister yourself please email me.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people who have gone into greek life freshman year and it seems like it is a good choice for them. However, rush for sororities is a very stressful process. You spend 8 hours a day for a whole week talking to every single sorority (from what I heard, you have to talk to everybody) and you basically repeat the same answers to the same questions (my advice is that if you have a sorority that you don’t really want to be a part of, i would suggest giving really bad answers to those sororities haha) and then depending on what they think of you, you might get invited to a couple of sororities (and you have to go to all of the invites) and through all of this you gotta be dressed up. So it’s a pretty stressful process but you can make some good friends during the process, and there are lots of benefits of being in greek life such as being part of a smaller community and having more access to the party scene.</p>
<p>Some of the more prominent sororities (not gonna bias you by saying what I think are the best) are Alpha Delta Pi, Chi Omega, Tri-Delta (Delta Delta Delta), Delta Zeta, Kappa Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Kappa and Zeta Tau Alpha, there are a few other ones.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of GPA did you have when you transfered to Clemson. I’m hoping to transfer in the Fall as a Junior.</p>
<p>In almost every aspect, the University of Southern California is miles ahead of Clemson. Fight on. Using USC to refer to some dopey public school in South Carolina is problematic: nationally, it’s pretty clear that the real USC is the academic and athletic powerhouse in Socal.</p>
<p>The school spirit and sense of community is a lot bigger at Clemson, as well as academics. The campus is beautiful; I have a brilliant cousin who could have gone anywhere he wanted but he chose Clemson (so he’s in the honors program.) If you like sports, then Clemson is definitely the best place for you. They are fantastic!! I am applying both places, but if you haven’t already figured out by my biased post I prefer CU over USC.</p>
<p>Didn’t South Carolina lose a trademark battle in court to Southern California?</p>
<p>pierre, South Carolina did lose a trademark battle against Southern California. But the trademark at issue was the way the California school does the interlocking letters of USC. The use of the actual initials was not at issue. Both schools have the legal right to abbreviate their names to the initials. </p>
<p>In my extended family, we have one member at one USC and the other, at the other. It’s pretty confusing to the older members of the family.</p>
<p>dude, columbia over clemson? do you really want to spend 4 years in columbia? jut look at clemson, it’s freaking adorable! plus, the mountains and stuff are literally at your backdoor.</p>
<p>well to be fair, some people prefer the city over the mountains and lakes. But that’s why there’s College of Charleston! haha jk</p>